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The Inbetweeners

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The Inbetweeners
File:TheInbetweeners.jpg
Title card
Written byDamon Beesley[1]
Iain Morris[1]
Directed byGordon Anderson
Ben Palmer
Damon Beesley
Iain Morris
StarringSimon Bird
Joe Thomas
James Buckley
Blake Harrison
Opening themeMorning Runner – "Gone Up in Flames" (instrumental)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageTransclusion error: {{En}} is only for use in File namespace. Use {{lang-en}} or {{in lang|en}} instead.
No. of series3
No. of episodes18 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducerChristopher Young
Production locationLondon
Running time21 minutes
Production companyBwark Productions[2]
Original release
NetworkE4
Release1 May 2008 (2008-05-01) –
present (present)

The Inbetweeners is a BAFTA award-winning British sitcom which aired between 2008 and 2010 running three series for the television channel E4. Written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, the show follows the life of suburban teenager Will (Simon Bird), who left a private school to go to Rudge Park Comprehensive due to his recently-divorced mother's financial troubles.

The show has been nominated for 'Best Situation Comedy' at BAFTA twice, in 2009 and 2010. At the British Academy Television Awards 2010, it won the Audience Award, the only award voted for by viewers.[3]

History

Beesley and Morris, a former stand-up comedian, met as producers on Channel 4's The 11 O'Clock Show. Following posts as commissioners at Channel 4, where Morris shepherded Peep Show, the two launched their own company, Bwark Productions, in 2004 and landed their first series with Inbetweeners.[4]

E4 originally aired the first series in May 2008, and Channel 4 also broadcast it in November that year.

The second series began screening in the United Kingdom on 2 April 2009 and finished on 7 May 2009. A third series was commissioned by E4, commencing on 1st September 2010[5][6] and ending on 18 October 2010. The first episode of the third series had the highest-ever audience for an E4 original commission.[7]

According to the cast of the show, a fourth series is unlikely as the show will have run its course after series three.

A film version set sometime after the third series is currently being produced, and will see the cast on holiday in Malia, Crete.[8]

Cast

Main article: List of The Inbetweeners characters

Main Characters

Will McKenzie

Will McKenzie (Simon Bird) is the protagonist character who serves as the show's narrator. His parents have recently divorced, and due to his mother's financial troubles, he is moved from his priveleged private school education to the Sixth Form at Rudge Park, a local comprehensive school. His mother, Polly, attributes the move to bullying rather than her own financial issues. Initially Will fails at making friends when he begins at Rudge Park (due to his "gay hair", "clumpy shoes" and "actual briefcase") and has an instant dislike taken to him by the formidable head of Sixth Form, Mr. Gilbert (Greg Davies), as well as psychopathic school bully, Mark Donovan. But after several attempts to win their friendship, Simon, Jay and Neil eventually warm to him and accept him into their friendship group. Throughout the first series, Will's successes and failures include buying alcohol illegally, calling Neil's dad a "bumder", and organising and hosting a Christmas prom at the school. In one episode of Series One, Will is the love interest of Charlotte 'Big Jugs' Hinchcliffe - the school's most popular and attractive girl - whom he lies to about not being a virgin. The two very nearly take part in sexual intercourse, but Charlotte is let down by Will's unsuccessful attempt, which he describes in his own words as "rubbing up against the perineum". In Series Two, Will is sent to work at a local garage for his work experience placement, due to a technical error (he was originally assigned to work for the local newspaper publisher, since he has ambitions to work in law or media). He also enters himself and the boys for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, where they voluntarily work at a retirement home - but it is discovered that the real reason behind it is so that Will can date Daisy, an attractive older girl who works at the home. His chances with Daisy are ruined after she discovers the wig of one of the retirement home's pensioners down his pants (after Jay and Neil poured hair removal cream down his pants when he fell asleep), and they are later kicked off the course when Jay is found masturbating in the bedroom of one of the residents. At the end of the second series, when the boys face exams, Will began to crack under pressure and relies on energy drinks to keep him going. This leads to him soiling himself in his final exam, and after sitting it several hours late, he goes to the pub and gets very drunk, compensating for the fact that he has probably failed his Politics AS level. In Series 3, Will is convinced into going on a double date with Simon, Tara, and Tara's friend, Kerry (or "Big" Kerry according to Will). He is repulsed by her presence as she is taller, a bit ditzy and boring; however once he hears how she is infamous for giving oral sex to her last few boyfriends, he agrees to take part in it. They unexpectedly share a kiss when Kerry escorts him back home, which gives her the impression that they are now courting. At Neil's birthday party, Will can no longer pretend and tells her that they're not really going out, which devastates her and causes a dramatic misunderstanding among Neil's relatives. As a result, Will is told to leave by Neil's dad who reports the incident to his mother, subsequently grounding him for three weeks for "doing nothing wrong."

