The Inbetweeners (series 2)
The second series of E4 coming-of-age television sitcom The Inbetweeners began broadcasting on 2 April 2009. The entire series was directed by Ben Palmer and was written by the programme's creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris. The series follows the misadventures of suburban teenager 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, friendship, male bonding, lad culture and largely failed sexual encounters.
The Inbetweeners | |
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Series 2 | |
Starring | |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Release | |
Original network | E4 |
Original release | 2 April – 7 May 2009 |
Series chronology | |
Episode one of the second series averaged 958,000 viewers,[1] with another 234,000 viewers watching an hour subsequently through the time-shift channel, translating to it having been watched by 1.2 million viewers, the highest audience of 2009 for the network.[2] The programme won "Best Comedy Show" at the 2009 TV Quick & TV Choice Awards, "Best TV Show" at the 2010 NME Awards, the "YouTube Audience Award" at the 2010 British Academy Television Awards and "Best Situation Comedy" at the 2010 Rose d'Or Awards. Furthermore, Bird won "Best Television Comedy Actor" at the 2009 British Comedy Awards, and the programme was also nominated for "Best Situation Comedy" at the 2009 British Academy Television Awards, "Best Situation Comedy" at the 2010 British Academy Television Awards and Bird was nominated for "Best Male Performance in a Comedy Role" at the same awards ceremony.
Cast and characters
Main
Recurring
- Greg Davies as Mr Gilbert
- Emily Head as Carli D'Amato
- Henry Lloyd-Hughes as Mark Donovan
- Emily Atack as Charlotte Hinchcliffe
- Belinda Stewart-Wilson as Polly McKenzie
- Robin Weaver as Pamela Cooper
- Martin Trenaman as Alan Cooper
- David Schaal as Terry Cartwright
- Victoria Willing as Mrs Cartwright
- Alex Macqueen as Kevin Sutherland
- John Seaward as John Webster
Episodes
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) | |
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7 | 1 | "The Field Trip"[3] | Ben Palmer | Damon Beesley & Iain Morris | 2 April 2009 | 1.21 | |
As the new term begins in January, the boys are going on the annual Geography and Sociology field trip to Swanage, which Jay claims is home to a renowned MILF who has sex with one male pupil from the trip on each occasion. Although Neil does not study either of the subjects, he is allowed to come along after agreeing to help Mr Kennedy, a teacher who many believe to be a paedophile. The boys arrive early to secure seats at the back of the coach, but are quickly forced to move by Donovan when he arrives. Will finds himself with a stroke of luck when he ends up sat next to Lauren Harris, a pretty new girl whom he is instantly attracted to. Despite his efforts to win her over, Lauren instead finds herself attracted to Simon, partly due to Will's social ineptitude and jealousy. Upon arrival at Swanage, Jay and Neil unsuccessfully try to find the alleged MILF by asking questions to random women in the street, passing them off as school surveys, which ultimately results in Jay getting slapped in public. Later that night, Neil brings a bottle of Vodka to the room, given to him by Mr Kennedy after the two went swimming during the day, which is soon taken by Donovan when they try and bring it to a party being held in his room nearby. Lauren then arranges to meet up with Simon the following day during some free time, which Simon accepts, only for Carli to do the same thing the next day. Simon selfishly dismisses his arrangement with Lauren and accepts Carli's offer instead, which Will uses as a chance to take an upset Lauren out on a boat that he hired for the afternoon. Whilst preparing the boat and waiting for Lauren, Will is found by Jay, Neil, and Simon, who encourage him to take them all out on the boat before Lauren arrives, which he eventually does despite initial refusal. A number of unfortunate incidents occur, including Simon falling into the water and developing hypothermia, Neil accidentally catching and killing large fish, and the boat itself abruptly breaking down, leaving the boys stranded within the harbour. Jay panics, carelessly setting off an emergency flare in the process. They are all soon towed back to shore in front of many people, including other pupils on the field trip, and left humiliated as a result. Soon after the field trip, it is revealed Lauren moved away and left the school. | |||||||
8 | 2 | "Work Experience"[4] | Ben Palmer | Damon Beesley & Iain Morris | 9 April 2009 | 1.18 | |
