"Big School" Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb trailers and videos full cast and crew trivia official sites memorable quotes Overview 26 out of 35 people found the following review useful: Big School will please those who can appreciate eccentric, true British comedy. 30 August 2013 The present, ridiculously low score prompted me to write a short review. The setting, the story, the characters of Big School are both typically British and universal, and though each character is well defined by their role, each actor in the very talented cast is allowed to show their individual craft, sometimes genius, a freedom that, especially in the experienced hands of David Walliams, Catherine Tate and Philip Glenister, produces some high quality comedic characterizations of the archetypal figures that we encounter in the odd, but equally classic school setting that they populate. I can't fault this production, having very much enjoyed the first two episodes, and I'm rather looking forward to seeing the rest of this well-thought-out, well-produced new BBC series. Was the above review useful to you? 16 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Fantastic Comedy Author: ellie_tully2 15 September 2013 Hilarious.

Very clever, smart comedy! Has me literally laughing out loud every episode, the acting is superb. There is a continuous story line with every episode which is very engaging, the situations are hilarious and the jokes and comments are simply hilarious. Humor is subjective but I think this show is a total winner. I can't wait until its release on DVD! And I am really hoping for future seasons of this show. Tate is just amazing in this show, and all the actors are great. Love the characters they have come up with.....just hilarious! Good job to the creators and I really hope that there are going to be many more seasons. Was the above review useful to you? 18 out of 23 people found the following review useful: I love it! from United Kingdom 5 September 2013 So the BBC released a promo for this show, and two comedians who I like very much (Walliams and Tate) were featured in it. I thought, "I should watch it". I missed the first three episodes but caught up on iPlayer, and may I say I'm glad I did. This show is underrated by other reviewers on IMDb, it really is a good 30 minutes of British TV.

The characters are good and the episodes are entertaining and funny on most occasions. It's not THE BEST comedy show there is, but it really is on my top list for the moment. I recommend trying the series on iPlayer, it's worth it. Walliams and Tate work well together on screen, and despite having some sadly true moments, it has very laugh out loud comical moments. Was the above review useful to you? 14 out of 17 people found the following review useful: More Please Sir! from United Kingdom 22 September 2013 Having read the "bad" reviews by people who'd seen the FIRST episode only - made me write this review out of disgust! I really enjoyed this series, it's well written, laugh out loud funny, even touching and the acting & characterisation is excellent. Well you can't please everyone when it comes to humour but I think they've done a very good job of this one. One of the best sitcoms I've seen for years. In the tradition of Porridge and Faulty Towers, yes, it's in the old school but I think there's a lot of us out there wanting to see something fresh but classic.

I can't be the only person out there who's fed up with so called comedy where they're so scared of making an ism that there's no comedy left just "laughs" based on bodily fluids and rude words for body parts. I left THAT kind of humour behind when I left primary school. So well done BBC, please can we have more Sir? Was the above review useful to you? 7 out of 9 people found the following review useful: More English allure from United States 30 September 2013 I have known my share of Brits both online and IRL. It's funny to me how some of their shows are only a slightly exaggerated fiction of how the culture and a lot of the people are. IMO this is one of those shows. I like the dry, silly, subtle humor that is sometimes taken over the top. The characters are delightful. They're people I would want to work with and socialize in real life. The scenarios are believable even though it's fictional comedy. I think the UK has a lot of comedy to offer.

With most of what we're exposed to in America constantly trying so hard to be so in your face, the subtle, silly humor of the English which is often hilarious or consistently funny from one joke to the next is a great change of pace. The crowding and rush of America is always apparent in American television. I think the humble paced, sensibly spaced configuration of English living comes through in a lot of their film and television. It's to say not all competitions are won by being at the front of the line but slow and steady really can win the race. Consider the success of The Office and Extras. Both are American versions of British shows, both are huge successes and both remained true to that slow, humble pace of British television. Our culture is far more developed by a few decades but their etiquette within their middle class is surely superior. So why does my review omit any real information about the show? Because it could be about a crew of factory workers in a tuna canning plant. The style of humor, dialog and characters would still be the same. Silly, humble, consistently funny and slowly building to taking it all over the top.

