Jonny Sweet

Inbetweeners best buds Joe Thomas and Simon Bird reunite for this World War I comedy that also stars stand-up Jonny Sweet - and it's weirdly like Will and Simon have gone back a century and replaced Neil with some other daft bloke. The set-up is that pacifist George (Thomas), flat-footed Cecil (Bird) and randy loon Bert (Sweet) are the only men left in a village after all the proper blokes have marched off to war. This makes them very, very unpopular with the womenfolk.

From Inbetweeners to Chickens

We visit the set of Sky1's first world war sitcom, which marks the major TV writing debut of its stars Joe Thomas, Simon Bird and Jonny Sweet.

"The world has no room for cowards," Robert Louis Stevenson maintained. Sky's new comedy does, though, as it follows three loathed (their house is emblazoned with "Just Die" and "Coward Cottage") draft-dodging chickens who have, quite wisely, ducked out of the carnage of the First World War. The trio of cowards, played by Inbetweeners stars Simon Bird and Joe Thomas, who also, jointly, wrote this, and Jonny Sweet, gel nicely together in this undemanding satire. "If you were really keen to help, you would have killed yourself to raise moral," yells a crone at Simon Bird's flat-footed Cecil, who is knitting for the war effort. Bird, Sweet and Thomas are all adept comic actors, and the wonderful Emma Fryer cameos, too.

Simon Bird & Jonny Sweet interview

Simon Bird and Jonny Sweet talk about Chickens.

Audio: Chickens Q&A

Stars and creators Simon Bird, Jonny Sweet and Joe Thomas are joined by cast members Sarah Daykin, Emerald Fennell, and Barry Humphries at BAFTA to talk about the new WW1-set Sky1 sitcom Chickens.

Jonny Sweet interview

Award winning comic Jonny Sweet talks about his upcoming WWI sitcom...

Much like Peep Show, it's understandable that some people assume that the stars of gross-out-but-sometimes-oddly-sweet teen sitcom The Inbetweeners - Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison - actually wrote the show, as they seem to fit their characters so well. Not so, however - that honour belongs to (Damon Beesley and Iain Morris) but Bird and Thomas are in fact pretty experienced comedy writers, having performed (and impressed) at the Edinburgh Fringe with their show The Meeting, created with award-winning stand-up comic Jonny Sweet.

For Chickens, these three have got back together and produced a properly entertaining half hour pilot in which they play the only three men left in a pretty Heart-of-England village during the First World War. They each have their reasons for staying behind: Cecil (Bird) isn't allowed in the army on account of his flat feet, teacher George (Thomas) is a conscientious objector and Bert (Sweet)... well he just finds it difficult to remember there's a war on, what with all the girls (and women, and old ladies) of the village distracting him the whole time.

There was an element of farce about this - Cecil ends up accidentally peeing on a tree planted in remembrance of a dead soldier - but as with so many sitcoms, Chickens actually works best when it's just the three leads chatting and bickering. Jonny Sweet, I think, pretty much steals the show. As a self-centred lothario, he's simultaneously incredibly creepy and massively watchable - here, as with his stand-up, it's his delivery that makes him so much fun. All the best comics can make an apparently simple word sound hilarious and Sweet is no different. Just take a listen to how he says the word 'crow'.

Inbetweeners' fans, don't miss this, ­whatever you do. The hilarious sitcom pilot was written by and stars the programme's Simon Bird and Joe Thomas, plus their sketch show collaborator, Jonny Sweet.

The year is 1914 and as the First World War rages throughout Europe and the three of them are safely sitting out the carnage in a cottage in Kent.

They're not playing schoolboys any longer, but as the only able-bodied young men left in the village, they're despised by all the women. But Bert (Jonny Sweet), in particular, is unperturbed. He's barely even aware that there's a war going on and sees this as an opportunity to pull all the women who are left - starting tonight with a grieving widow at her husband's funeral.

His tactless chat-up line: "Aah, come here, grumpy guts!" is comedy gold. In terms of period detail, Chickens is about as faithful as Blackadder Goes Forth, which is not very, but I laughed my head off throughout this - and you will, too.

The Comedy Showcase strand, now in its third year, is a try-out for new comedies and Channel 4 is being uncharacteristically coy about whether it plans to ­commission a full series.

It won't make a decision until all of the pilots have been aired, but this is by far and away the best new comedy to come out of this exercise.

If Channel 4 can't see that already, it must be mad.

It's the summer of 1914 in the sleepy Kentish village of Rittle-on-Sea and almost all the young men have gone to war. Left behind are the uptight Cecil, whose flat feet mean he fails the Army physical; conscientious objector teacher George; and philanderer Bert, who is barely aware there is a war on. Together they are the pariahs of the village.

It's an intriguing set-up for comedy, but the humour is very broad - unsurprising as it is written by and stars The Inbetweeners' Simon Bird, Joe Thomas and their sketch show partner Jonny Sweet. They've basically crafted The Inbetweeners Do the Great War; their characters are so similar to those of the series, there's even a deranged headmaster - the imperious Rupert Vansittart - and a piece of cringe-inducing toilet humour. It could do well if picked up for a series.