It is Valentine's Day and Jay is showing off a number of cards he supposedly received, each with sexually explicit messages inside, which Will and Simon instantly suspect are all fakes written by Jay himself. Simon, however, receives a genuine card from Hannah Fields, a girl in the year below, though remains keen to ensure Carli doesn't find out. Will later catches up with Charlotte, to whom he sent a card and a bouquet of flowers, and she invites him along to keep her company at an under-18s disco which she will be supervising that Friday. Mr Gilbert soon arrives and hands out the confirmation of everyone's work experience placements; Jay has set him and Simon up at his father's plant hire, whilst Will's request to be placed at a local newspaper is mixed up with Neil's request to work at a local car garage. Mr Gilbert refuses to swap the placements due to his hostile attitude and active disliking of Will, and Will is thus forced to attend the garage. Though his colleagues Jim, Wolfie, and Steve greet him cheerfully on his first day, he quickly develops a negative relationship with them after branding the workplace "dirty" and "not academic", and is subsequently thrown into a lake by them as a prank. When they later mock his lack of sexual success, Will pretends that Charlotte is his girlfriend, telling lies about how he had sex with her multiple times among other things, and reveals he will be meeting her that night at the under-18s disco. Wolfie claims that he will be able to attend and find out if Will is telling the truth, revealed to be just 17 years old despite looking much older. At the disco, Simon meets Hannah Fields, who secretly offers him alcohol before passionately kissing him and giving him a handjob. The others quickly feel uncomfortable when watching it, and it is ultimately cut short when Simon is attacked by Danny Moore, a much younger and aggressive pupil who Simon accidentally bumped into the previous day. Danny pushes Simon to the floor and repeatedly kicks him in the groin before being escorted away by the bouncers. Hannah, embarrassed to see Simon beaten up by a much younger kid, decides to leave. The boys then witness Danny speaking to a group of tough-looking young men and start panicking; Will rushes to find Charlotte for help, only for Wolfie to arrive as soon as he finds her. Wolfie relays all of the things that Will said about Charlotte which she immediately dismisses as lies, angrily throwing a drink at Will's face and branding him a "nasty little virgin". Will then asks Wolfie for help, but he refuses and leaves, forcing Will to ring his mother to come and pick him and the others up as a last resort. They all hide in the toilets until she arrives; when she does, it is announced across the entire building, causing the disco crowd to burst out laughing. | |||||||
9 | 3 | "Will's Birthday"[5] | Ben Palmer | Damon Beesley & Iain Morris | 16 April 2009 | 1.05 | |
When the boys meet up in the school common room, Jay shows the others a flyer for a party being held by Louise Graham that weekend. Simon is pleased to see that they have been invited to their first cool party, but Jay reveals that he merely stole it from another pupil's bag, suggesting they try to sneak in. Will then reminds them that the party clashes with his sophisticated 17th birthday dinner which he arranged a month ago, eventually persuading them to attend that instead. The boys all attempt to find dates for Will's dinner, only to discover that most of the popular and attractive girls are going to Louise's party, including Will's love interest, Charlotte, who merely signs off mid conversation when Will invites her over instant messaging. A frustrated Simon is also forced to look after his French exchange student Patrice, who Will insists is also invited to the party. Will's birthday arrives and his mother Polly, who incorrectly assumes the legal age to drive is eighteen and so continues to save for Will's driving lessons, gives Will an unflattering black vest that she thinks makes him look cool. Though Will strongly dislikes it, he reluctantly accepts it to avoid upsetting his mother and promises to wear it that night. The night does not get much better as his friends arrive at the dinner party that evening with no girls; Simon too nervous to invite his love interest Carli and Jay claiming that his supposed date had to fly to Paris for a modelling job, which the others refuse to believe. They consequently try to invite some girls Jay and Neil passed in the street, only to find them binge drinking and revealed to be just 11–13 years old. The girls aggressively brand them paedophiles and the boys quickly leave, Will noticing an unpaid stripper that Jay and Neil had booked arguing with Polly when they return home. His party ruined, Will finally gives in and agrees to go to Louise's party instead. Upon arrival, Louise refuses to let them in because the house is full, though is quickly attracted to Patrice and so brings him inside whilst shutting the others out. Still desperate to get in, they ultimately climb over Louise's fence, bar Will who crawls through a small gap, inadvertently passing through and covering his jacket in dog faeces in the process. A bemused Louise then reveals that her not inviting