Bad Education

Bad Education - review

Blow me if it wasn't really affectionate and funny. If you have a childish streak, if you're the kind of person who still misses The Inbetweeners, then this might be for you.

Sarah Solemani interview

Bad Education star Sarah Solemani tells Metro why Stacey Dooley's hair is an added bonus to her documentaries and the lengths she would go to secure a new series of dark comedy drama Psychoville.

Fresh Meat's Jack Whitehall goes back to school in this buzzing new sitcom, this time as a teacher. Not that you would want your kids in his charge, of course. Distractions such as the newly single biology teacher (Him & Her's Sarah Solemani) are enough to stop him from doing anything sensible, like, say, marking mock exam papers.

A good first day of term for this new school-set sitcom, the second to launch tonight alongside Sky Living's Gates. Bad Education sees Jack Whitehall casting himself as a flaky loser teaching in a state school, juggling the usual array of tricky students, a ball-busting headmistress (Michelle Gomez), and colleagues both unattainable (Sarah Solemani) and berkish (the brilliant Mat Horne, having a ball). Post-Fresh Meat, Whitehall's on a hot streak, and no mistake.

No school comedy would be complete without an excruciating sex education class and Jack Whitehall doesn't disappoint. As hapless history teacher Mr Wickers he wriggles and squirms and clearly yearns to crawl under a desk away from the pitying gaze of his worldly-wise pupils. The only person more immature is the head (Mathew Horne in a hilariously hideous wig) who befuddles his staff and enrages parents with his senseless slang. There hasn't been a sitcom this masterfully puerile since The Inbetweeners.

Having shown surprising acting chops in Fresh Meat, Jack Whitehall is a man presently in search of a worthy vehicle. In Bad Education - which he also writes - Whitehall stars as feckless, perpetually hungover teacher Alfie Wickers. His pursuit of the concerned, competent Rosie (Sarah Solemani) sees him spin a web of deceit in this opening episode, which concludes at parents' evening. It's funny and occasionally in creditably poor taste, but you get the feeling that Whitehall's phoning it in somewhat.

Bad Education, BBC Three, review

The pupils were, on the whole, broad brush and played with too much stage-school knowingness.

Jack Whitehall on his Bad Education

"Mr Wickers is a knob, but a knob in a loveable way, I hope... He is quite immature and a bit of a man-child, so I think he is a heightened version of myself in some ways"

Bad Education: A return to form for BBC3

It's too quick to judge whether or not Bad Education will be another success for the channel or be cancelled after one season but on the evidence of this first instalment I would have to say the future is very bright for BBC3.