I very much prefer this in contrast to American humor typically trying to make every single joke or bit way over the top because it is the standard format. I wish American art AND culture would veer slightly in the direction of the British. Was the above review useful to you? 13 out of 21 people found the following review useful: Very funny, set to be a classic from Sydney 9 September 2013 Big School is a win for comedy fans. Drawing inspiration from The Office, Alan Partridge, and even older comedies such as Dear John (Philip Glenister's character channels Kirk St Moritz, especially in Episode 4), there are some incredibly funny scenes. Better still, because it is character-based - much like The Office and others (Partridge, Frasier) that feature anti-hero cringe characters - it improves on repeat viewing. Familiarity with Big School's characters only makes them funnier. For some reason Big School has attracted many lukewarm and even highly critical reviews. I recommend that new viewers give it a chance and watch at least a couple of episodes, preferably re-watching them, before dismissing it. After all, would Frances De La Tour pick a turkey? Was the above review useful to you?

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Fantastic British Comedy 29 September 2013 *** This review may contain spoilers *** I love this show and so does everyone else I know. It's brilliantly written, the characters are superb. I'm not sure why some people find it so awful but then each to his own. There are loads of so-called comedies on the TV that I find downright terrible and yet others love them. So hey-ho. The teachers in this are brilliantly portrayed. I like all of them but my favourite is played by Phil Glenister. The way he holds his mouth and the way he walks inspire laughs straight away. Perhaps the bad reviewers are taking it all too seriously - maybe they think it is meant to be serious or something. But this is what it is. A very funny play on teachers - making them think and act like competitive children. That's the core of the comedy. I do hope they make another series because I know many people that would love to see it! I think episode five was my favourite. Was the above review useful to you?

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful: Schools out from United Kingdom 20 July 2015 David Walliams created and starred in this traditional family sitcom set in Greybridge Secondary School in North London. It had an irritatingly catchy theme tune. The school setting allows it to have an interplay between the various eccentric teachers and the pupils who found the teachers boring. Walliams played the socially awkward chemistry teacher Mr Church who has the hots for new French teacher Miss Postern (Catherine Tate) who is not very good at French, never been to France and thinks she is really beautiful and men fall over for her. In a sense that is true. Mr Gunn (Philip Glenister) is the macho PE teacher who also has the hots for Miss Postern and vies with Mr Church for her attention. He has a nice line in smutty humour. Mr Barber (Steve Speirs) is the disorganised Geography teacher who is on the brink of a nervous breakdown. He returned in the second series demoted as the caretaker. Speirs stole the show with his hound dog face. Mr Hubble (James Greene) is the head of science who is too old and confused.

Julie T Wallace is the lab assistant who is infatuated with Mr Church. Frances De La Tour is the headmistress who is too drunk to care about the teachers and the pupils. Daniel Rigby is the music teacher who dreams of being a famous singer-songwriter. The series was never very funny but it was amiable enough and something you can watch with all the family. I think Walliams put too much effort with his characters and needed to pepper the script with stronger and more off beat humour. Was the above review useful to you? 2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Funny? from Canada 31 January 2015 Being English and growing up with such gems as Monty Python, Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore, The Goodies etc. etc.,I just have one thing to say; Big School is just not funny! If this is the best they can do then British comedy is in BIG trouble. I started watching episode one and seriously thought about turning it off but decided I would sit through it, feeling sure it would get better; it didn't.

However, I turned the TV on again for episode 2, optimistically thinking that it couldn't get any worse than the previous episode but again I was wrong. At least I had had one little chuckle during the first episode whereas in the second one I never even cracked my face. I am afraid it is now time to throw in the towel, I can't take anymore! Was the above review useful to you? 3 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Brilliant British Comedy, well written and hilarious! from United Kingdom 26 September 2014 Big School is a fantastic comedy show starring David Walliams, Catherine Tate, Philip Glenister, Francis de la Tour and Steve Speirs. Each episode is well written and each character stands out for me. Mr Gunn is particularly hilarious with some of the comments he makes, much to the disapproval of Mr Church, Mr Gunn reminds me of Jay from the inbetweeners a bit. And the Greybridge teaching staff wouldn't be a school without head teacher Ms Baron played by Francis de la Tour. Almost everything Ms Baron says is an instant gag plus with the Walliams and Glenister combination, Big School makes for a wonderful comedy show with gags every minute!