Simon Cooper

Simon (Joe Thomas) becomes good friends with Will after initially avoiding him due to his "actual briefcase", "clumpy shoes" and "gay hair". His first task of the new term is showing Will to his classes – a task assigned by the head of sixth form, Mr Gilbert. Simon is the oldest of the group and was the first to learn how to drive, having passed his practical test (in dubious circumstances) before Christmas. His father bought him a small, yellow Fiat Cinquecento Hawaii – Simon, his friends and others think the car is highly embarrassing and a horrible colour. It lost its passenger side door due to a reversing incident at Thorpe Park, but in series two the door has been replaced, albeit with a red one. Moreover, the most unfortunate feature of the car is that it has a tape deck. His parents briefly split up for an episode of Series Two, but they had reconciled by the end of the episode. Simon has a crush on his childhood friend Carli D'Amato since she was eight, an interest which becomes more apparent throughout the series. Despite many pathetic attempts to show her his feelings – such as spray painting "I Love Carly D'Amato" on her driveway – for a long time she did not reciprocate, partly due to having a boyfriend, but in the final episode of the second series: "Exam Time", Carli seemed interested in Simon after she split up with her boyfriend and they end up kissing while studying for A-Levels at Simon's house. Carli agreed to meet Simon at the local pub for a post-exam drink, but when she arrived it was revealed she had reconciled with Tom, her boyfriend. In Series 3, Simon takes part in the school fashion show, but embarasses himself and Carli when he walks along the catwalk in Speedos with his bare testicle visible. In Series Three, Simon begins dating Tara, with whom he went to a concert and smoked marijuana. In 'Will's Dilemma' he is seen receiving a handjob from Tara at Neil's party (this was after Neil had given consent, loudly saying "Don't spunk on the sheets!" in an elderly relative's presence). Simon is perhaps the most neurotic of the group, especially when in discussions with his family, where he frequently overreacts to gentle goading and even kindly advice. In the last episode, the boys play a phone game where they have to send embarrassing messages to anyone on their phonebook. Simon later receives a text back from Carly that leaves him with a smile, which suggests she feels the same way as Simon, and shows there is more in store for him and Carly. His car is left in a lake in the last episode with the "honk if you want a blow job" sticker on the back. Simon never gets his car back.

Jay Cartwright

Jay (James Buckley) is obsessed with sex, with almost all his comments being about the subject. He frequently lies and exaggerates about his experiences – sexual and otherwise – often making crude comments about girls/women in general and offering highly questionable 'advice' to his friends. His dad contradicts Jay's claims in an often bullying nature, claiming Jay is very unsuccessful with women (this is likely the source of Jay's obsession). At the end of the first series, he opens up to John, admitting that many of his stories are somewhat exaggerated because he is worried that people don't notice him, and that he is afraid of being ignored. In the final episode of the second series "End of Term", Jay finally gets a girlfriend called Chloe and he is more interested in her than for just sex; he genuinely has feelings for her. Following his dad's advice, he begins texting her and messaging her over the Internet frequently, and this leads her to dump him at the end of the episode, citing that he is too sensitive and needy for her. Jay attempts to twist this into him dumping her when the rest of the gang find him crying, but as per usual, they don't believe him. In series 3, we can see Jay can now drive (albeit incredibly carelessly, confusing whose right of way it is, and only on a provisional license), calling his red Nissan Micra 'The Mingemobile'. He is very confident in his own abilities, although none of his friends believe any of his outlandish claims. We see in Series 3, Episode 5 ('Home Alone') that Jay has a dog called Benji who is mixed breed terrier, who was eventually put down in the same episode. Jay claims that he has played for West Ham and always wears football shirts. Jay also likes motorbikes although in Series 3, Episode 3 ('Will's Dillema), Neil gets a new motorbike and because Neil broke his wrist, Jay had to ride it and crashes. In the final episode of series 3, it is briefly touched upon that Jay was involved in homoerotic activities with a "weird neighbour" (age unspecified) when he was young - and Jay's Dad reveals (in a text) that Jay went to see a psychologist when he was younger.

