The Inbetweeners Explained

Narrated:Simon Bird
Opentheme:"Gone Up in Flames" (instrumental) by Morning Runner
Composer:Marsha Shandur
Country:United Kingdom
Language:English
Num Episodes:18
List Episodes:List of The Inbetweeners episodes
Producer:Christopher Young
Runtime:22–25 minutes
Channel:E4
Num Series:3
Related:The Inbetweeners Movie
The Inbetweeners 2

The Inbetweeners is a British coming-of-age television teen 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 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 adolescent sexuality. Despite receiving an initially lukewarm reception, it has been described as a classic and amongst the most successful British sitcoms of the 21st century.[1]

The programme was 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 category voted for by the public.[2] In the 2011 British Comedy Awards, the programme also won the award for Outstanding Contribution to British Comedy.

The Inbetweeners Movie was released on 17 August 2011 to box office success, and a sequel followed on 6 August 2014.[3] An American version was broadcast on MTV, but was quickly axed after low ratings and poor critical reception.

History

Damon Beesley and Iain Morris 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 The Inbetweeners.[4] A pilot for the programme was produced in 2006 under the direction of James Bobin titled "Baggy Trousers".[5]

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 UK on 2 April 2009 and finished on 7 May 2009. A third series was commissioned by E4, commencing on 13 September 2010[6] [7] and ending on 18 October 2010. The first episode of the third series had the highest-ever audience for an E4 original commission.[8] Following the conclusion of the third series, the cast and crew of the programme indicated that there would be no fourth series as the programme had run its course, but that an Inbetweeners movie would be produced, set some time after the third series and following the cast on a holiday in Malia, Crete, Greece.

For Red Nose Day 2011, the stars of the programme travelled around the UK in the yellow Fiat Cinquecento Hawaii featured in the programme in a special named The Inbetweeners: Rude Road Trip. The aim was to try to find the 50 rudest place names in the country.

In November 2018, it was announced that a special retrospective programme featuring the cast would be aired to mark the 10th anniversary of the programme's first airing in 2008.[9] It was called Fwends Reunited and was broadcast on 1 January 2019; it was poorly received by critics and fans of the series, leading to James Buckley making a public apology.[10]

In June 2020, the content on its YouTube channel was removed, due to the licensing rights changing owners.[11]

Cast

See main article: List of ''The Inbetweeners'' characters.

Main cast

The four main characters are seen in every episode as well as the 2011 and 2014 films. They consist of:

Recurring characters

Episodes

See main article: List of ''The Inbetweeners'' episodes. The three series can be viewed in many countries through Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. Channel 4's catch-up service All 4 also carries it in the UK and Ireland, alongside featurettes "Top Ten Inbetweeners Moments" and "Fwends Reunited".[21]

Music

The opening theme tune to The Inbetweeners is an instrumental version of "Gone Up in Flames" by English rock band Morning Runner. The first series also features music by Rachel Stevens, Tellison, Paolo Nutini, The Maccabees, Air Traffic, Calvin Harris, The Ting Tings, Arctic Monkeys, Theaudience, The Fratellis, Vampire Weekend, The Drums, Two Door Cinema Club, Take That, Mystery Jets, Kid British, Phoenix, General Fiasco, Gorillaz, Hot Chip, Belle and Sebastian, Field Music, Jamie T, The Libertines, Rihanna, Oasis, Jack Peñate, Guillemots, The Feeling, Kate Nash, The Wombats, The Jam, The Cure, Lily Allen, Mumm-Ra, Kylie Minogue and Feist.[22] The second series also featured instrumentals of Adele, Supergrass, Biffy Clyro, Passion Pit, Royworld, MGMT, Maxïmo Park, and The Cribs and the third series also featured instrumentals of Ludacris and Mr Understanding by Pete and the Pirates. A full list can be found on the E4 website.A soundtrack album, The Inbetweeners Soundtrack, was released in 2009.

The music was chosen by the music supervisor and then Xfm DJ Marsha Shandur.