Catherine Tate as Miss Postern makes the show for me, without her, there wouldn't be frantic quarrelling between Mr Church and Mr Gunn in almost every episode. There's heart-warming moments in the series as well as well crafted dialogue between the teaching staff, Series 1 episode 4 being my favourite episode so far! It's a 10/10 for Big School, I would highly recommend it, although it can be crude at times so only to those 15 and up! Can't wait to see the last 2 episodes in Series 2 and hopefully Big School will return for a Series 3 next year! Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 2: David Walliams, Catherine Tate sitcom 'Big School': First look - video David Walliams, Catherine Tate sitcom 'Big School': First look - video BBC One's Big School also stars Philip Glenister and Frances de la Tour.

Don't Miss Share November 24 2016 10:50 PM Share 7 hours ago 2:56 PM Share October 21 2016 8:03 PM Share October 20 2016 11:43 AM October 17 2016 3:52 PM Latest News Share 1 hour ago 8:35 PM Share 3 hours ago 7:32 PM Share 3 hours ago 7:01 PM Share 5 hours ago 5:13 PM 6 hours ago 4:13 PM Must Read Share 10 hours ago 12:00 PM Share 3 hours ago 7:32 PM Share 10 hours ago 11:41 AM 26 July 2013 10:50 AM Shares The first footage from David Walliams and Catherine Tate's new BBC One sitcom Big School has been released by the broadcaster. Big School is co-written by Walliams and centres around a dysfunctional staff room and the unrequited love of Walliams's chemistry teacher Mr Church and Tate's French teacher Miss Postem.

Mr Church is just about to quit the school, but stops himself from handing in his notice after falling in love at first sight with Miss Postem. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below The show's ensemble cast includes Life on Mars star Philip Glenister as lothario gym teacher Mr Gunn, Frances de la Tour as no-nonsense headmistress Ms Baron and The Thick of It actress Joanna Scanlan as drama teacher Mrs Klebb. Daniel Rigby (Eric and Ernie) and Steve Speirs (Cemetery Junction) will also star. BBC Comedy's Mark Freeland said that it had been an "absolute privilege" working with Walliams and the cast. Big School is directed by Tony Dow (Hunderby, Nighty Night, Only Fools and Horses). Big School: David Walliams on superstardom, finding happiness and why being an outsider is good | Radio Times Twitter Big School: David Walliams on superstardom, finding happiness and why being an outsider is good "People who really thrive at school don’t necessarily thrive at life...

Creative imagination is formed when you’re on your own a lot and not out all day playing football and having fun with your friends" Comments Ginny Dougary 11:42 AM, 16 August 2013 David Walliams and I are sitting opposite one another on benches round a long table in a school refectory in north London. Behind him is a counter and a sign on the wall, “I ❤ TUCK SHOP”, where the T has been subtly altered to mean something quite different. Walliams swivels round to have a look and laughs, “Reality outstrips fiction. If we put that in our show, people would say it’s a bit too... obvious.” His new show is Big School – a sitcom set in fictional, secondary Greybridge School, with a terrific cast (Frances de la Tour as the headmistress, Philip Glenister as the randy PE teacher) and a story of unrequited love between the two megastars of British comedy.

David Walliams plays the dorky chemistry teacher, Mr Church (with a completely mad hair-kink, think dog turd meets collapsed quiff), while Catherine Tate is Miss Postern, the most Francophile of French teachers, who has never actually been to France. The starting point for the sitcom, he says – rather surprisingly – was watching The Remains of the Day, the film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker Prize-winning novel, set in the early 1930s, about a butler and housekeeper’s unexpressed feelings for one another. “I’ve always been obsessed by the film and the book and thought, ‘There must be a comedy version of The Remains of the Day,’ of unrequited love between two people who – because of the situation they’re in and because of the people they are – never declare themselves.” I love the book, too, and mention the moment where the butler’s realisation, in one devastating line, leaves the reader in no doubt that he feels the immensity of his loss, and acknowledges that it had been in his power to be happy: “Oh yes, it’s brilliant,” Walliams says, with feeling.

