Samuel Robertson

The mix of sarky Brits and American girls - and jocks - in this culture clash comedy is a strange one. But as the series concludes, the archly named Beaver Falls has had its moments as the three personable British graduates, Flynn (Samuel Robertson) and the particularly likeable A-Rab (Arsher Ali) and Barry (John Dagleish), complete their season at the American summer camp. The premise also touches on the idea of Brits getting one over on the Yanks (and standing up for the little, or in this case, the fat guys) and that's something we can all cheer for.

Beaver Falls (E4) is a slick-looking comedy about three recent graduates from Oxford Brookes University, teaching at an American summer camp. It took me ages to unpick: was it an American idealisation of British culture? Or an English idealisation of American culture? Finally, I worked it out: this is a British look at the US, based on a premise with which you may or may not agree; that American summer camps are inherently, Lord-of-the-Flies-ly fascinating.

But there's a sting in the tail: somewhere near the end of the first episode, it turns into plucky, UK underdog spirit, standing up for the American underdogs against the improbable sadism of their jocks. It is a frankly pretty weird attempt to interpolate our own sensibility into an American combative trope - jock v nerd - that we don't even fully understand, that we've just picked up off the telly. I would like to see a bit of psychoanalysis on the writing team: it's like a child's impulse to wriggle between warring parents. It's none of our business, mate! We don't have jocks or nerds, we don't have people who are strong or people who are good at stuff. We're irrelevant to this dyad. And it's irrelevant to us.

Well, of course that wouldn't matter if the writing were good, which it isn't, or if the situations were tickling, which they aren't (one of the major events is someone wanking on to a flip-flop: I don't want to be tediously pragmatic here, but it's a wipe-clean surface. Semen, on a wipe-clean surface: where is the drama?). I'm sorry to say, though, that I was won over by the acting in the end. Arsher Ali, memorable in Four Lions, is even more striking here, with no competition from the script or the other actors. Although, if I'm honest, I ended up warming to the other two (Samuel Robertson and John Dagleish) as well.

If you have to look at a press release to work out whether what you're watching is supposed to be a comedy or a drama, something has gone ­seriously wrong somewhere.

Samuel Robertson (Adam Barlow from Corrie), John Dalgleish (Lark Rise to ­Candleford) and Arsher Ali star as best friends from uni who land what they think is their dream job in the USA as summer camp counsellors for the kids of the West Coast wealthy.

A cross-cultural mash-up of The Inbetweeners and movies like American Pie - British lads trying to have sex in California - isn't the worst idea we've ever heard, but from this first episode, it's more a case of "oh dear" than The OC.

We won't write it off just yet, though. Any show that manages to reference Braveheart and Baywatch in the space of an hour deserves a second chance.

In this unthinking cross between The Inbetweeners and US geek/jock movies, three randy Brits have just graduated and blagged jobs in California at a summer camp for rich older teens. The trio's aim is to have sex with everyone, which slightly dubiously seems to include the people they're supervising. Thankfully, in episode one our lads stick to chasing their fellow staff. Even more offensive, it uses every possible cliché, from meat-headed bullies to fat kids who keep being given wedgies. Generic lines that most writers would be embarrassed to consider for a first draft have made it to the screen. So kudos to the three leads - Samuel Robertson, Arsher Ali and John Dagleish - who somehow manage to charm.

This new comedy is sort of what The Inbetweeners would be like if they went to US summer camp - only it's nowhere near as funny. Flynn (Samuel Robertson), A-Rab (Arsher Ali) and Barry (John Dagleish) are three British chancers who arrive at a California camp with, variously, a broken heart, weed and an insatiable sex drive. Predictable encounters with the usual array of jocks and fat kids follow.

Promising culture-clash comedy about three British chancers who blag jobs at a Californian summer camp. Flynn (Samuel Robertson), A-Rab (Asher Ali) and Barry (John Dalgleish) are about as different from their fellow camp leaders as could be. The humour comes from how the trio adjust to a world of jocks, babes and discipline. Their adventure begins less than happily when they are asked to look after the camp misfits.

Coming Soon: Beaver Falls, E4

E4 have a brand new comedy-drama on the way, which they're hoping will replicate the success of The Inbetweeners. Beaver Falls is the story of three British friends-Flynn (Coronation Street's Samuel Robertson), A-Rab (Four Lions' Arsher Ali) and Barry (Lark Rise To Candleford's John Dagleish) - who graduate from university and decide to travel to the US for a carefree holiday working for an elite summer camp called Beaver Falls, full of beautiful and rich Californian teenagers.