British Comedy Guide
Love British Comedy Guide? Support our work by making a donation. Find out more
The Inbetweeners. Image shows from L to R: Simon Cooper (Joe Thomas), Will Mackenzie (Simon Bird), Neil Sutherland (Blake Harrison), Jay Cartwright (James Buckley). Copyright: Bwark Productions
The Inbetweeners

The Inbetweeners

  • TV sitcom
  • E4
  • 2008 - 2010
  • 18 episodes (3 series)

An award-winning comedy about four teenagers growing up in suburbia. Stars Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley, Blake Harrison, Emily Head and more.

F
X
R
W
E

Episode menu

Series 2, Episode 1 - The Field Trip

It's a new term and the infamous sociology and geography field trip to Swanage is coming up; all the boys are on board.

Further details

A new girl, Lauren, has joined the school, and Will has taken a particular shine to her. The only problem is that she has eyes for Simon. On the field trip to Swanage, Jay is on the lookout for the legendary 'Swanage MILF', and Neil is desperately trying to deflect the advances of an over-friendly teacher, Mr Kennedy.

Broadcast details

Date
Thursday 2nd April 2009
Time
10pm
Channel
E4
Length
30 minutes

Cast & crew

Cast
Simon Bird Will Mackenzie
Joe Thomas Simon Cooper
James Buckley Jay Cartwright
Blake Harrison Neil Sutherland
Emily Head Carli D'Amato
Greg Davies Mr Gilbert
Henry Lloyd-Hughes Mark Donovan
Guest cast
John Seaward Big John (Geeky Kid)
Waen Shepherd Mr Kennedy (Paedo Teacher)
Kali Peacock Survey Woman
Richard Hart David Glover
Jean Reeve Ice Cream Lady
Jayne Wisener Lauren Harris
Writing team
Damon Beesley Writer
Iain Morris Writer
Robert Popper Script Editor
Production team
Ben Palmer Director
Chris Young (as Christopher Young) Producer
Damon Beesley Executive Producer
Iain Morris Executive Producer
William Webb Editor
Charlie Fawcett Editor
Richard Drew Production Designer

Press

A thoroughly deserved second series for Iain Morris and Damon Beesley's award-winning teen sitcom, first shown on E4. The four Inbetweeners are back in hapless form as they embark on a sociology/geography trip to Swanage. In between them setting off and getting stuck on a boat in the harbour, Will and Simon fall for the same new girl, while Jay and Neil embarrass themselves. It may be crass but it's just as often sweet, hilarious and, sadly, realistic.

Will Dean, The Guardian, 30th June 2009

The smutty, fitfully funny, schoolboy comedy moves over from E4 in the same week as series three of Skins, sparking inevitable discussion about which offers the more realistic depiction of teenage life.

But this makes about as much sense as asking which paints a more accurate picture of adult life: EastEnders or Emmerdale. Correct answer? Neither.

But as Will, Simon, Jay and Neil set off on a geography trip to Swanage, Dorset, it will prompt coach-scented memories for viewers. While Jay is convinced that there's a middle-aged woman in Swanage eagerly awaiting the arrival of a bus-load of hormonal adolescent boys, Simon Bird's character Will still comes off like David Mitchell's geekier, more annoying little brother - the kid who has yet to learn that Yoda impressions will never get the prettiest girl on the bus to fancy you. A boat-load of trouble awaits.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 30th June 2009

The anti-Skins sitcom following a gang of social rejects at a comprehensive school, complete with crude humour galore and a host of acute and nostalgic observations as the boys embark on the joys of a geography field trip to Swanage.

This show beautifully plays on the ridiculous playground codes and conventions and hierarchies that tainted our youth. The perfect example of this is Jay, who in the first two minutes was bragging about his friend in Year 13. We all remember those days, where engaging in any minor form of interaction with an individual who arrived on this earth little more than 12 months before you increased your social status. Plus, the idea that the back seats of the school coach are reserved for 'the hard kids.' A classic quote from Will when suffered the age-old ejection: 'We don't have to move, we got here very early to secure these seats!'

Liam Smedley, The Custard TV, 4th April 2009

The arrival of the second series of The Inbetweeners, which charts the halpess misadventures, sexual and otherwise, of a bunch of suburban youths, is something to cheer. Thanks to the huggably hormonal presence of Simon Bird and Joe Thomas, The Inbetweeners catches the horny horrors of adolescence spot on without resorting to saying 'knob' every ten seconds. It's like Skins used to be.

