Fresh Meat

Faye Marsay introduces new fresher Candice

The White Queen actress joins Jack Whitehall, Zawe Ashton, Joe Thomas, Kimberley Nixon, Greg McHugh and Charlotte Ritchie for the new series of the Channel 4 comedy Fresh Meat.

Joe Thomas on Kingsley and Josie

The Ross and Rachel of the Channel 4 comedy finally make a go of their relationship in season 3 - but will Kingsley's girlfriend Heather come between them?

Do you have a girl crush on Vod?

Zawe Ashton reveals all about the women who fancy her hell raising character and why Fresh Meat's creators might "cut the cord" while the Channel 4 comedy is still a hit.

Jack Whitehall - I cannot be left alone with a vibrator

JP isn't the only one with a childish sense of humour, as Kimberley Nixon and Charlotte Ritchie reveal the comedian's dildo pranks...

Fresh Meat, series 3 episode 1, review

The buffoonish characters in Channel 4's comedy Fresh Meat soon win you over.

Greg McHugh and Zawe Ashton shine in Fresh Meat

While tonight's instalment of Fresh Meat didn't see the show at its best, there were still some great moments. I loved Howard's story, Vod's holiday romance and the fact that things between Josie and Kingsley aren't as solid as they'd like to think.

The freshers' week sexism hashtag on Twitter may go into meltdown tonight as JP looks forward to the joys of being a second year at Manchester Medlock. He's had a special sign made for their student house and has come up with an oafish plan to lure gullible girls back to his hot tub.

JP's only saving grace is that the joke, as always, is on him because not even the greenest newbie is dumb enough to be taken in by his gold-card-carrying smarm.

Phew. It's good to know that the sharpest, funniest comedy on TV hasn't completely taken leave of its senses.

As for his fellow housemates, Oregon and Vod, they've returned from their South America adventure on "slightly different flights," and we don't have to wait long to discover the cause of the friction between them.

Josie is now at Southampton after being kicked off her course following that unfortunate drilling incident. But she's keeping an eye on Kingsley via the internet.

And there's also a new housemate, Candice, who quickly becomes Oregon's pet project.

"Just don't get too hung up on me," she warns, brilliantly.

Meanwhile, Howard is very much hoping for a repeat of last year's sexual encounter, which would bring his grand total to two.

Unlike JP, you'll be cheering him on every step of the way.

Fresh Meat Prince Harry gag 'clearly tongue in cheek'

Channel 4 has defended a rude gag about Prince Harry set to air during tonight's return of student sitcom Fresh Meat as "clearly tongue in cheek".

This comedy drama about university housemates starring comedian Jack Whitehall is back for a third series, and this time they are no longer naïve freshers.

As the gang return to Manchester Medlock as second years, JP (Whitehall) is now their landlord, having bought the house.

They are joined by new girl Candice, who was home-schooled for the first year and doesn't know who Simon Cowell is.

But the ridiculous schemes continue as Howard and JP try to coax female freshers to join their Dry Slope Skiing Society, and there's trouble when Vod's hunky Mexican summer fling turns up in town.

Sam Bain, who co-writes the comedy with Jesse Armstrong, says of the partnership, "There is some shouting - although usually fun shouting rather than aggressive shouting!"

They are not past their sell-by date yet, but as the student flatmates of Fresh Meat start their second year (and third series), they are no longer quite so tender. Happily, however, they are still very funny, all the more so for their endearing attempts to seem jaded. "I thought I knew everything, but really I knew nothing," muses Oregon, thinking back to her first-year self. "Now, I know everything!"

She doesn't, although she has spent the summer in South America with Vod, who has acquired a boyfriend who speaks no English and whose every utterance has to be translated through Oregon's gritted teeth. "He says, 'I love you'... I'd have thought you'd know that one by now, I did that one a LOT."

Meanwhile, JP (Jack Whitehall, looking about 35) is still painfully convinced that he's some kind of ladies' man, while hopeless Kingsley somehow accidentally is. A misguided party, several inappropriate hook-ups and - of course - no mention whatsoever of anything to do with classes or studying: the university life still proves fertile ground for cringeworthy humour. And a dopey running gag involving Josie, who has transferred to another uni, ends up being far more comical than it should be.

But Fresh Meat's real strength is in its characters, who are each trying to be something they're not (apart, perhaps, from Howard, who has accepted his loserdom and will probably end up more successful than them all). Yet they're all completely recognisable as basically sincere young people just trying to work out who they are.