The Bad Education Movie

Big-kid comprehensive teacher Jack Whitehall and his motley youthful charges tackle the age-old challenge of turning a reliably diverting TV half-hour into a 90-minute feature – and make a reasonably decent job of it. With a bit more money in the kitty and a licence to get slightly ruder than the small-screen will allow – warning, there are prosthetic testicles and an animatronic goose! – the plot sends teacher and class off on a post-GCSE trip to Cornwall, with accompanying battleaxe mum Joanna Scanlan doing her best to dampen everyone else’s fun, and a gang of Cornish freedom fighters taking the entire plot in an unexpected direction.

It does sag slightly in the latter stages when the action assumes a surprisingly ambitious scale for a telly spin-off, but what keeps it going is the long-established chemistry between Whitehall’s breezily amiable Mr Wickers and the ever-lippy kids, delivering a steady flow of zingy one-liners yet also exuding genuine warmth that makes the whole thing more than just a string of up-for-it hi-jinks. If you enjoyed the series, you won’t be disappointed.