Greg McHugh

It's the Easter holidays (just on screen, you haven't missed a few months) and posh buffoon JP (the hilarious Jack Whitehall) invites his housemates to his rural retreat. Naturally, it's not as idyllic as it seems and scenes reminiscent of Withnail & I ensue. Josie (Kimberley Nixon) marks ex-fiancé Dave's wedding day in her own unique way, while socially inept Howard (Greg McHugh) and Dutch mature student Sabine (Jelka Van Houten) find themselves home alone together. There's soon a surprise proposition.

This student comedy adroitly captures the awkwardness of university life and is backed by A-grade performances from its terrific ensemble cast. In tonight's episode Kingsley (Joe Thomas) gets interest from a slick oil executive at the college careers fair, sparking the dour Howard's (Greg McHugh) anger. Meanwhile, JP (Jack Whitehall) comes up with some clueless money-making inventions ("a tank-copter - you basically put helicopter blades onto a tank") and Oregon's (Charlotte Ritchie) internship is scuppered by the advent of an acid-tongued rival.

Thank cosmic order for Fresh Meat, almost an hour of laugh-out-loud comic astuteness that single-handedly restored faith in the British ability to be funny. Written by Peep Show combo, Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, who are truly enjoying a beautiful creative moment, it's a student comedy neatly pitched between Peep Show and The Inbetweeners, and is arguably better than both.

Now in its second series, the show works on a multitude of levels. Each character is fully realised and integral to the set-up, the plots are loose but satisfyingly coherent, and the caustically absurd yet uncannily authentic dialogue succeeds in defining its own inspirationally demented world.

In Howard (Greg McHugh), the paranoid Scot, and JP (Jack Whitehall), the smug public schoolboy, the show boasts two of the finest comic creations to come along in years. Whereas the contrast between Sabine, the plain-speaking Dutchwoman (Jelka van Houten), and Me and Mrs Jones's Inca says everything that needs to be known about the difference between fresh and stale.

In last week's second episode, JP had mumps and, advised that he risked infertility, he rashly chose to store his sperm in the student house's shared freezer ice cube tray. Meanwhile the newly arrived Sabine was still getting to grips with the haphazard communal workings of the kitchen.

You might have thought you'd know how or, more precisely, where this particular climax was going to finish. The mark of the best comedy, however, is that it subverts the obvious even while playing it for all it's worth. In the end the payoff was hard to swallow, but only because it left me spluttering so violently with laughter.

I loved student flatshare comedy Fresh Meat last time: it was funny and filthy and Jack Whitehall stole the show as the posh berk, the bad advert for public schools you expect from Channel 4 at times like these. Unfortunately Whitehall then played another posh berk in Bad Education which, after a decent start, became quite tedious. It suggested Whitehall could be a one-trick pony (and no stranger to actual gymkhanas). And it's had the effect of diluting his contribution to Fresh Meat, like he's been stealing from his own stash of cheap plonk in the student fridge without realising, topping it up with water.

If the metaphor is extended, other characters are starting to resemble overfamiliar foodstuffs and curling round the edges. Howard, played by our own Greg McHugh, is just a bit more odd, Vod is just a bit more scary, Josie is just a bit more unconvincing about having got over Kingsley, and so on. Of course they're students: any kind of decisive action wouldn't ring true.

Jack Whitehall, Joe Thomas, Greg McHugh interview

Posh comic Jack Whitehall turned rugged action man for his latest role - hanging 40ft in the air from a rocky precipice with only a thin wire and a crash mat for protection.

Greg McHugh: As fresher I woke up with a TV on my back

"Howard is the oddball of the house. In the opening scene he is hair-drying Peking ducks without any trousers or indeed pants on...which was a lot of fun to shoot, as you can imagine!"

Greg McHugh interview

As anticipation for the second series of Fresh Meat reaches dangerous levels, Digital Spy caught up with Greg McHugh to ask what's coming up in the new episodes, whether he's a fan of The Inbetweeners and how the success of Jack Whitehall's Bad Education has gone down with the team...

Although I finally came out as a Burnistoun fan last week, I'm still not ready to come out for Gary: Tank Commander, back for a third series. I love Greg McHugh in the students comedy Fresh Meat and am in Pot Noodle delirium awaiting its return, but his mincing squaddie show has few jokes beyond the obvious and, often, no actual tanks.

Interview: Greg McHugh

Three years on from the show's BBC debut, Greg McHugh still can't believe the response Gary: Tank Commander has received.

It's a shame that there weren't a few more laughs to be had during Meanwhile, It's Will & Greg, a new sketch show from comedians William Andrews and Greg McHugh. Admittedly, this was only the first offering, and there were hints of potential for future episodes, but as yet not enough of the material hits the mark.

Much was made in the pre-show publicity about how the comedy team was going to "explore the surreal and the absurd through characters and everyday situations", but it felt like the performers were trying just that little bit too hard to be offbeat and zany. The uneven editing between the studio-based sketches and those recorded in front of an audience also did the show no favours, often resulting in the applause sounding anything but enthusiastic.