Simon Bird (I)

Let's be honest, there are a couple of things The Inbetweeners could totally afford to lose: chunks of that landfill indie soundtrack and Simon Bird's largely redundant voiceover, for instance. Apart from these minor grumbles, however, it's clearly one of the most accurately observed, snort-like-a-pig comedies around. Series three also signals the start of a new term, and what better way to kick off than with a school fashion show for charity, with all the potential for utter wrongness that suggests. Those who'd rather not see more of actor Joe Thomas than strictly necessary, avert your gaze now.

A welcome return for the award-winning series about the shenanigans of four misfit, uncool teenagers as they negotiate sixth form. This terrific series has been marked by its witty adolescent humour and sharp and engaging observation. As we return, a school fashion show is being organised and Will (Simon Bird) and Simon (Joe Thomas) get involved - but not in a good way.

After their surprising win at the Baftas where they picked up the audience award, TV's sex-obsessed sixth-formers have just started shooting their first feature film in the party resort of Malia in Crete.

They return for a third series with a rucksack full of crude schoolboy banter, wardrobe malfunctions and possibly the first use of the word "Simples" in a sitcom. This week, Rudge Park Comp hosts a fashion show and the boys have very different views on it.

Geeky Will (Simon Bird) thinks it's all just politically incorrect vanity, Jay is desperate to strut his stuff, Neil sees it as a prime opportunity for ogling half-dressed girls and Simon is just eager to do whatever the lovely Carli asks him to - even if it means exposing more of himself than he means to when he pulls on a racy pair of Speedos.

A third series of the Bafta-winning sixth form-set series sees Will (Simon Bird) and his friends subjected to further humiliations. The catwalk of a school fashion show is the last place on earth you'd expect to see Will. So, of course, that's where he ends up...

The Inbetweeners visit The Sun newspaper

Inbetweeners star Simon Bird used to get grief from parents - while working as a kids' football ref.

BBC Three's latest font of malodorousness, The King Is Dead, has been described as "part spoof job interview, part chat show, part panel show and part character comedy"; you might say it was suffering from an identity crisis were that not ascribing rather too much sentient thought to its conception.

To expand: a panel of three comics, led by The Inbetweeners' Simon Bird, interview three celebrities vying to fill the shoes of a famous public figure. In this week's opener, said position was the United States president, the cue for 30 minutes of dismally aimless japery which matched spurious quizzes with Peaches Geldof flaunting her ignorance and James Corden frottaging a man dressed as a vending machine. Pity poor, rictus-grinned Sarah Beeny, whose demeanour was that of an interplanetary visitor stuck at a student rag-week party. Bird has seen fit to compare his show to Shooting Stars, though never has Vic and Bob's brand of whimsical surrealism seemed such a precious commodity.

It was only the huge affection I feel for The Inbetweeners which got me to the end of The King Is Dead (BBC3), a spoof panel show hosted by Simon Bird, aka Will.

The idea, if that's not too grand a term, is to have various random nano-celebs compete for a job vacancy while having the mickey ripped out of them by Bird and a couple of sidekicks.

But the script was so lame even Bird's geek appeal couldn't rescue it. Inbetweeners fans would be best advised to skip it, lest it take the shine off the new series.

Simon Bird is brilliant as the uber-nerdy babe anti-magnet in The Inbetweeners and after watching the opening scene of his new show, we were getting ready to congratulate ourselves on another half-hour well spent. That was until he and his co-stars were whisked off to some TV studio... A panel show? OK, slightly harder to pull off, but let's just see how it goes... Sadly, our faith was not rewarded.

The King Is Dead is a spoof in which Bird and his sidekicks interview three celebrities for a position of great authority. In tonight's opening episode, the vacancy is in the White House - giving our hosts the chance to make some expected, but still rather funny jibes at our friends across the pond. Indeed one of the highlights of a rather disappointing episode came when the panel rip on 'Darren' for being a Brit: "Listen to his accent", "what's wrong with your teeth?" etc. However, when you take a peak at the rest of the series and find that several of these mini-japes are going to be churned out again and again, then you start to feel a little concerned.

Admittedly the whole Darren situation was quite funny on this first occasion, but watching Bird's colleague pressing Peaches Geldof to disclose who she prefers out of Stalin and Mugabe gets old almost as the words are leaving his mouth. "Oh I couldn't chose..." she replies. "But what if you had to!?" Groan... Joining Peaches in the queue to be the next President is Sarah Beeney and James Corden. Aside from Corden's well-documented cr*pness (he actually seems to have confused being humorous with laughing inanely at all times..) there isn't much to else worthy of comment here.

We love Simon Bird as briefcase-wielding bully bait Will in The Inbetweeners, but sadly this vehicle doesn't show him at his best. The concept is that someone holding a certain job has died - a police chief, for example - and he's conducting an interview for their replacement. However, all the applicants are celebrities, and in this first episode James Corden, Peaches Geldof and Sarah Beeny are all vying to be given the job of President of the USA. Perhaps the only reason you may want to tune in is to see Peaches being given a bit of a hard time.

We love The Inbetweeners. We love Simon Bird in The Inbetweeners. But Simon Bird as panel show presenter? We're not so sure. The King Is Dead sees a public figure hypothetically bumped off each week, and its left to Bird and his interview panel of funny people to find a celebrity replacement. But the show, which is over-scripted, relies on Bird insulting the celebs and tasteless innuendo to get laughs.