Keith Watson, Metro, 3rd April 2009

TV Review: The Inbetweeners

While this comedy is crude, and the pursuit of girls is often at the centre of the action, it works because, despite all that, you can sense that its heart is truly in the right place - Coming Of Age it ain't, in fact its closest relative is probably Peep Show.

Anna Lowman, TV Scoop, 3rd April 2009

A rollicking teen comedy, the show revolves around Will and his gang of geeky friends. Will's basically an (even) shorter David Mitchell: posh, calamity-stricken and with a tendency to lodge his foot somewhere in the vicinity of his tonsils. He - for those who skipped the first series - used to be educated privately, but is currently roughing it in a comprehensive thanks to his mum who, he said ,"hasn't scraped enough money together to send him to his old, frankly better school". I know, I know: what a nob, right? Well, yes - except for the fact that he's rather likeable - likeable to the audience, at any rate, if not to the female population of his school. In last night's episode, the class got sent off on a geography trip. Cue lots of Jolly-Boys-style misdemeanors and school-level smut.

Bit by bit, the series has plenty to recommend it. The acting's strong, especially from half-dozen or so main players. And it's properly funny, too. But - well, what to say? - it's just not Skins. There's no sex (aside from a failed attempt at fumbling from their teacher "paedo Kennedy"), no drugs (just a half-bottle of vodka that Will seems to think can be shared between - get this - the whole class). And, crucially, there's none of that knuckle-gnawing self-importance that characterises most teen show. Which, perhaps, is the problem: instead of laughing with the characters, we're laughing at them, at their naiveté, their youth. In fact, it's almost impossible to avoid the feeling that it has been written for adults, or, if not for adults, then by adults without much memory of adolescence. Most teenagers don't view themselves as quite the humorous bundle of awkwardness and charm that they seem here. That's something you develop later, a convenient way off shrugging of your own humiliating youth. Or maybe not, perhaps retrospect, like padded bras and pregnancy, arrives earlier with each generation.

Alice-Azania Jarvis, The Independent, 3rd April 2009

A deserved hit when series one was shown last year, this sitcom returns for a second season. Revolving around four teenage lads who are neither cool nor popular, it's like a nerd's version of Skins. When new girl Lauren (Jayne Wisener) joins the school, Will (Simon Bird) makes a play for her but, embarrassingly, finds she prefers Simon (Joe Thomas).

Simon Horsford, The Telegraph, 2nd April 2009

New series of the award-winning comedy about a group of awkward teens. Outrageous parties, drug-propelled japes and endless sexy romps. Frustration, boredom and unrequited crushes. The first is the Skins view of a teenager's life, the second is pretty much what everyone else experiences and is also the perspective of this sparkling comedy. In tonight's opener, Will and his mates expect a field trip to include success with Charlotte, the new girl at school. Wrong!

What's On TV, 2nd April 2009

Taking the place of Skins in the yoof slot, but not as archly/implausibly cool, The Inbetweeners returns for a second series. This is a show about the sort of kids who were in all of your classes but you can't remember them when they add you on Facebook. This first episode features two of school's most exciting events: a field trip and the arrival of a new girl. The geography trip to Swanage does nothing to enthuse the lads; the opposite is true of shiny new student Lauren. Will takes an immediate shine to her but it turns out she only has eyes for Simon. Such is life. Pervy jokes and pervier teachers mean that after watching this you'll be laughing - and longing for that crush from class 2B.

TV Bite, 2nd April 2009

Now that Skins has finished, and hopefully gone off to give itself a good talking to about the ratio of attention it gives to the bad characters and the good ones, E4 has gone all comedy-obsessed on a Thursday.

The highlight of this new(ish) line-up is, of course, The Inbetweeners. Whereas Skins shows us the lives of the cool kids very few of us ever were, this show features the more normal (i.e. hopelessly inept) teenagers we've all known and most of us have been. The first series was an unexpected delight (because it was hindered by the worst trailer in the history of television), and this second series will hopefully continue in the same vein.

For the uninitiated, we follow Will, Simon, Jay and Neil, four schoolboys who must be about 17 (but look older) as they fail at education, romance and life in general. Lovingly observed yet very, very funny, this show is the perfect reminder that the teenage years are not all about hot sex in wardrobes, underground hip-hop gigs and glamourous proms - they are also about insecurity, awkwardness, bumbling about and looking like a tit.

Low Culture, 2nd April 2009

Share this page