“He’s missed the opportunity of love for his whole life...” Later, Walliams will strip down to a white vest and underpants (his idea) and muck around for the photoshoot with his former PE teacher, Martin Russell, from Reigate Grammar School – which was a fee-paying school by the time he joined it. His teacher’s memories of Walliams when he was called Williams (he changed the vowel because there’s another David Williams Equity member) suggest that, as a boy, the actor was a shy, unhappy outsider whose schooldays were turned around when he discovered he was good at swimming and comedy. There’s still something unusual about Walliams. He’s part old codger, part awestruck schoolboy. He’s also cool in an uncool way. This is a guy whose show with Matt Lucas, Little Britain, was arguably the most successful comedy series of the Noughties, who had a reputation for attending glamorous parties with a long series of babes on his arm (until he met and married the Dutch-English gorgeously gap-toothed super-model, Lara Stone; the couple have recently had a new baby boy – more anon).

He’s shown incredible guts and stamina with his swims across the Channel and down the Thames for Sport Relief, and is generally considered to be A Big Deal. I saw him at some of those parties and thought he looked a bit unapproachable, also somewhat aloof and pleased with himself and yet, certainly in this encounter, he’s modest, almost bashful and comes across as a thoughful, kind person. We talk about one of his awestruck moments in the world of celebrity. (He’s still a very good fan – “the people you loved as a kid, you’re always in awe of... it’s not necessarily about them being the most famous person in the world, it’s more about what they mean to you.”) This is about the time his parents took his sister to see The King and I, and she queued up to get Yul Brynner’s autograph. Walliams loves the story of how the actor sat in his car, while the fans formed an orderly queue passing their programmes in through the window to be signed: “And I just thought, ‘That is... SUPERSTARDOM.’ The man from The Magnificent Seven! And he sat... in his car... signing his autographs after his show.

In his limousine,” he tests the word out. “It was probably a Rolls-Royce. In those days, successful people were quite happy to drive around in Rolls-Royces. I don’t think people would want to do that now. They’d want a Smart Car. People being ostentatious has very much gone out of fashion.” It’s striking how he keeps referring to famous people as “they”, as though he is not among them. I say that perhaps the recent Liberace film, Behind the Candelabra, will make ostentation fashionable again. He says it’s his favourite film of the year and that when he and Lucas were in Las Vegas they spent a day in the Liberace Museum: “It was the best thing I saw there because I must admit I didn’t like the place. I wanted it to be like old Vegas, people in dinner suits watching Frank Sinatra, but unfortunately it’s people in shorts buying buckets of beer. Anyway, I love all that glitz at the Liberace Museum and I’m glad someone lived their life like that because it’s fun to observe it while I wouldn’t want it to be my life.

“When you’ve been working for Comic Relief and done all those trips, you do think with people like Liberace, ‘Can I just take you somewhere like Ethiopia or Kenya and show you that, instead of that diamond-encrusted candelabra, you could build a school and it would give you such a greater feeling?’ Because I do think accumulation of wealth just for its own sake is quite pointless.” As a small boy and teenager, Walliams was a keen autograph-hunter and hung around the stage doors to meet his heroes, one of whom was Rowan Atkinson. The schoolboy asked him: “What advice can you give to an aspiring comedian?” and the comedian replied, “Don’t do it.” “I was really crushed,” he recalls. “He meant it as a joke but I was thinking, ‘Wow! I’m meeting Rowan Atkinson – he’s going to give me the secret of comedy. “I got Frankie Howerd’s autograph outside the Secombe Centre in Sutton and then I ended up playing him. It’s quite weird how life can be so circular.

