Well, let's get the gag in before everybody else. Typical. You wait ages for a sitcom set in a school and then three come along in quick succession. We've just had David Walliams camping it up big style in Big School, we are about to get Greg Davies getting us to call him Sir in C4's Man Down. And in the middle here comes Jack Whitehall being wonderfully entertaining as the seriously hapless but rather loveable Alfie Wickers at Abbey Grove Comprehensive.
Out of the two desk-based comedies I've seen so far Bad Education easily tops the table, passing with flying colours when it comes to laugh-count, which is what you really want in a sitcom after all. While Big School homes in on the teachers the emphasis here is largely on Alfie's relationships with his ragbag of pupils. He might lust after colleague Miss Gulliver (played by the brilliantly versatile Sarah Solemani) but it's his class, for all their faults and inability to hand in homework on time, that he really cares about.
I'm not saying he would take a grenade for them but in the first episode, in which his rabble competes in a swimming gala – "group trip to Nando's on me" if they win, he promises – Alfie does dive off the top board, despite a serious chlorine allergy. Before that though there are plenty of gags taking in hashtags, bumming, Baywatch and Jimmy Savile – fairly inevitable tropes but delivered with insouciant style. The result is bloody childish but bloody funny.
Although Whitehall is clearly the star this is actually very much an ensemble comedy and while the cast is not quite as starry as Big School's A listers Mathew Horne is in full effect as hopelessly unhip head Mr Fraser. Watch out for a memorable flaming set-piece and a pair of Fraser's trainers that are so day-glo you should put on sunglasses before you see them or they may burn your retina. Michelle Gomez as stern Miss Pickwell is also on top form, although the combination of her appearance and some stop-start mid-scene clippage does occasionally evoke the spirit of Green Wing.
Oh, did I mention Alfie's haircut? It's hilarious. Whitehall's dive off the top board certainly looks genuine and you get to see his bum, but I doubt if his commitment to comedy would have gone as far as to really have his hair cut into that bowlcut from hell.
Bad Education starts on BBC3 at 10pm on Sept 3, but will be available on iPlayer from August 27. Sign up to the free beyondthejoke weekly newsletter on the right here. Gold stars for everyone who does it today.
