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 becoming, for many, an industrial irritant with his standup and presenting, Jack Whitehall is finding things work better when he sticks to his strengths. Like Jude Law before him, Whitehall only really excels when playing an upper class twit and here he gives it his all. This week, sex ed rears its head when the Mumsnet-obsessed parents find the school is running several pretty offensive and inappropriate activities - the faculty's insistence that their Next Top Model competition is open to even "Dove advert-y" types does little to placate matters.

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.

Bad Education review

It's just unfortunate that nothing about Bad Education works that well. It feels like it's been created from a ready-made template, so lacks a sense of vibrancy, and even as a cock-eyed version of reality it struggles.

Bad Education produced bad TV

Does the new BBC3 sitcom Bad Education live up to old favourites Teachers and Educating Essex? Teacher Mike Britland delivers his verdict on a new comedy exploring life within the classroom.

The first episode kicked off with hapless teacher Alfie Wickers trying to get into the good books of the headteacher while gearing up for parents evening, where he has to break the bad news that all his pupils have failed their mock exams.
Jack Whitehall gives a good physical comedy performance throughout - twitching, gurning and blinking his way through foppish stances in a beige cardigan that could easily achieve cult status. However the really funny performances came courtesy of the supporting cast.

Matthew Horne was delightfully cringeworthy as Wickers' colleague Fraser; Jack Binstead as Rem Dogg and Ethan Lawrence as Joe made a double act that it'd be good to see more of in upcoming episodes; and Jack Bence's Grayson gets the medal for the best line of the show: 'You learn to defend yourself when you're the only kid in the playground with a Sadé ring tone'. More of him as well, please.

The attempts at gags came thick and fast - attempts, that is - but often they ended up falling flat. One 'joke' involving a Chinese student called Jing who speaks mostly in her native tongue (a running gag clearly lifted from American Dad), is made to sport an oriental headband in a lesson on Pearl Harbour. You can see the punchlines coming from a mile off.

While the inclusion of social networking was a nice touch (follow Whitehall's Wickers on @Alfie_Wickers - no tweets as yet, though) ridiculous Alfie just irritated.

'Shut up, Downton Abbey' spat the school bully at one point. Can't help but agree.

In school sitcom Bad Education, writer Jack Whitehall reworks his toff slacker student JP from Fresh Meat as toff slacker teacher Alfie. So it won't persuade you that Whitehall isn't a one-trick pony but who cares? It's a funny trick. It also has the wonderful Michelle Gomez, of Green Wing fame, as Alfie's ball-breaking deputy head, stealing every scene she's in with just a flare of her mighty nostrils.

Bad Education review: Young Whitehall shows promise

There was certainly pressure on Jack Whitehall to deliver and with a backdrop as familiar as a secondary school there was a real chance that Bad Education would fail. Fortunately, it's a triumph with believable characters and just enough one-liners to ensure it remains pacey and laugh-out-loud funny.

Bad Education - Episode 1.1 review

Well, it's funny... but not hilarious. It certainly has its flaws.

Bad Education - review

Blow me if it wasn't really affectionate and funny. If you have a childish streak, if you're the kind of person who still misses The Inbetweeners, then this might be for you.