Comedy news: SSP TV blog: The Inbetweeners: An inside view

It's impressive how much ink has been spilt declaring how The Inbetweeners – E4's normally quite good comedy about how rubbish it is to be 17, series three of which is now starting filming – is like real life. “It's not as aspirational as Skins! Barely anyone has any sex, and everyone swears too much in an effort to look cool!” goes the thinking, which is true, albeit overlooking the fact the show is somewhat unreliable in comedy terms, meaning you watch the show through your fingers in fear you've accidentally tuned in to one of the dull episodes.

But just how true to life is it really? Wonderfully, I have some (admittedly stretching it a bit) insider knowledge on this topic, having gone to school with second string on the show Joe Thomas, the one who throws up on a child in the first series and gets his arse out on a boat in the second series. (The cast of the show in their mid-twenties, if you're wondering; they just presumably sleep in Tupperware to stay young, like in that episode of Eerie, Indiana.)

Not that I was ever on more than general nodding terms with someone who was a very nice chap, but still, how well does The Inbetweeners compare to reality?

• The school uniform in The Inbetweeners is a rather nice blue sweatshirt. At my real grammar school we had black blazers with bright red piping, which was wonderful for catching attention of locals on the massive council estate I used to have to walk home through.
• In The Inbetweeners, everyone is always talking about who has a hot mum. No one at my school had a hot mum.
• There's a joke on the show about a teacher that everyone thinks is a paedophile, which was a running joke about a teacher at our school too (he had a BEARD and would carry out SHOWER INSPECTIONS). Although in fairness that's probably true of 95% of educational establishments when seen through the eyes of teenagers. Actually, that means they did a good plotting job. Well done, The Inbetweeners!
• The Inbetweeners has a threatening bully, whereas I'm pretty sure everyone just got on very well with each other at my school. Probably something to do with all the latent homosexuality, retrospectively, but still: bully-free.
• The school in The Inbetweeners only appears to have two teachers. We had enough teachers to get a full education. Thanks, Essex Local Education Authority!