Reception

Critical reception

The Inbetweeners received generally positive reviews from television critics. At Metacritic, the first season earned a score of 73 out of 100, based on 7 reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".[23]

Joe McNally, writing for The Independent, commends "exquisitely accurate dialogue, capturing the feel of adolescence perfectly",[24] and Will Dean of The Guardian comments that the programme "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]

The series since its airing has gained a cult following.[27] [28]

Ratings

The first series began on 1 May 2008, with the pilot episode garnering 238,000 viewers. The series averaged 459,000 viewers,[29] with 474,000 viewers watching the series finale. The Inbetweeners received two nominations at the British Comedy Awards; the programme was nominated for "Best New British Television Comedy (Scripted)" and Simon Bird was nominated for "Best Male Comedy Newcomer".[30] Both won their respective categories.[31] The programme was also voted by the British Comedy Guide website as the "Best New British TV Sitcom 2008".[32] It was nominated for "Best Situation Comedy" at the British Academy Television Awards 2009,[33] ultimately losing out to The IT Crowd.[34] It then won the Audience Award at the British Academy Television Awards 2010.[35]

The first episode of series two, which aired on E4 at 10 pm (BST) 2 April 2009, averaged 958,000 viewers,[36] 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.[37]

Episode one of series three aired on 13 September 2010 on UK digital terrestrial network E4, attracting a record breaking overnight average audience of 2.6m viewers (12.5% audience share) in its 10 pm slot, the highest ever viewing figure for a programme screened on the channel until 2011 when Glee beat the record. For this series, it was moved to Monday instead of Thursday but kept its 10pm slot.[8]

Awards

Worldwide broadcasting

BBC America began airing The Inbetweeners from 25 January 2010.[38] The network aired both of the first two series as a single 12-episode series. The same was done by MTV Latin America.

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. In Israel, yes Next aired the first two series, while the third series airdate is unknown. The three seasons came in 2012 to HOT VOD. In 2011, the series was premiered in Brazil on I.Sat and on 13 August 2013 the Brazilian streaming site "Muu" premiered the British production.

On 28 February 2011, The Inbetweeners started airing in France on MCM.[39]

The Australian channel ABC2 aired the programme from 8 January 2015.[40]

CountryNetwork(s)Premiere
E4/Channel 41 May 2008
MTV Latin America23 July 2010
GO!
UKTV
ABC2
2010
2011
2015
JIM2010
MTV Brasil
I.Sat
2010 (MTV Brasil)
2011 (I.Sat)
Super Channel2010
MTV Latin America2010
Yle TV22012
MCM
NRJ12
28 February 2011
RÚV2012
Comedy Central (India)2012
E4/Channel 4
RTÉ Two
1 May 2008
9 January 2012
yes Next2010
MTV Italy2010
TV4 Komedi2010
Veronica
MTV Netherlands
6 December 2011
2012
TV2
UKTV
2010
NRK 3Summer 2011
MTV Portugal2010
2x231 October 2011
3XL2010
BBC America25 January 2010

Home media

All of the DVDs received an 18 certificate in the United Kingdom and MA15+ in Australia due to their high number of strong language, crude humour and strong, frequent, sex references. The theatrical version of The Inbetweeners Movie received a 15 certificate in the United Kingdom, with the extended cut release receiving an 18 certificate.

Subsequent media

Films

See main article: ''The Inbetweeners Movie'' and ''The Inbetweeners 2''.

In September 2009, Beesley and Morris confirmed that a film had been commissioned by Film4.[41] The plot revolves around the four boys, now eighteen years old, going on holiday to Malia, Greece.[42] It was released in cinemas on 17 August 2011[43] with a 15 certificate in the UK. The original film was also released in the United States on 7 September 2012, it was very successful. From a budget of £3.5 million, the film made a global box office of over £57 million.[44]

At the beginning of August 2013, creators Iain Morris and Damon Beesley confirmed that a second Inbetweeners film would be made with a planned release date of 6 August 2014 in the UK and Ireland; they released a statement saying "We couldn't be more excited to be making another Inbetweeners movie. A new chapter in the lives of the Inbetweeners feels like the very least we can do to thank the fans for their phenomenal response to the first movie." This sequel is set in Australia.[45]

Books

There have been two books released:

U.S. version

See main article: ''The Inbetweeners'' (American TV series). In 2008, Iain Morris and Damon Beesley were asked by ABC to produce a pilot for a US version of The Inbetweeners. The pilot was not picked up by the network, but they have given Morris and Beesley a second blind script commitment for a future project which the two will create.[4]

On 31 March 2011, it was announced that MTV had ordered a 12-episode first season for a U.S. version of The Inbetweeners. A pilot episode, written by Brad Copeland, was given the green light in September 2010. Copeland also serves as executive producer on the series along with Beesley and Morris.[46] The series ran for one season from 20 August to 5 November 2012, before being cancelled by MTV due to low ratings.[47]

The US version began airing in the UK on 5 December 2012 on E4. A UK DVD release of the US version was released on 8 January 2013.[48] The US version was broadcast on Viacom-owned Freeview channel Viva from 4 August 2014.[49]

Fwends Reunited

On 1 January 2019, Channel 4 broadcast a 10th anniversary special entitled 'Fwends Reunited', hosted by Jimmy Carr. The four lead actors were present alongside supporting cast members; the title is a reference to a joke within the episode Will Gets a Girlfriend.