I mean, it’s just odd to be a real fan of someone and then 20 years later to be playing them.” Because he was (is) such a fan, himself, Walliams doesn’t take umbrage when approached for autographs or photographs by the public. I can confirm this, as it happens. A week or so before we were due to meet, I was walking along the Brighton seafront, when one of the endless parade of couples pushing their baby in a stroller was stopped directly in front of me. The father posed for a photo with some young blokes and then resumed his walk and I realised, bizarrely enough, that it was Walliams. I say that I assumed it was his wife and baby and he says, in a slightly tight voice (he doesn’t like talking about his family): “Well, I’d hope it would be my wife and baby.” Anyway, I was relieved he was gracious about being stopped by fans, given our impending interview. “Well, I should hope I was,” he laughs. “Why would you be anything but? When you’re well known and on television, it’s part of your life that you’re recognised.

It’s a very fortunate position you’re in.” It’s not all that surprising that he’s been asked about his sexuality in the past. We only know because he told us that as a boy he used to waft around his home in a silk kimono, prompting his father to call him Davina. At school, he was always up for playing the laydees – Laydee Macbeth being one of his most memorable roles, according to his school report. Now, when I ask him about it, he says: “I think it’s all about falling in love with the person and that is overlooked, really. I hate it when people ‘confess’ or ‘reveal’ their sexuality and also things can change for people over the years. So it is about the person but I also think it goes beyond that. You don’t just fall in love with someone’s body, do you? You fall in love with someone’s soul and heart and brain.” What was he like, I wonder, as a small boy? “I was quite shy. I didn’t even like having my picture taken.” Do you now? “Not really. [A big laugh.] Because I don’t like looking at the pictures afterwards.” Don’t you like the way you look?

“Um, no. Not especially. But that’s OK. I’m not going to have plastic surgery or anything.” I say I think he looks pretty presentable in some photographs; stylish, even, and suave. “Well, occasionally you see a picture of me looking all right because my head’s turned a certain angle and I think, ‘Oh, I don’t look so fat now.’ ” He doesn’t suffer so much, these days, he says, from the self-loathing that used to afflict him. (He has spoken out about his depressive episodes and suicide attempts.) “It’s not something I think about every day and my life’s in a different place.” You’re happier? “I’d say so, definitely, yeah. It comes from overthinking everything sometimes – having an overactive mind, and your mind racing when you should be sleeping or whatever. “So it’s quite easy to turn in on yourself and be very self-critical.

And obviously you want to have an active mind because I want to be able to write scripts and books but at the same time, it’s hard to switch that off and that’s why a lot of people who are creative sometimes have problems with their drinking or taking drugs because their minds won’t stop.” Walliams is being called to the gym to join his old teacher whom he remembers as being “fair... and kind”. Thinking about PE reminds him of the cross country runs he would have to endure once a year: “And I would always come last or second to last. By the time I got in, all the other kids would have got changed and be waiting for me. They would applaud the fat boys crossing the finish line in a slightly sarcastic way.” He does a slow hand clap. What would you say to that boy now? “I’d say, ‘Try and run a bit faster!’” he giggles. “No, seriously, I’d say, ‘Don’t worry too much.’ Because actually sometimes I think that people who really thrive at school don’t necessarily thrive at life. I think that being a little bit of an outsider is actually quite helpful.

Creative imagination is formed when you’re on your own a lot and not so much if you’re out all day playing football and having fun with your friends. “So I think those formative experiences are good and also I don’t think you can expect them all to be happy. Life is full of pain and as a child you feel it because you are powerless and so you feel those things very intensely. You feel trapped because so many things are decided for you.” And when you were that powerless schoolboy did you ever, in your wildest dreams, imagine you’d fulfil your teenage fantasy and become what you are now? “Well, my teenage fantasy was Sam Fox!” Walliams laughs and repairs to the boys locker room to change into his PE kit. Big School starts tonight at 9pm on BBC1 Like this? Share it. Big School review: David Walliams' show is a comedy masterclass, says Christopher Stevens | Daily Mail Online comments Britain’s classic sitcoms are so well-loved that the repeats are never off our screens. After 30 years, Only Fools And Horses still tops every poll of our favourite TV shows. Entire books have been written to analyse the success of Dad’s Army or Fawlty Towers.

