Simon Bird (I)

The only real way to judge the first episode of any new sitcom is by the number of laughs per minute. I managed four in the 24 minutes (including ad break) of Chickens (Sky 1); which is substantially above average, given that some time has to be spent establishing the characters and the sit in the sitcom. Chickens began life as a pilot for Channel 4. Not having seen the pilot, I've no idea why it got turned down, but I'd be willing to bet Sky took a punt on commissioning a series on the proviso that writers Simon Bird, Joe Thomas and Jonny Sweet made it as much like The Inbetweeners as possible.

Chickens is set in the fictional town of Rittle-on-Sea in August 1914, just after the outbreak of the first world war. Much of the pre-publicity for the show has focused on the risky nature of its situation and the way it hopes to invert sexual stereotypes by placing three non-combatant men as a minority in a village run by women. Save that for a dinner party conversation, because Bird and Thomas are basically playing their Inbetweeners characters.

Bird is Cecil, who has been turned down by the army for having flat feet, but could just as well be Inbetweener Will. Both are brighter and better-intentioned than everyone else around, but end up misunderstood and picked on. Thomas is conscientious objector George, but could just as well be Simon, the Inbetweener who takes himself terribly seriously and isn't as bright as he thinks he is. Sweet wasn't in The Inbetweeners but his character, Bert the Bounder, could well have been. None of which is a problem as far as I'm concerned. I loved The Inbetweeners and I enjoyed this. And with luck it will get even better when the characters have settled in and Barry Humphries makes an appearance.

Originally a Channel 4 pilot, the playfully anachronistic Chickens stars Inbetweeners Joe Thomas and Simon Bird, alongside Jonny Sweet. They play George, Cecil and Bert, left behind in Rittle-On-Sea in 1914 as the rest of the men head off to the great war. Living together in a cottage daubed with scornful graffiti by the townswomen, the trio - a conscientious objector, a flat-footed reject and a bounder - make comedic hay of their moral and sexual shame in this highly promising opener.

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.

Next year we can expect a glut of dramas and documentaries marking the centenary of the start of the First World War, but cheeky Sky1 has snuck in first with this misfiring comedy set during the Great War.

Don't expect brave Tommies and battlefield pets, though. The three main characters, Cecil, George and Bert, are all at home in Blighty while the war rages on the continent. The reasons why they're not fighting? Flat feet, pacifism and an obliviousness to the fact there is actually a war going on, respectively.

Written by and starring The Inbetweeners' Simon Bird and Joe Thomas, and long-time collaborator Jonny Sweet, the characters feel overly familiar: Cecil's a bumptious prig, George is confused and lovelorn. Only Sweet's libidinous idiot Bert adds some vim to the laboured reality of the men being reviled by the womenfolk of their village.

Chickens: Inbetweeners play overgrown schoolboys again

The stars of the Channel 4 sitcom may be a little old to be playing sex-obsessed teenagers "but that hasn't stopped us before", says Simon Bird.

This endearingly daft sitcom created by and starring Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Jonny Sweet and Inbetweeners alumni Joe Thomas and Simon Bird first saw the light as a C4 pilot with enormous potential.

Sky1 smartly snapped it up, giving tryhard prig Cecil (Bird), wimpy lovebird George (Thomas) and empty-headed ladies' man Bert (Sweet) a welcome six episodes to spend justifying their behaviour, staying at home while the Great War rages. Although, given the fury of the local womenfolk, the Somme might have been a better option as Bonfire Night arrives and a Guy is required.

Bird and Thomas more or less reprise their old characters but are none the worse for it, leaving Sweet to steal the show with his blissfully, ignorant posho. The theme tune is overused and one or two set-ups are hackneyed, but performances, attention to detail and all-round silliness carry the day.

It's all happening for Inbetweeners fans - this week sees three of the four lads debuting their latest forays into TV comedy.

Tomorrow, Simon Bird and Joe Thomas pop up in Chickens but first, here's Neil, sorry Blake Harrison, playing the slightly less gormless Ben in a show that breaks new ground in sitcoms - it's set in Great Yarmouth, dog-eared jewel of the Norfolk coast.

Ben's got an MA in Norse poetry but amazingly, he's not been snapped up by the job market. So he's back in his home town, tail between his legs, and face to face with his ex, who's now dating the local copper. Ouch. Seann Walsh co-stars.

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.