Alfie Wickers teaching a sex education class – what could possibly go right?
With attractive exchange students arriving at the school and worries about the teenagers getting into trouble, a sex education class is required leading Alfie into more trouble than usual.
After a strong start, ‘Bad Education’ is still right on track with irreverent humour, squirm inducing situations (usually involving Alfie) and hilarious performances. Jack Whitehall seems to be playing a naughty version of Matt Smith and his comedy timing is bang on leading to some absolutely brilliant moments of mirth. Sure, it is often puerile comedy and they don’t shy away from the more obvious or controversial jokes but there is an air of innocence about it all that somehow makes it acceptable. With the beginning of the episode featuring Alfie and Joe writing rude graffiti on a toilet wall, the scene was set for some fairly immature gags and with the end of the episode resulting in a discussion about sex you may think that it is perhaps not for those who are looking for intellectual comedy but it is still deliciously funny.
As Alfie and Joe took revenge on Pickwell for her nasty comments they were accosted by school bully Grayson who took a photo of them coming out of the female toilets. In order to stop Grayson putting the photo on Twitter, Alfie bought him Cider to maintain his silence. Fraser was still getting into trouble with his attempts to be a cool guy and even confused where the exchange students were from, leading to an embarrassing welcome.
Due to a series of pregnancies the year before after the exchange program, the parents of the students are looking to the teachers to properly educate the teenagers on all matters sexual. Each teacher seems to have their own method of communicating the intricacies of sex education with astonishing results. The spotlight was on Alfie to provide some quality teaching and the parents were invited along to see exactly how the sex education classes were going. Considering the fact that Alfie was unable to even mention some of the names of sexual organs and was examining books in the library to ensure that he had all of the names right, it was never going to end well for the hapless twenty something. Desperate to impress, Alfie convinced Joe to announce that he is gay in order that Alfie would appear sensitive to his student’s feelings but Joe’s sudden change of heart led to a misunderstanding with Alfie accidentally revealing that he bought Cider for a student and a surprising revelation about his own sexual history. The parents were horrified and Fraser’s attempts to calm the situation led to Alfie being sent on the exchange program with Grayson after helping Joe get out of the exchange.
With lots of mischievous humour, double entendres and the usual confusion of a good sitcom, ‘Bad Education’ is really turning out to be a success for BBC Three. Regardless of the immature humour of the show, Jack Whitehall should be proud of a comedy that encapsulates everything comedic about the transition between teenage life and adulthood – despite the fact that Alfie Wickers hasn’t quite made that transition yet himself. The trend of teenage comedy seems very popular these days but this show really does, for me, seem to stand head and shoulders above the rest. Looking forward to more anarchic amusement from the terrible teacher next week.