them was simply due to her not knowing them very well, but finally allows them to stay providing Will removes his dirty jacket, exposing the vest beneath and inviting ridicule from the other partygoers. Will promptly searches the house for Charlotte, soon finding her and Patrice in a bedroom upstairs having sex together. He leaves angrily, receiving a brief respite from the bad day when Donovan turns up looking for Charlotte. Will reveals that she is upstairs and is left satisfied by the prospect of Patrice getting beaten up by the psychopathic school bully. When they leave the party, they are again spotted by the same group of drunken young girls; one of them promptly sends her older brother chasing after the boys with a cricket bat. | |||||||
10 | 4 | "A Night Out in London"[6] | Ben Palmer | Damon Beesley & Iain Morris | 23 April 2009 | 1.02 | |
Will decides the boys need to develop a good social reputation, suggesting one option is to regularly go clubbing in central London. Jay and Neil agree, but Simon is reluctant to do so, worried about the dangers of London late at night. He is later persuaded to go after Neil says that he has a car and will happily drive the group down to the capital. Simon then invites Carli and her friend Rachel to go with them; they accept, with Will believing that Rachel fancies him after briefly speaking to her. As the boys prepare for the night out, Neil presents his new car, only to inform them that it doesn't have an engine and that he thought the plan was for him to drive Simon's car despite not being insured to do so. An enraged Simon berates Neil for his idiocy, but the prospect of going clubbing with Carli eventually persuades him to drive. As they head down, Jay jokingly shouts "bus wankers!" at a group of people waiting at a bus stop, and Neil, desperate to use the toilet, eventually urinates into an empty beer can before cutting his glans penis on it. When they arrive in London that evening, Jay again shouts "bus wankers!" at several people waiting at a bus stop, oblivious to the traffic ahead which forces Simon to stop the car just seconds after. Two tough looking men from the bus stop then walk over, briefly throttling Simon through the window as he apologise several times in fear, which Jay and Neil later mock him over. After searching for a parking space for over an hour, Simon reluctantly parks in front of a shutter door where a clamp warning is posted, persuaded to do so after Jay insists that clamping rules are different on weekends and when Will warns him that Carli will lose interest in going clubbing with him if he turns up too late. Upon arrival at the club, Simon is refused entry due to wearing trainers, and so desperately tries to fix the situation by swapping them for a homeless man's dirty, urine-stained shoes, which allows him entry into the club. Both he and Will's 'dates' go badly, with Rachel enjoying the company of another man and demanding Will to leave them alone, and Carli left disgusted by Simon after finding out that his shoes are soaked with urine and taken from a homeless person. Neil spends a lengthy amount of time trying to painfully urinate in the toilets with his cut penis, groaning awkwardly whilst doing so, and is eventually thrown out of the club after being suspected of masturbating; consequently, the boys all decide to go home. Once they return to Simon's car, they find it has been clamped by the man whose garage door they blocked, with him angrily demanding £200 compensation for the car having prevented him from using his van to make business deliveries. The boys hide in the car as the man, quickly losing his temper, angrily screams at them whilst shaking the car violently. | |||||||
11 | 5 | "The Duke of Edinburgh Awards"[7] | Ben Palmer | Damon Beesley & Iain Morris | 30 April 2009 | 1.21 | |
Will is selected to run the school's Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme; though pleased, he is told by Mr Gilbert that he was chosen because he is a virgin. Although Jay refuses to sign up, Neil and Simon agree to do so when they hear of some of the potential activities involved. However, much to their frustration, Will merely signs them up for care work at a local retirement home to fulfil one of the course's first modules, organising it alongside his former babysitter Daisy, who works at the home herself. Will promptly develops a crush on Daisy, and eventually persuades her to go on a date with him after he volunteers himself and his friends to cover multiple shifts for her so that she can attend her closest friend's hen do. However, Simon later informs Will that he can longer be part of it, instead needing to spend time with his father after his parents have a trial separation. As a last resort, Will reluctantly offers payment to Jay if he covers Simon's shifts, and Jay agrees. Will then covers Daisy's overnight shift by himself, but is left extremely tired the next day and ultimately falls asleep in