Neil Sutherland

Neil (Blake Harrison) is known to be the slow member of the group. He takes part in the school's version of Blind Date; winning an unwanted date with Susie. He works at Thorpe Park, and reveals that he used to work at Asda. Due to his slow nature, he is often the only person who believes Jay's outrageous stories, and often fails to pick up the sarcasm in Will's comments. His friends often tease and question the sexuality of his divorced father, Kevin, but both he and his father strongly deny these rumours. He has, along with Simon, passed his driving test and also owns a car, but he is yet to drive it as it does not have an engine. Despite his slow nature, Neil is known to end up with sexual encounters with various seen and unseen female characters on the show, eventually ending up with chlamydia (which he is actually happy about, since he assumed her text saying 'the test was positive' meant that she was pregnant).

Episodes

Main article: List of The Inbetweeners episodes

Episodes of the first, second and third series can be viewed by United Kingdom and Irish viewers through Channel 4's service, 4oD,[9] YouTube's Shows program and are also available on SeeSaw. Individual episodes are also available to purchase and download for registered users of the UK iTunes Store.[10]

Film

Main article: The Inbetweeners (film)

In September 2009, Beesley and Morris confirmed that a film had been commissioned by Film4.[11] The plot will revolve around the four boys, now eighteen years old, going on holiday to Milport. Shooting for the film began in August 2010 on location in Margate.[12]

Location

The Inbetweeners is filmed in various locations, largely in and around Ruislip, west London, predominantly at Ruislip High School, but also in surrounding areas such as Harrow, Edgware, Pinner in west London, Watford, Abbots Langley and St Albans (Hertfordshire), Dartford in Kent, Finchley and Whetstone in north London.[13] Notably, Ruislip High School is not a Sixth Form school. Most of the students in the series are either actual students from the school (who at the time of Series 1 were in year 7, seeing as the school only opened in 2006) or paid actors. The first episode of the second series, set in Swanage in Dorset was actually filmed on location in the West Sussex coastal town of Littlehampton.[14] The advertisement for the third series of The Inbetweeners was filmed at London Academy, Edgware.

Music

The opening theme tune to The Inbetweeners is "Gone Up in Flames" by English rock band Morning Runner. The first series also features music by Rachel Stevens, The Maccabees, Air Traffic, Calvin Harris, The Ting Tings, Arctic Monkeys, Theaudience, Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, General Fiasco, Gorillaz, Hot Chip, Belle & Sebastian, Field Music, Jamie T, The Libertines, Rihanna, The Fratellis, Jack Peñate, Guillemots, The Feeling, Kate Nash, The Wombats, The Jam, The Cure, Lily Allen, Mumm-Ra and Feist.[15] The second series also featured Oasis, Biffy Clyro, Passion Pit, Royworld, MGMT, Maximo Park, and The Cribs. A full list can be found on the E4 website.

Worldwide broadcasting

BBC America began airing The Inbetweeners from 25 January 2010.[16] The network aired both existing series as a single 12 episode television season.

Iain Morris and Damon Beesley have been asked by the American Broadcasting Company to produce a pilot for a US version of the series. They will be head writers for the project. The network has given Morris and Beesley a second blind script commitment for a future project the two will create. Both projects will be made at ABC Studios.[4]

In 2010, The Inbetweeners started airing in Australia on the Nine Network's digital channel GO!, on Super Channel in Canada, on the comedy channel TV4 Komedi in Sweden, on TV2 in New Zealand, on MTV Latin America and on yes Next in Israel.

Reception

The first series began on 1 May 2008, with the pilot episode garnering 238,000 viewers.[17] The series averaged 459,000 viewers,[18] with 474,000 viewers watching the series finale.[19] The Inbetweeners received two nominations at the British Comedy Awards; the show was nominated for "Best New British Television Comedy (Scripted)" and Simon Bird was nominated for "Best Male Comedy Newcomer".[20] Both won their respective categories.[21] The show was also voted by the British Comedy Guide website as the "Best New British TV Sitcom 2008".[22] It was nominated for "Best Situation Comedy" at the British Academy Television Awards 2009,[2] ultimately losing out to The IT Crowd.[23] It then won the Audience Award at the British Academy Television Awards 2010.[3]

The first episode of series two, which aired on E4 at 10 pm (BST) 2 April 2009, averaged 958,000 viewers,[17] with another 234,000 viewers watching at 11 pm on the time-shift channel E4+1 meaning it was watched by 1.2 million, the highest audience of 2009 for E4.[19]

Joe McNally, writing for The Independent, commends an "exquisitely accurate dialogue, capturing the feel of adolescence perfectly"[24] and Will Dean of The Guardian comments that the show "captures the pathetic sixth-form male experience quite splendidly".[25] The series is often contrasted with E4's successful Teen drama, Skins; commentators have offered that "The Inbetweeners' portrayal of dull suburbia is closer [than Skins] to the drab teen years most of us spent, rather than the decadent time we wished we spent."[26]

Episode one of series three aired on 13 September 2010 on UK digital terrestrial network E4, attracting a record breaking overnight average audience of 3.6m viewers (12.5% audience share) in its 10 pm slot, the highest ever viewing figure for a show screened on the channel.[7]

DVD releases

The Inbetweeners Series 1 was released on DVD on 2 June 2008. Series 2 was released on DVD on 18 May 2009. Series 3 is to be released on DVD on 25 October 2010. a Series 1-3 DVD will also be released on 25 October 2010. All of the DVDs received an 18 certificate.