The special itself was a chat show with multiple segments including a quiz with four fans of the show, a history of the programme's production hosted by Neil Oliver, and awards based on the programme's best characters and moments. The special was met with a mostly negative reception from critics and fans alike; criticism from general viewers was primarily aimed at it being a simple chat show when a number of fans had mistakenly anticipated it as being a one-off special episode.[50]

The Independent noted the "overwhelmingly negative responses" the special received, which included criticism from viewers towards the host Jimmy Carr, viewers claiming the four actors appeared clearly uninterested in the special, while there was also disappointment that they were not given a chance to speak more.[51] Michael Hogan of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it a "shambolic mess that failed to do the show justice",[52] although a more positive review came from Sean O'Grady of The Independent, who considered it "full of nostalgia".[53] The extensive criticism led to James Buckley issuing an apology through Twitter.[54]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Aroesti . Rachel . 1 May 2018 . Puerile, provincial and prophetic: how the Inbetweeners became a classic . The Guardian . 7 April 2023.
  2. News: The Thick Of It dominates Baftas . BBC News . 6 June 2010.
  3. News: The Inbetweeners 2 smashes UK box office records. The Daily Telegraph. 7 August 2014. Jacob. Stolworthy.
  4. Web site: The Hollywood Reporter . The Hollywood Reporter . 17 October 2008 . 18 June 2009 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081020062006/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i602dec9570e51e548a0a5ce7885c215c . 20 October 2008 .
  5. Web site: Meet the "lost" Inbetweener: how Darcy Thomas landed the part of "the original Jay" and what he's up to now. 31 May 2017. Morgan. Jeffrey. Digital Spy. 24 January 2021.
  6. News: The autumn hot list 2010 – 11. The Inbetweeners . 29 August 2010 . The Observer. 30 August 2010 . London.
  7. Web site: The Inbetweeners set to return for third series . CoventryTelegraph.net . 2 September 2010 . 5 September 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110723055213/http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/ladslounge/2010/09/the-inbetweeners-set-to-return.html . 23 July 2011 . dmy-all .
  8. News: Blunkett. John . The Inbetweeners pulls highest-ever audience for an E4 original commission . 14 September 2010 . The Guardian . London . 14 September 2010.
  9. https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-11-14/the-inbetweeners-10-year-anniversary-special-channel-4-reunion/ The Inbetweeners cast reunite for 10 year anniversary special
  10. https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-12-28/when-is-the-inbetweeners-fwends-reunited-on-tv/ When is The Inbetweeners: Fwends Reunited on TV?
  11. Web site: Harp . Justin . Channel 4 denies The Inbetweeners' YouTube channel was taken down over causing "offence" . Digital Spy . 14 June 2020 . 11 June 2020.
  12. Web site: The British Comedy Awards – The British Comedy Awards.
  13. Web site: The British Comedy Awards – The British Comedy Awards.
  14. Web site: Programme Awards Winners 2008 | Royal Television Society . 25 January 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150208210837/http://www.rts.org.uk/winners-rpa?term_node_tid_depth=122 . 8 February 2015 .
  15. News: The Inbetweeners Movie – review . London . The Guardian . Steve . Rose . 17 August 2011.
  16. Web site: 7 September 2012. Inbetweeners Movie' review: Dweebs on holiday. 15 July 2020. SFGate.
  17. News: 25 May 2018. Check out the real life partners of The Inbetweeners cast – Daily Feed. 15 July 2020. Daily Feed. Feed . Daily .
  18. Web site: 28 December 2011. Television Awards Winners in 2011. 17 July 2020. BAFTA.
  19. Web site: The British Comedy Awards 2010 Winners and Nominees. 17 July 2020. The British Comedy Awards.
  20. Web site: RTS Programme Awards 2011. 17 July 2020. Royal Television Awards. 16 March 2011.
  21. Web site: What's on Channel 4 on Demand: The Inbetweeners. Channel 4. 22 March 2009.
  22. Web site: The Inbetweeners Soundtrack . amazon.co.uk.
