Greg McHugh

When undergrad sitcom Fresh Meat first aired two years ago, it felt like it could become a training ground for cutting-edge talent, and that the glamorous, talented likes of Zawe Ashton and Jack Whitehall would just be passing through en route to greater career triumphs. It's now three series in and, unhappily for their agents, but happily for us, the original cast members are all still in place. Like that half-drunk cup of coffee that festers under every student's bed, Fresh Meat can no longer claim to be fresh, but it has grown a life of its own.

By now, our old friends at 28 Hartnell are world-weary second-years and JP (Jack Whitehall) is particularly eager to demonstrate his maturity. He rechristened the house "Pussy Haven" and offered Howard (Greg McHugh) guidance in the fine art of pulling: "Freshers' week started yesterday, they're already getting less vulnerable by the hour." Oregon (Charlotte Ritchie) and Vod (Zawe Ashton) are back from a summer backpacking, where Vod picked up a Latin lover and Oregon discovered herself. Again. "I just realised some stuff in South America... like, some people are rich and some people are poor."

As you'd expect from the writers of Peep Show, it's still very funny, but they do play favourites. JP had all the best lines this episode, leaving new housemate Candice a little underwritten by comparison.

Radio Times review

The university comedy returns for a third series, with the unlikely housemates as second years - and there's still only one thing on JP's mind. Comedian Jack Whitehall was born to play the show's gilet-clad posh berk, who tonight gatecrashes the freshers' fair to attract "hotties". Rivalling Whitehall for the best gags are man-eater Vod (Zawe Ashton) and oddball Howard (Greg McHugh), who comes out with his most outlandish confession yet: he's landed a date.

Josie's in Southampton after being kicked off her course, but still mooning at Kingsley across cyberspace. There's also a new arrival: a home-schooled first year with an unfortunate array of knitwear.

Faye Marsay introduces new fresher Candice

The White Queen actress joins Jack Whitehall, Zawe Ashton, Joe Thomas, Kimberley Nixon, Greg McHugh and Charlotte Ritchie for the new series of the Channel 4 comedy Fresh Meat.

Greg McHugh and Zawe Ashton shine in Fresh Meat

While tonight's instalment of Fresh Meat didn't see the show at its best, there were still some great moments. I loved Howard's story, Vod's holiday romance and the fact that things between Josie and Kingsley aren't as solid as they'd like to think.

Greg McHugh on playing TV's weirdest student

Fresh Meat has captured the quirks of student life like no show before it. Meet Greg McHugh, the man behind its unlikely oddball hero, Howard.

Greg McHugh interview

Greg McHugh, one of the most popular characters on Scottish television, says he's off to broaden his horizons down south and shows us around the set of sitcom Fresh Meat.

On BBC Four, there's a new series based on a comedy character who's already had success on radio...

If you've not seen Bob Servant, Independent, it's about a businessman from the Tayside coastal town of Broughty Ferry, who made his name after coming out victorious in the town's "Cheeseburger Wars". The story follows Bob's plans to stand in the local by-election as an independent candidate...

The opening episode started off well, but like Bob's campaign, it seemed to peter out towards the end. The best part of this episode saw Bob (Brian Cox) launch his campaign on local radio. During the interview and phone-in with the resident DJ (played by Greg McHugh), Bob manages to please one or two people with some on-the-spot ideas, but offends hundreds more in the process. His biggest 'controversy' comes with his plan to stop dog fouling in the local park by banning all dogs from it. If a dog does enter the park, he plans to shoot it. Bang.

There were some a few other highlights - like Bob's attempts to appeal to young voters at a primary school, but near the end - when he tries to sort out the mess he's caused - the show just seemed to fade.

Bob Servant Independent (BBC4) began life as a series of books and radio shows about a Dundee burger magnate taking on the world at large, and his first TV outing, in which he is standing as an independent in a local election, suggests he might have done better to stay where he was. Delusional interior worlds are much easier to create - and a lot funnier - when they are done as a series of soundscapes or monologues. Seeing Bob in the flesh diminished him, as it became increasingly difficult to see his extreme vision as absurd, rather than moronic. Still, there were some good moments and Greg McHugh (Howard from Fresh Meat), who played Anders the local radio presenter, is almost worth his own show.

Greg McHugh: The man behind Gary, Tank Commander

Greg McHugh is a rising comedy star who has had a busy year, writing and taking the lead in cult series Gary, Tank Commander as well as playing alongside Jack Whitehall in Channel 4's student comedy Fresh Meat.

Thank goodness for Fresh Meat, where the whole Prof Shales-Oregon-his son love triangle finally combusted, with the setting of a literary garden party ensuring this was as excruciating as we dared hope.

I was underwhelmed by the start to the second run and unconvinced the whole way through by the additions to the student house, Heather and Sabine, who only seemed to be there to disapprove of the original six, a wholly unnecessary function given we already know how juvenile, berkish, slovenly and psychotic they could be, and how much we enjoyed that. They would not be denied, though, and there have been many priceless moments in this run, not least the Bullingdon Club-style initiation ceremony where JP was required to smoke a "pipe of pubes".

Just before his world collapsed, Shales tried to move Oregon to another uni, suggesting York and offering to find a place for the equally troublesome Vod as well. "There's a rail museum," he said, to which Vod replied: "You're a rail museum." It's not all about the yoof. Fresh Meat wouldn't be as funny as it is if the lecturers weren't lecherous, cynical, vain, bitchy and pretentious, just like The History Man's Howard Kirk - although Kirk reckoned he was cool and Shales, played by Tony Gard­ner, will never be that. (By the way, that's two mentions in consecutive weeks for Gardner; I assume the cheque's in the post).

Where does the show go from here? At the end, there was a touching speech from JP: "Dad's dead, Mum's sold up, I've been deserted by all my friends in purple trousers and, yah, when I first met you guys I thought you were a bunch of freaks, losers and pinheads - but I need you." By the natural order of undergraduate life some should drop out, but let's hope Howard stays. The very first scene where Greg McHugh turned a hair dryer on Peking ducks strung up on a kitchen pulley while wearing a Killing jumper and nothing on his bottom half was one of the all-time great entrances by a Scotsman. "Sorry," he said, "but I've got used to wearing trousers of the mind."