There was a time when the transfer of a British sitcom from the television to cinema screen was pretty common.
Steptoe, Dad’s Army, Are You Being Served?, Love Thy Neighbour and George and Mildred all made the transition with varying degrees of success.
Now it’s the turn of Channel 4’s The Inbetweeners, the puerile, hilarious runaway hit comedy series about four teenage lads in suburbia.
A word of caution, if you haven’t seen the TV show you really should do so before seeing the film because, unlike most big screen spin-offs, the film isn’t a reboot, a re-telling or an origins story, it’s the continuation of the gang’s story as told on TV.
Without giving anything away, the plot has the four lads taking their ongoing quest to lose their virginities and get drunk to Greece. What follows is 97 minutes of very funny, cringe inducing comedy that you’ll find yourself watching from between your fingers.
Though on paper the plot sounds like a sort of Kevin and Perry Go Large affair, writers Damon Beesley and Iain Morris have delivered a film which far exceeds that earlier tale of horny teens on holiday.
For their part, stars Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison continue to throw decorum out the window as they deadpan though gags likely to make even the most hardy of fans go ‘eeeeeeww!’.
Is there scope for more from the gang? The film seems to draw their story to an end and, though there’s no hard finale, it’s difficult to see how the writers could progress the story further. What we hopefully have here is a fantastic finale to a great TV show.
If you enjoyed the TV series you will love this film, if you didn’t you really should consider grabbing yourself a sense of humour!
The Inbetweeners Movie from August 17th
BUY THE INBETWEENERS ON DVD FROM AMAZON.CO.UK, at the THE SEENIT.CO.UK STORE or from HMV