Ratings

Series 1

Air Date Episode Viewers[27] E4
Rank
1 May 2008 First Day 240,000 -
1 May 2008 Bunk Off 600,000 #8
8 May 2008 Thorpe Park 305,000 #10
15 May 2008 Girlfriend 436,000 #8
22 May 2008 Caravan Club 432,000 #6
29 May 2008 Xmas Party 422,000 #7

Series 2

Air Date Episode Viewers
(millions) 		E4
Rank
2 April 2009 The Field Trip 1.21 #1
9 April 2009 Work Experience 1.18 #1
16 April 2009 Will's Birthday 1.05 #1
23 April 2009 Night Out in London 1.02 #1
30 April 2009 The Duke of Edinburgh Awards 1.21 #1
7 May 2009 Exam Times 1.21 #2

Series 3

Air Date Episode Viewers
(millions) 		E4
Rank
13 September 2010 The Fashion Show 3.46 #1
20 September 2010 The Gig and the Girlfriend 3.34 #1
27 September 2010 Will's Dilemma 3.57 #1
4 October 2010 The Trip to Warwick 3.62 #1
11 October 2010 Home Alone 3.72 #1
18 October 2010 The Camping Trip 3.3 #1

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b Deacon, Michael (27 March 2009). "Interview: Simon Bird and Joe Thomas on The Inbetweeners". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  2. ^ a b Nissim, Mayer (24 March 2009). "BAFTA TV Awards 2009: The Nominees". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  3. ^ a b "The Thick Of It dominates Baftas". BBC News. 6 June 2010. Cite error: The named reference "Ant and Dec win first ever Bafta" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b "The Hollywood Reporter". The Hollywood Reporter. 17 October 2008. Retrieved 18 June 2009. [dead link]
  5. ^ "The autumn hot list 2010 – 11. The Inbetweeners". The Observer. London. 29 August 2024. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
  6. ^ "The Inbetweeners set to return for third series". CoventryTelegraph.net. 2 September 2010. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  7. ^ a b Blunkett, John (14 September 2010). "The Inbetweeners pulls highest-ever audience for an E4 original commission". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  8. ^ "The Inbetweeners". 9 September 2009.
  9. ^ "What's on Channel 4 on Demand: The Inbetweeners". Channel 4. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
  10. ^ Bwark Productions Ltd. "The Inbetweeners., Series 1" (note: Requires iTunes software with UK iTunes Store). iTunes Store. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
  11. ^ "Channel 4 develops film of The Inbetweeners". Retrieved 11 September 2009.
  12. ^ "The Inbetweeners film is on as Simon Bird ends pay row". The Sun. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
  13. ^ "The Inbetweeners - 2010*". Kent Film Office.
  14. ^ Deacon, Michael (27 March 2009). "Interview: Simon Bird and Joe Thomas on The Inbetweeners". Telegraph. London. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
  15. ^ "The Inbetweeners Soundtrack". amazon.co.uk.
  16. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (25 January 2010). "Dreams of a Teenage Loser". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
  17. ^ a b French, Dan (3 April 2009). "New 'Inbetweeners' draws 958,000 for E4". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  18. ^ West, Dave (5 June 2008). "E4 takes second series of 'Inbetweeners'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
  19. ^ a b Rogers, Jon (3 April 2009). "The Inbetweeners makes 1.2m laugh". Broadcast. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  20. ^ "The Nominees 2008". British Comedy Awards. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
  21. ^ "The Winners 2008". British Comedy Awards. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
  22. ^ "British Comedy Guide Awards 2008". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 19 January 2009.
  23. ^ "Bafta TV Awards 2009: The winners". BBC Entertainment. BBC. 26 April 2009. Retrieved 26 April 2009.
  24. ^ McNally, Joe (19 May 2008). "You Write The Reviews: The Inbetweeners". The Independent. London: Independent News & Media. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
  25. ^ Dean, Will (8 May 2008). "Sitcom surbubia with spots". The Guardian. London: Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
  26. ^ Dean, Will (3 April 2009). "The Inbetweeners is more realistic than Skins". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
  27. ^ Weekly Top 10 Programmes. Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. Retrieved on 17 June 2009.

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