Jack Whitehall

New series, new academic year. There are more good gags in the opening minutes of Jack Whitehall's returning comedy than in a whole episode of David Walliams's Big School. Anything which makes fun of Mumford & Sons is fine by me.

The second series of Jack Whitehall's crazy popular Bad Education has been available on iPlayer for a while now, but you know what, we're TV purists and have decided it's worth waiting to see it premiere in all its glory on the big(ger) screen. Keep your laptops and your smart telephone android things, youths!

That wait is finally over this week when the comedian's bumbling teacher Alfie Wickers, who's now sporting a retro bowl cut, kicks off a new term by bribing his long-suffering class into taking part in a swimming gala organised by clueless headmaster Fraser (Mathew Horne) after taking a bet from the terrifying Miss Pickwell (Michelle Gomez). Oh blimey, there's surely only one way this can be heading... Jack Whitehall in Speedos.

It receives its TV debut on Tuesday, but those looking to catch Jack Whitehall's classroom comedy early can watch it on iPlayer, as part of BBC Three's quietly revolutionary policy of premiering all of its comedy online. Bad Education's still not essential by any stretch, but Whitehall's impudent presence, not to mention that of the always-great Michelle Gomez, means that it remains watchable.

This is the one with James Corden's face plastered on the bare bottom of One Direction's Niall. Which is a sentence you probably thought you'd never read. Watch the ratings go through the roof of the net as this loosely reffed bout of sporting mayhem also welcomes Niall's pop buddies Louis and Harry into the game - Jack Whitehall is honing the Stylinson gags as we speak - with Sara Cox and Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley also getting in on the action.

If Bad Education was a child, it would be one of those bright but infuriating kids with ADHD who fly around the room never quite settling at anything. One whose moments of brilliance are punctuated by tiring bouts of 'look at me, look at me' daftness.

At least Jack Whitehall's comedy - debuting on BBC iPlayer - feels like it's taking place in the 21st century unlike David Walliams and his oddly dated Big School. Whitehall's hopeless goon of a teacher, Alfie Wickers, one of those types who wants to be mates with the kids rather than, you know, actually teaching them anything, feels absolutely in tune with the way education is going.

And, in-between descending into cringe-making farce, Whitehall mines comedy gold from potshots at Mumford & Sons ('you're too young to appreciate a good dinner-party anthem when you hear one') and his ill-fated efforts at convincing colleague Miss Gulliver of his boyish charms. Efforts not entirely dissuaded by her admission that she bats for the other team.

'I am angry and aroused and upset,' was his reaction to her sudden conversion to lesbianism. 'But mostly aroused.' When he's dishing out the banter, Whitehall is a sharp writer. But a lot of Bad Education flails around in the shallow end of physical comedy, with extended sequences at a swimming gala failing to make much of a splash.

That said, it did allow the somewhat niche delight of watching Mathew Horne's head (teacher) attempting to break in a pair of Speedos and Whitehall streaking around the corridors, blinded by a horror-movie spin on a chlorine allergy that made him look like a Doctor Who alien. It was high on energy but low on subtlety, driven by the false assumption that physical freakiness is so funny it requires no other target.

Whitehall should ditch the slapstick and stick to the staff and classroom sniping. Because when he does it's A*. Otherwise, it's an epic fail.

BBC Three is launching all its new scripted comedy online ahead of being broadcast on ye olde-fashioned telly.

First new kid out of the block is the second series of Jack Whitehall's school room farce, available tonight a week ahead of its official BBC Three premiere.

Whitehall's character, Alfie Wickers, is still a tragic plonker, getting his trunks in a twist at the school swimming gala and fantasising over his imaginary relationship with foxy Miss Gulliver (the excellent Sarah Solemani).

All that, though, is trumped by Mathew Horne's 'down with the kids' headmaster and his extraordinary barnet, a triumph of dodgy coiffing if ever there was one.

Jack Whitehall interview

Jack Whitehall discusses the second series of Bad Education.

Aren't David Walliams, Catherine Tate and Philip Glenister a touch too old for the daft teacher parts they play in this old-school comedy? Or is that the point?

Either way, this is an amiable, oddly dated chip off the old blackboard - tonight built around a talent show - but, what with Waterloo Road and Jack Whitehall's Bad Education (returning for a new term soon), the TV syllabus is teeming with shows full of rubbish teachers. Give 'em a break!

A seventh series of the quiz that makes A Question of Sport look like Pathé newsreel of over-60s crown green bowling. These days the quiz questions are few and far between: with money almost visibly dripping from the screen, it's all about big stunts and big-name comics.

Tonight, the regulars - Jack Whitehall, Jimmy Carr, Jamie Redknapp, Andrew Flintoff and host James Corden - go rally-driving with near-fatal consequences, play football against Edgar Davids while stuck in giant plastic bouncy balls, and complete a hellish military assault course. In between are some very funny pre-arranged zingers - mostly delivered by Whitehall, so if you're not one of those people who's violently allergic to him, you're in business.