No school comedy would be complete without an excruciating sex education class and Jack Whitehall doesn't disappoint. As hapless history teacher Mr Wickers he wriggles and squirms and clearly yearns to crawl under a desk away from the pitying gaze of his worldly-wise pupils. The only person more immature is the head (Mathew Horne in a hilariously hideous wig) who befuddles his staff and enrages parents with his senseless slang. There hasn't been a sitcom this masterfully puerile since The Inbetweeners.

It's not just the presence of (the slightly underused) Michelle Gomez that has us thinking of Green Wing in relation to this very funny school sitcom. People with serious jobs behaving in ridiculous and irresponsible ways is a comedy staple. And Jack Whitehall and, particularly, the revelatory Mathew Horne have struck gold here. Tonight, sex education is on the agenda as the impending arrival of a horde of carnally voracious French exchange students concentrates the minds of staff and parents alike. But is self-styled 'Sex Yoda' Alfie (Whitehall) quite the man for the job? 'I've been sitting in my room, getting to know my penis,' he announces to a roomful of horrified students. If it didn't feel like damning with faint praise, we'd call this one of the best comedies BBC3 has ever screened.

Following on from the surprise that Jack Whitehall can actually act (Fresh Meat), we now get the chance to see if he can write in this new BBC Three sitcom, Bad Education. Judging by this opening episode, the jury's out.

Whitehall also stars in Bad Education, as a feckless secondary school teacher, surrounded by a mixture of odd staff and bosses, as well as somewhat cliché students. You can't help but think that Whitehall is trying to cram every minority and stereotypical student into his classroom, ranging from camp, bullies, unfit fat kids, wheelchair-bound, flirtatious, and intellectual oriental.

He seems to have fallen into the trap of making his own character the number one priority, while almost forgetting to flesh out all the others. The headmaster, played by Mathew Horne, comes across as an over-progressive idiot; Whitehall's love intereste (Sarah Solemani) is a bit too innocent; and the stern and frightening deputy head (Michelle Gomez) is like a less surreal - and less funny - version of Sue White from Green Wing.

There were odd moments of mirth, like Whitehall's Pearl Harbour history lesson, but I think the only reason this could possibly get a second series is because of the star name attached to it.

After the first five minutes of Bad Education, right after the ­Abbey Grove School sexpot started flirting with useless teacher Alfie Wickers, I stopped this Jack Whitehall comedy to dig out my DVD of Please Sir!, the 1960s classic where such a scene was played out weekly involving John ­Alderton and Penny Spencer. Sharon Eversleigh! You were ever-present in my double-physics daydreams with your Cremola Foam pout and your wet-look boots. So the rest of Bad Education was going to have to be good, and mostly 
it was.

Mr Wickers is the kind of teacher who gets his trainers nicked by the school bully, forcing him to continue lessons in purple Crocs retrieved from Lost & Found. He'll say things like "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - that's Shakespeare, Chantelle" and the super-intel­ligent Chinese girl will have to correct him: "It's actually from the Bible, you idiot."

Mathew Horne's headmaster will chime with anyone who ever had to endure a teacher trying to be "down with the kids"; Michelle Gomez is the soor-ploom-faced deputy who's got it in for Mr Wickers. Their scenes together are the best thing about Bad Education. When she burst in on his classroom, everyone asleep including our hero, he desperately tried to rescue the situation thus: 
"...and that is how quiet Anne Frank and her family had to be to evade capture by the Nazis."

Whitehall plays a posh balloon - the kids nickname him 'Downton Abbey' - not unlike 
his character in Fresh Meat. He may only have one trick but it's a good one.

No school comedy would be complete without an excruciating sex education class and Jack Whitehall doesn't disappoint. As hapless history teacher Mr Wickers he wriggles and squirms and clearly yearns to crawl under a desk away from the pitying gaze of his worldly-wise pupils. The only person more immature is the head (Mathew Horne in a hilariously hideous wig) who befuddles his staff and enrages parents with his senseless slang. There hasn't been a sitcom this masterfully puerile since The Inbetweeners.

More school-based humour as comedian Jack Whitehall stars as a hapless teacher straight out of training college in this infectious new comedy. Alfie (Whitehall) seems to have more in common with his pupils - who treat him with both affection and derision - than his fellow teachers. With a fierce deputy headmistress (Michelle Gomez) forever looking for an excuse to fire Alfie, it's just as well that the bonkers headmaster (Mathew Horne) is more tolerant. Alfie's chief quest, however, is to go on a date with the biology teacher (Sarah Solemani).

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