The Inbetweeners

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!'

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.

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.

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.

The Inbetweeners is more realistic than Skins

The Inbetweeners' portrayal of dull suburbia is closer to the drab teen years most of us spent, rather than the decadent time we wished we spent.

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).

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!

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.

Simon Bird Interview

The London Paper talks the star of The Inbetweeners.

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.