And Porridge is such a national treasure that in Aylesbury, Bucks, there’s a statue in its honour, depicting Ronnie Barker as Fletch. So what happened to British sitcom? Why don’t we make them like that any more — have we forgotten how? Enlarge David Walliams' (second right) love of old fashioned British humour comes to the fore in Big School, a sitcom with a stellar cast including (left to right) Philip Glenister, Catherine Tate and Frances De La Tour David Walliams is a fan of old-fashioned humour. As a boy, the comedian who found fame with Matt Lucas in their sketch show Little Britain, was a starstruck nerd who queued for hours to get autographs from stars like Frankie Howerd, famous for the bawdy sitcom Up Pompeii. Walliams grew up wanting to mine that rich comic vein. Little Britain, which ran from 2004 to 2006, was often compared with a ruder, coarser version of Seventies shows starring Dick Emery or Benny Hill, with plenty of scope for broad humour and dressing up in women’s clothes.

Emery’s most popular character was a lusty spinster who could send men reeling with a swing of her handbag and her battlecry: ‘Oooh you are awful . . . but I like you!’ Little Britain paid homage, with Walliams and Lucas in outrageous drag and declaring: ‘We are ladies!’ RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Critics complained that this sort of comedy should have died out with the music hall, but audiences paid no attention to that, and Little Britain won the comedy Bafta two years running. So this year, when Walliams announced that he was co-writing and starring in a BBC sitcom, one prediction seemed certain: this was going to be a show that celebrated the humour of his childhood. But a sneak preview reveals it’s not just old-fashioned comedy that Walliams is nostalgic for. Big School, a series of six half-hour episodes, launches tonight on BBC1 at 9pm. Set in a secondary school, it stars Walliams as an inept chemistry master who falls hopelessly in love with the new French teacher, played by Catherine Tate, but doesn’t know how to tell her.

It features a stellar cast, including the veteran from Seventies sitcom Rising Damp, Frances de la Tour, as the headmistress. Philip Glenister, who was dirty copper Gene Hunt in Life On Mars, is the pot-bellied gym master, and Joanna Scanlan, best known for The Thick Of It, is the lesbian drama teacher. Big School opens with a rush of warmth and sympathy for old-fashioned teaching methods. Walliams plays a chemistry teacher who is down on his luck From the first moments, it’s plain that Walliams has deep affection for teachers. But the children . . . well, he’s not quite so keen on them. Earlier this year, he made a one-off documentary for ITV, going back to his former school, Reigate Grammar in Surrey, and meeting old classmates and teachers. There was an instant rapport between him and the staff, and an awkwardness with his own peers. He had been bullied as a teenager, and we got a strong sense that he’d be happiest at a school with no pupils at all, just teachers. Of course, thousands of teachers would heartily concur. So it is no surprise that Big School opens with a rush of warmth and sympathy for old-fashioned teaching methods.

Keith Church, a chemistry master with a bouffant combover, is trying to engage a bunch of listless, sarky students by staging an explosion. He drops a container of liquid nitrogen and a sack of ping pong balls into a tub of water, and the innocent awe and glee on his face is touching. He’s so excited that he can’t even sense the boredom blanketing his class. Before the chemical reaction can occur, however, the bell rings for the end of lessons, and the children are gone. Poor Keith looks like he’s about to cry with disappointment. And then, with a bang and a flash, the classroom is inch-deep in ping pong balls. Give the youngsters rulers and ink pellets to play with, instead of mobile phones, and it’s a scene that would fit neatly into Carry On Teacher, the black-and-white 1959 movie with Ted Ray and Leslie Phillips. If we were expecting old-fashioned comedy, we’re certainly getting it. The traditional approach brings benefits.

There’s no wobbly handheld camera work, no improvised dialogue, no barrage of foul language, no filthy single entendres David Walliams played a disgruntled teacher in his sketch show Little Britain with every teacher's worst nightmare Vicky Pollard, played by Matt Lucas. It's clear from both shows that Walliams has a great sympathy for teachers, but not students Instead, there’s a brisk script with plenty of jokes. Some fall flat, and tonight’s opening episode on occasion plays for cheap laughs, but the show soon settles down. This has the feel of a sitcom that will win viewers over. For a start, we want to know if Keith will summon the nerve to tell Sarah Postern, Catherine Tate’s French teacher, that he fancies her rotten. She can see that, of course, but she wants him to pluck up the nerve to say something. The trouble is, there’s a leery, cocky gym teacher in the staffroom too, and Miss Postern seems to enjoy flirting with him. Tate’s Postern suffers from the classic sitcom character flaw: she thinks she’s wonderful, despite all the evidence. She’s desperate to be liked, and she can’t see what an idiot she’s making of herself.