  23. Web site: The Inbetweeners (UK). metacritic.com.
  24. News: You Write The Reviews: The Inbetweeners. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/you-write-the-reviews-the-inbetweeners-830515.html . 18 June 2022 . subscription . live. McNally. Joe. 19 May 2008. The Independent. Independent News & Media. 22 March 2009 . London.
  25. News: Sitcom surbubia with spots. Dean. Will. 8 May 2008. The Guardian. 22 March 2009 . London.
  26. News: The Inbetweeners is more realistic than Skins . The Guardian . London . Will . Dean . 3 April 2009 . 25 May 2010.
  27. News: Russell . Akilah . 15 November 2018 . The Inbetweeners are to reunite for one-off anniversary show – and cult following is delighted . i News . 17 July 2024.
  28. News: 18 January 2011 . Rude trip: Inbetweeners seek out Britain's smuttiest place names for Comic Relief . Manchester Evening News . 17 July 2024.
  29. Web site: E4 takes second series of 'Inbetweeners'. West. Dave. 5 June 2008. Digital Spy. 22 March 2009.
  30. Web site: The Nominees 2008. British Comedy Awards. 22 March 2009.
  31. Web site: The Winners 2008. British Comedy Awards. 22 March 2009.
  32. Web site: British Comedy Guide Awards 2008. British Comedy Guide. 19 January 2009. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090124231055/http://comedy.org.uk/features/bcg_awards/2008. 24 January 2009.
  33. Web site: BAFTA TV Awards 2009: The Nominees. Nissim. Mayer. 24 March 2009. Digital Spy. 3 April 2009.
  34. News: Bafta TV Awards 2009: The winners . 26 April 2009. BBC Entertainment. BBC. 26 April 2009.
  35. News: The Thick Of It dominates Baftas . BBC News . 6 June 2010.
  36. Web site: New 'Inbetweeners' draws 958,000 for E4. French. Dan. 3 April 2009. Digital Spy. 3 April 2009.
  37. Web site: The Inbetweeners makes 1.2m laugh. Rogers. Jon. 3 April 2009. Broadcast. 3 April 2009.
  38. News: Dreams of a Teenage Loser . The New York Times . Neil . Genzlinger . 25 January 2010 . 25 May 2010.
  39. Web site: The Inbetweeners. allocine.fr.
  40. Web site: The Inbetweeners. ABC Television.
  41. Web site: Channel 4 develops film of The Inbetweeners. 11 September 2009.
  42. E4 Inbetweeners Movie Application Page http://www.e4.com/inbetweeners/film-application.html
  43. Internet Movie Database The inbetweeners https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1716772/
  44. Web site: The Inbetweeners Movie (2011) . Box Office Mojo. 10 May 2014.
  45. News: Reynolds. Simon. The Inbetweeners 2 trailer is here: The gang go Down Under. 10 May 2014. Digital Spy. 9 May 2014.
  46. Web site: MTV Picks Up 'Inbetweeners' To Series. Deadline. Andreeva. Nellie. 31 March 2011. 1 April 2011.
  47. Web site: 'The Inbetweeners' Canceled by MTV. https://web.archive.org/web/20121202073215/http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/11/28/the-inbetweeners-canceled-by-mtv/159552/. dead. 2 December 2012. TV by the Numbers. Bibel. Sara. 28 November 2012. 6 December 2012.
  48. Web site: The Inbetweeners US [DVD]. Amazon.co.uk. 6 December 2012.
  49. Web site: TVGuide.co.uk – The Inbetweeners US (The First Day) . TVGuide.co.uk. 3 August 2014.
  50. Web site: Last's Nights Inbeweeners Reunion Show P*ssed of a lot of fans. Joe. Wil. Jones. 2 January 2019.
  51. News: James Buckley apologises after negative response to The Inbetweeners reunion special. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/the-inbetweeners-jay-james-buckley-twitter-reunion-special-watch-channel-4-a8708726.html . 18 June 2022 . subscription . live. The Independent. Clémence. Michallon. 2 January 2019. 3 January 2019.
  52. News: The Inbetweeners: Fwends Reunited was a shambolic mess that failed to do the show justice – review. 1 January 2019. Michael. Hogan. Daily Telegraph.
  53. News: The Inbetweeners: Fwends Reunited review – School reunion is full of nostalgia, and poo jokes. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/inbetweeners-fwends-reunited-review-channel-4-greg-davies-jimmy-carr-simon-bird-a8706366.html . 18 June 2022 . subscription . live. 2 January 2019. Sean. O'Grady. The Independent.
  54. News: Inbetweeners star feels 'hated' after reunion show backlash. BBC News. 2 January 2019. 3 January 2019.