Chickens

Episode one
Preceded by a third series of Jane Horrocks’s sketchy supermarket sitcom ‘Trollied’ at 9pm, this endearingly daft sitcom created by and starring Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Jonny Sweet and ‘Inbetweeners’ alumni Joe Thomas and Simon Bird first saw the light as a C4 pilot with enormous potential.

Sky1 smartly snapped it up, giving tryhard prig Cecil (Bird), wimpy lovebird George (Thomas) and empty-headed ladies’ man Bert (Sweet) a welcome six episodes to spend justifying their behaviour, staying at home while the Great War rages. Although, given the fury of the local womenfolk, the Somme might have been a better option as Bonfire Night arrives and a Guy is required.

Bird and Thomas more or less reprise their old characters but are none the worse for it, leaving Sweet to steal the show with his blissfully, ignorant posho. The theme tune is overused and one or two set-ups are hackneyed, but performances, attention to detail and all-round silliness carry the day.