Bad Education

Series two, episode one
Jack Whitehall’s hapless teacher Alfie, the indomitable deputy head Miss Pickwell (Michelle Gomez) and master of the one-liners Grayson (Jack Bence) are back for a new term at Abbey Grove, where kids and staff are as gleefully caricatured as ever. That’s gleefully in the proper sense of the word, not in the ‘Glee’ sense, where the caricatures might be more subtle but the lines are a lot less funny.

Plotwise, everything centres around Alfie’s ongoing infatuation with Miss Gulliver and a swimming competition, with the two strands fusing beautifully in a rip-roaring conclusion. But the plot is throwaway, something to hang a load of laugh-out-loud, knowing one-liners on, as delivered by a deft cast that breezes through them.

Chuck in a load of cultural references that anyone aged ten to 30 will easily get, and star and writer Jack Whitehall can put his feet up and relax. Job done. Grayson’s withering ‘Oi, Mumford & Sons called. They want their gay one back!’ to Whitehall’s Alfie stood out for us, but there are so many more. As far as school sitcoms go, ‘Bad Education’ is top of the class.