Miss Postern is David Brent in a dress. This show could be the lift that Tate’s career has badly needed since she lost her way as the Doctor’s mismatched companion in Dr Who. She’s in her element here, as a needy, nervy woman who tries to put on a daffy act. It’s hard to play vulnerable without seeming weak, but in next week’s episode there’s a lovely moment when Miss Postern’s courage fails her altogether, in front of a packed assembly hall, until Keith steps in to save her. Philip Glenister isn’t known for sitcom, but he’s doing double-takes and reaction shots like a veteran here. His character, Mr Gunn, is Sid James without the charm — his first attempt at a chat-up is to tell Tate that he lives with his mum, who does all his cooking and cleaning. In recent years, Walliams has been spent more time judging on Britain's Got Talent that creating comedy ‘I’m living the dream,’ he boasts, and adds: ‘Obviously, if I get married, I’ll put her in a home.’ But it’s Frances de la Tour whose comedy pedigree really tells. She glides through scenes like she’s on castors.

We last saw her as the ghastly Violet, a one-joke character in Vicious who was overshadowed by the show’s theatrical megastars, Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen. Here, she dominates effortlessly, playing a headteacher whose only joy in life is humiliating her staff. She sits in her office, drinking whatever alcohol she can confiscate from the pupils, and honing her putdowns. When Miss Postern starts enthusing about the French, the head cuts her dead: ‘Dirty people, dirty country.’ Funny lines, endearing characters: this is a sitcom that will grow on us. Which is a relief, given some of the pretentious twaddle that Walliams has been spouting during publicity interviews this week. The 41-year-old comic said he was inspired to write a story of unresolved love after seeing The Remains Of The Day, the 1993 film starring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins, adapted from a Booker Prize-winning novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. It might have been more honest if he’d admitted he was trying to write a cross between Are You Being Served? and Grange Hill.

Big School isn’t our first taste of retro laughter on BBC1 recently, not by a long way. Miranda Hart has revived slapstick, and Mrs Brown’s Boys stems from a long tradition of cross-dressing ribaldry. Even Ben Elton’s execrable council sitcom, The Wright Way, was intended to revive an old-fashioned format. But Walliams goes much further than any of them. Keith’s car looks like a prop from a historic comedy, such as Terry And June or Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em — it’s a 1970 Austin Maxi. The car belongs in a motor museum, but it’s the kind of vehicle Walliams’s teachers used to drive. He’s recreating his life at Reigate Grammar, reimagining it through comedy. They might have been tough first time around, but now David Walliams is determined to make his schooldays the happiest days of his life. Big School press clippings - British Comedy Guide Britain's Got Talent star Jack Carroll is joining the cast of Big School, David Walliams 's BBC sitcom. Jimmy Akingbola and Morgana Robinson also join the show.

British Comedy Guide, 5th May 2014 David Walliams 's school-based comedy series Big School will return for a second series, BBC One boss Charlotte Moore has announced. British Comedy Guide, 2nd December 2013 It's our last visit, for now, to hopeless Greybridge School as we eavesdrop on yet another of Mr Church's unimpressive chemistry experiments, conducted under the adoring gaze of moon-faced Pat (a silent Julie T Wallace). But there's excitement on the horizon, at least for the staff, with a school trip to Dieppe, led by French teacher Miss Postern ( Catherine Tate ) who, oddly, has never been to France before. She doesn't seem able to speak much French, either, as her coachload of uproarious pupils and three male teachers arrive at their accommodation. What happens next is pure crude, rude and ribald French farce involving hotel corridors and gatecrashed bedrooms. And David Walliams has given himself a diarrhoea-related sub-plot that might make you feel queasy.

