Coming Of Age

Coming Of Age Review

Ladies and Gentlemen, I know I've said this before, but this time, I mean it. I've seen the worst TV show ever transmitted in broadcast history. Imagine the most tawdry, lazy, vapid, vacuous show you've ever seen and then multiply by a million. If you can imagine that, then you're about a third of the way to understand just how dismal Coming Of Age is.

Another Negative Review

Getting a 19-year-old to write a sitcom reflecting the lives of young people is a good idea. Letting him (Tim Dawson) get away with something that plainly doesn't work is a very, very bad idea. There seems to be no point in the piloting process if the channel controller picks one of the weakest entries for a full run and then makes it a lot less funny than the original.

Coming Of Age may be the worst BBC Three sitcom yet. It is, like most of the channel's output, supposedly aimed at teenagers, even written by one (19-year-old Tim Dawson), but I refuse to believe that even the easiest-to-please teenager is happy to accept something so horribly written, horribly acted and horribly vulgar in lieu of actual humour.

The set-up, such as it is, is about a gang of sixth-years more obsessed with shagging one another than studying (as is their teacher). One cries: "If I fail my A-levels, I'm gonna have to go to drama school!" All I can say is the cast must clearly have been highly academically gifted.

Coming Of Age, believe it or not, makes Two Pints Of Lager look like the height of wit. Actually, the makers doubtless look up to Two Pints as vintage comic genius, the Porridge or Fawlty Towers of their generation. Oh, god.

Pitched somewhere between E4's Skins and the Beeb's Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, this sitcom, written by teenager Tim Dawson, clearly has the youth demographic in mind.

It's set in and around a sixth-form college in Oxfordshire, with an exclusively youthful cast (even the teacher, played by Ed Coleman, can be hardly out of his twenties) and plotlines involving stolen coursework, romantic mishaps and sex.

Crudeness abounds - She's big, she's fat and she's minging: she'd obviously be well up for it! is a representative sample - but neither wit nor charm has tagged along for the ride.

At 19, Tim Dawson is the youngest scriptwriter ever to have a series commissioned by the BBC. Wow!

His sitcom about excitable sixth formers and their unique concerns - handing in essays and, er, the pleasures of the flesh - is truly a historic moment.

Because if you trust the laughter track on this, every second line should have you doubled up in mirth. Tears will be gushing down your face. After 30 minutes of all this non-stop guffawing you will be physically ill and, quite possibly, dead.

Alternatively, you may be sitting there stony faced in horror that your licence fee has been squandered, yet again, on buying happy pills for the people charged with providing the synthetic belly laughs for the BBC's fake chortling department.

If you want to salute some really incredible comedy acting, however, look no further.

To create a comedy its core audience will like, BBC3 asked 19-year-old Tim Dawson to write about a gang of A-level students. But do teen viewers want Coming of Age's creaky old gags, desperate puns and endless, hammeringly unsubtle innuendo? It's a depressing prospect.