# Hilarious British TV show about a group of friends in high school - what's the name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 22, 2010, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049 "2010-12-22T06:42:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wheresmymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@wheresmymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheresmymind)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/1 "2010-12-22T06:42:35Z")
A few months back there was a marathon on BBC America of this hilarious show about a group of guys in high school. I watched about 6 episodes on a friends couch while nursing a hangover, and have been trying to find the name of the show ever since. Please tell me it’s available on DVD in the US! In it a pretty dorky, uptight kid from a well-to-do family gets sent to public school for some reason (perhaps his dad left?). He quickly befriends a couple of social misfits and hilarity ensues. A few things I remember from the show: A running gag on how hot (“fit” in British parlance) the protag’s mom is. An episode where one of the gang gets an embarrassingly yellow car, they take it to an amusement park where it gets a door sheared off in the parking lot. One of the gang has a crush on a very attractive girl who’s been a friend of the family for years. He gets sickly drunk, tells her he loves her, and vomits all over the kid she’s babysitting. The gang skips school, manages to purchase some booze, and gets drunk. A very hot/popular/promiscuous girl starts dating the protag, but he is heartbroken when he discovers he’s only being used to make her old BF jealous. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/2 "2010-12-22T07:03:58Z")
I’d suggest “The Young Ones” but you said the show you’d seen was funny. ---
**Author:** ![williambaskerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@williambaskerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williambaskerville)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/3 "2010-12-22T07:06:29Z")
> [@wheresmymind](#): > > A few months back there was a marathon on BBC America of this hilarious show about a group of guys in high school. I watched about 6 episodes on a friends couch while nursing a hangover, and have been trying to find the name of the show ever since. Please tell me it’s available on DVD in the US! > > In it a pretty dorky, uptight kid from a well-to-do family gets sent to public school for some reason (perhaps his dad left?). He quickly befriends a couple of social misfits and hilarity ensues. A few things I remember from the show: > A running gag on how hot (“fit” in British parlance) the protag’s mom is. > > An episode where one of the gang gets an embarrassingly yellow car, they take it to an amusement park where it gets a door sheared off in the parking lot. > > One of the gang has a crush on a very attractive girl who’s been a friend of the family for years. He gets sickly drunk, tells her he loves her, and vomits all over the kid she’s babysitting. > > The gang skips school, manages to purchase some booze, and gets drunk. > > A very hot/popular/promiscuous girl starts dating the protag, but he is heartbroken when he discovers he’s only being used to make her old BF jealous. That sounds awfully like “The Inbetweeners”. > **[The Inbetweeners](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inbetweeners)** > > The Inbetweeners is a British coming-of-age television sitcom, which originally aired on E4 from 2008 to 2010 and was created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris. The series follows the misadventures of suburban teenager William (Will) McKenzie (Simon Bird) and his friends Simon Cooper (Joe Thomas), Neil Sutherland (Blake Harrison) and Jay Cartwright (James Buckley) at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive. The programme involves situations of school life, uncaring school staff, frie... And to correct your terminology :- the school he left was a “public school” (yes, his father left),which was actually private and fee paying, and the school he went to was a public school, which was actually public and free. (Don’t ask me, it’s a British thing :- I’m Irish). ---
**Author:** ![wheresmymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@wheresmymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheresmymind)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/4 "2010-12-22T08:35:46Z")
Yes, thank you! That’s definitely it. I’m aware of the paradoxical meaning of “public school” in Britain (Eton is a public school IIRC), but didn’t think of it when I posted. Elfkin - I actually enjoy an episode of The Young Ones from time to time, but can only stand so much of Vivian’s constant screaming. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/5 "2010-12-22T11:01:12Z")
Definitely _Inbetweeners_- if you like that, you may also like [_Misfits_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misfits_(TV_series)), which is about a group of young offender doing community service who get superpowers- sort of the anti-_Heroes_. Funny, gritty, and definitely not going to be seen on a US network station any time soon. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/6 "2010-12-22T11:07:12Z")
Another vote for the excellent Misfits, a lot darker and edgier than Inbetweeners, but equally enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![Baboonanza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@Baboonanza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baboonanza)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/7 "2010-12-22T13:47:16Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#): > > Another vote for the excellent Misfits, a lot darker and edgier than Inbetweeners, but equally enjoyable. And also incredibly silly, it knows exactly what it’s doing that show. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/8 "2010-12-22T18:09:10Z")
By the sounds of it you saw the third series, which whilst funny was inferior to the first and second. Which means you are in for a treat when you see the first and second. They said that they were not going to do any more shows but there would be a film, but they now seem to have relented and there will be two one-off specials next year. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/9 "2010-12-22T19:27:02Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > By the sounds of it you saw the third series, which whilst funny was inferior to the first and second. > > Which means you are in for a treat when you see the first and second. No he saw the first 2 series. BBC America ran the first two series (12 episodes) in a row. They did not show the 3rd series, as at the time it had not yet aired in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/10 "2010-12-22T21:20:46Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > No he saw the first 2 series. BBC America ran the first two series (12 episodes) in a row. They did not show the 3rd series, as at the time it had not yet aired in the UK. Weird. I was convinced the Thorpe Park episode was in the third series. Turns out it was episode three of series one. I watched them all again (in a weekend) in the run up the third series starting, so clearly I got confused somewhere. In other words, don’t listen to me. I am talking shite. ---
**Author:** ![wheresmymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@wheresmymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheresmymind)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/11 "2010-12-24T05:02:29Z")
Bah! It doesn’t appear to be available on region 1 DVD… Might have to get an import and borrow an ausie friend’s laptop… ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/12 "2010-12-24T11:38:01Z")
> [@williambaskerville](#): > > And to correct your terminology :- the school he left was a “public school” (yes, his father left),which was actually private and fee paying, and the school he went to was a public school, which was actually public and free. (Don’t ask me, it’s a British thing :- I’m Irish). Nitpick - he left an independent school (private and fee paying) to go to a state school (non-fee paying, run for the public). Public school doesn’t refer to all independent school, just a very small number of them (i.e. Eton, Winchester, Westminster School for Boys etc). ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilarious-british-tv-show-about-a-group-of-friends-in-high-school-whats-the-name/565049/13 "2010-12-24T11:55:51Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > Nitpick - he left an independent school (private and fee paying) to go to a state school (non-fee paying, run for the public). > > Public school doesn’t refer to all independent school, just a very small number of them (i.e. Eton, Winchester, Westminster School for Boys etc). Indeed. I went to a private school and occasionally at university my friends would try and wind me up by claiming I was a public schoolboy.