David Walliams, Catherine Tate, Frances De La Tour, Joanna Scanlan, Philip Glenister and that bloke form the BT adverts. You can’t fault the cast of Big School, which returns for a second run. The challenge is making something mainstream enought for primetime BBC1 but still interesting enough so that the talented performers don’t sleepwalk through it. 

The first series, set in the bustling Greybridge School, was pretty bland but I think co-writers David Walliams and The Dawson Brothers have got a bit closer this time round as the actors have settled into their fictional skins. There are a few changes too. Philip Glenister’s unreconstructed PE Trevor Gunn is now a geography master, even though he clearly doesn’t know the difference between tectonic plates and dinner plates.  

While everyone has their own little storylines which weave in and out of each other, the main action still revolves around Walliams as Keith Church pursuing Catherine’s Tate’s Sarah Postern. This seemed frankly ridiculous in the first series so it will be interesting to see how the second series tackles it. 

Elsewhere there are nice touches. Joanna Scanlan’s drama teacher is called Janine Klebb, presumably a nod to Rosa Klebb, the vicious killer in From Russia With Love. And I do like Frances De La Tour’s wine box-glugging headmistress Ms Baron, who sets out her disciplinary style to the assembly early on: “Cross me and I will destroy you”  – she is talking to the pupils, not the other teachers here.

I don’t know if this is just me though, but most sitcoms these days seem to owe a debt to The Office. The influence was there in pirate radio comedy People Just Do Nothing and the spirit of Wernham Hogg raises its head here a few times too. First when music teacher Luke, aka Daniel Rigby, that bloke from the BT adverts, reveals his obviously doomed pop star aspirations with a very Brentish speech and song and then during Keith's hapless role play session at Sarah's new careers workshop.

But after the disappointing could-do-better first series, Big School does seem to be finding its feet. The performances are all good and committed and there are some proper jokes. It may not be the most ground-breaking of comedies, but then this is BBC1 on a Friday night, We can hardly expect Big School to rewrite the sitcom book. Though a little more tweaking would be nice. 

Big School, 9.30pm, Fridays from August 29.