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 20th September 2013 There's nothing like a school trip to let the hair down and, as non-French speaking French teacher Miss Postern heads for France, with Mr Church chasing breathlessly behind - or chasing her behind breathlessly - this final romp with the staff and pupils of Greybridge School is a full-on ooh-la-la farce. David Walliams and Catherine Tate star in a comedy that makes Bad Education look the height of subtlety but a second term seems a certainty. Carol Carter and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Metro, 20th September 2013 In the last in the series of this old-fashioned school sitcom, Miss Postern is organising a school trip to France. Of course, they can't afford Paris, so they're taking a coach to Dieppe - cue a recurring joke of "will we see the Eiffel Tower, Miss?" - and the teachers scrabble for a place on the trip. Everything goes wrong in Dieppe: an inability to speak or understand French, underage (and legal but excessive) drinking, a dodgy tummy etc.

This series has been a grower, but it's still not A* quality. Bim Adewunmi, The Guardian, 20th September 2013 Viewers have taken to Big School (co-written by David Walliams and the Dawson brothers) in droves and they are rewarded by plenty of these crowd-pleasing moments (come on, who doesn't want to watch Philip Glenister drag David Walliams from a set of wall-bars?). But the real scene-stealer is Steve Speirs (he was Ricky Gervais 's unwanted "friend" in Extras ) as sentimental, self-dramatising Welsh geography teacher Mr Barber. He's prepared his class for an important exam: "I'm looking for the geography teachers of tomorrow." Or so he thinks. Meanwhile, Greybridge School is transfixed by rumours that the chemistry department's prissy deputy head Mr Church has slept with thick French teacher Miss Postern. The rumour was started by Cro-Magnon gym teacher Mr Gunn, Miss Postern's other suitor and Mr Church's rival. In a big slapstick set-piece Church and Gunn (Walliams and Glenister) wrestle - literally - for Miss Postern's affections.

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 13th September 2013 At last, the episode with David Walliams in his underpants - the comedy moment that's been trailed since this knockabout school comedy started its first term. There's a sporting theme as Miss Postern ( Catherine Tate ) sends rival admirers Mr Church and Mr Gunn into a testosterone-fuelled frenzy by donning a tracksuit for ironman triathlon training. They settle it the way men have done since the dawn of time - with a spot of wrestling. The staffroom stereotypes may be spot on, but even David Walliams can't save a show that laughs at teachers more than with them, says Sarah Jones. Laura Barnett, The Guardian, 8th September 2013 It really ought to have been a total winner, containing as it does - via cast members Philip Glenister , Frances De La Tour and Catherine Tate - the distilled magical essence of Life On Mars, Rising Damp and 'am I bovvered?'. But it feels tired, flabby, a bit obvious and not that funny - certainly when compared with its younger, zappier, rap-soundtracked, groovily-edited rival Bad Education .

And therein lies its problem, I think. Viewed in isolation, Big School would make a perfectly agreeable half-hour's entertainment, with the running gags about Mr Church's frustrated chemistry experiments and the quite-amusing 'Don't mention the war' scenario, whereby the staff fail to deal sensitively with the boy whose mother is having it off with a Maasai tribesman. Watch it after Bad Education , though, and suddenly it's as lame and embarrassing as watching your Dad trying to DJ. James Delingpole, The Spectator, 8th September 2013 There's nothing subtle about Big School - for instance tonight's episode starts with a fart gag. But maybe that's why audiences enjoy David Walliams and the Dawson Brothers' cheerful, unsophisticated creation. Aged gags are telegraphed and thoroughly milked for every single comic possibility. Like the unfortunate pupil at Greybridge School, whose mother has run off with a Masai warrior during a family holiday. Cue sniggering staff making pointed and very lewd remarks (particularly grotesque headmistress Ms Baron) as thick Miss Postern ties herself in knots trying to be politically correct.

Elsewhere, Mrs Klebb presents the school play Juliet and Romeo, her "gender re-imagining of Shakespeare". Alison Graham, Radio Times, 6th September 2013

Question: In which comedy does Frances de la Tour play a secret drinking headmistress?
Answer: Big School