the school common room. Jay and Neil then take the opportunity to put hair removal cream down Will's trousers as a prank, causing his pubic hair to fall out in the shower later that day. Will worries what Daisy will think if he manages to have sex with her and, following awful advice from Simon, stuffs the wig of a female resident of the home down his underpants almost immediately before his date. After he and Daisy have dinner together, a tipsy Daisy kisses Will and asks him to return home with her. She begins kissing and fondling Will on the bed, much to his delight, but soon finds the wig in Will's pants. Will explains that he has no pubic hair, which leads a guilt ridden Daisy to believe that he is prepubescent and thus far too young for sex. The next day, Will tries to explain the truth, but Daisy is left too embarrassed and somewhat ashamed to talk to him. Eventually bored watching the elderly residents, Jay sneaks off to a seemingly empty bedroom to masturbate, doing so over a picture of a young woman in a bikini. However, he panics upon ejaculating when an elderly woman in a nearby bed turns the light on and cheerfully greets him. The photo is revealed to be the woman when she was younger; her son soon arrives and politely shakes Jay's hand, inadvertently covering his own in Jay's semen. All four boys are kicked off the course and reprimanded by Mr Gilbert as a result. Will promptly refuses to pay Jay for covering Simon's shifts due to his actions getting them removed from the course and ruining Will's chances of having sex with Daisy. | |||||||
12 | 6 | "Exam Time"[8] "End of Term" | Ben Palmer | Damon Beesley & Iain Morris | 7 May 2009 | 1.21 | |
All the boys face their upcoming exams as the first year of sixth form is coming to an end. Will is overworking himself and relying on energy drinks and caffeine pills to keep him awake when revising, whilst Simon and Neil dismiss their revision altogether: Simon instead helping Carli revise for her A-Level Geography exams as another effort to win her affections, and Neil repeatedly playing Pro Evolution Soccer, which he considers ideal revision for his PE exam. Meanwhile, Jay finds himself smitten by his first genuine girlfriend, grammar school girl Chloe, whom he treats with great respect. During their first revision session, Carli tells Simon that she has split up with her boyfriend Tom and, in their next session, kisses and promises to join him at a local pub for an end-of-term celebratory drink as an act of gratitude. Will's revision efforts continue to go horribly wrong, leaving him confused over anything he reads and later over the meanings of basic words. Simon suggests he get more sleep and stop drinking energy drinks, but Will refuses, insisting that they help. Jay soon becomes increasingly paranoid over Chloe's sex life, fearing that it has been more successful than his own. Following advice from his father, he sends her countless messages via SMS, Facebook, Bebo, and Myspace each day as an attempt to keep track of where she is at all times. When the exams begin, both Simon and Jay are too distracted with their love lives to do any work, whilst Neil forgets his PE kit and so is forced to carry out physical activities in his underpants. As a result of drinking energy drinks so frequently, Will begins to develop gastrointestinal problems and ultimately soils himself during his final exam. He meets the others at the pub hours after they arrive, wearing tracksuit bottoms from lost property and resigning himself to having likely failed the exam entirely. After telling the others what happened, he begins getting drunk on lager to forget his awful day. Meanwhile, Simon and Jay end up dumped by their respective girls: Carli arrives at the pub with Tom and announces they have got back together, whilst Chloe, frustrated by Jay's frequent calls and messages, tells him that he is too sensitive and needy for her. Jay bursts into tears as Will comforts him, and the boys promptly leave the pub and drive home. As they do, Simon, Jay, and Neil issue new insulting nicknames for Will relating to his incident in the exam, which he fears will always be remembered by the other students. |
References
- French, Dan (3 April 2009). "New 'Inbetweeners' draws 958,000 for E4". Digital Spy. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
- Rogers, Jon (3 April 2009). "The Inbetweeners makes 1.2m laugh". Broadcast. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
- "1: The Field Trip". E4. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
- "2: Work Experience". E4. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- "3: Will's Birthday". E4. Retrieved 16 April 2009.
- "4: A Night Out in London". E4. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
- "5: The Duke of Edinburgh Awards". E4. Retrieved 1 May 2009.
- "6: Exam Time". E4. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
External links
- The Inbetweeners – list of episodes on IMDb