When E4 had eventually grown tired of showing endless repeats of Friends and Scrubs, the channel eventually spat out its own unique programming, aimed at the sort of person that hecklerspray writers aren’t; the young, the cool, the hip and the trendy. Arseholes, basically.

On one end of the spectrum, there was Skins, a programme which captured everyone’s dream college lifestyle, in a show which frequently used drugs, booze and sex, but portrayed them in the most extreme way to great effect.

Skins was escapism for most whilst The Inbetweeners offered a firmer dose of reality, especially for hormonal teenage boys. These are the sort of people who couldn’t quite make that move from fingering a girl to using an empty packet of Space Raiders as a makeshift condom when that first awkward sexual experience arrived.

The show has, like many of its Channel 4 predecessors, made the leap from small screen to the cinema, or a dodgy DVD off someone in the pub. The Inbetweeners Movie has broken UK box office records, even though it feels like a watered down version of the TV series.

We don’t have a total feeling of hate towards The Inbetweeners. If anything we truly admire something that was able to last an impressive three series, despite having the same jokes more or less each week. Whether they’d be about Will’s mum, mocking Jay’s supposed conquests, alternative words for the female lady garden or generally being rejected by women when a vague opportunity arose.

After series three finished, it almost seemed like the natural place to finish. For once, a TV show wasn’t going to finish with flashbacks, somebody waking up in the shower or a gathering of ninjas bursting into kill everyone. Instead, the main characters went on a camping trip following on from taking their A-Levels. As per real life, this is the time that most people take their first independent holiday abroad and this is where The Inbetweeners film takes us.

In a nutshell, the film goes along these lines of all four characters going to Magaluf one of them keeps on seeing an old flame, four new women enter the scene, they all fall in love and make a mess of it, all before patching things up at the end. Suffice to say, it’s a run of the mill plot which could be applied to any situation in life, such as moving to a new city or starting a job, all be it with minor script changes.

Sitcoms like The Inbetweeners always do well as people incessantly latch onto and copy the catchphrases. These are the same people who delight in posting the term “lol” on your Facebook status. Choice highlights from the TV show include “bus wanker”, “clunge” and mocking anyone who says the word “friend” in a tone similar to someone who’s just experienced a stroke.

In this movie however, there doesn’t seem to be any memorable moments that stick in the memory once you’ve left the cinema. Of course there are moments of humour but based around a lad’s holiday abroad, most people have been there and done it, making the viewing experience nothing out of the ordinary. Erratic drunken behaviour and unexpected surprises? Not particularly groundbreaking or imaginative.

But the people of Britain have flocked to the flicks, catapulting it in to the record books for a UK comedy. Whilst the movie industry will be celebrating high visitor numbers, we’re sure that pissed off cinema staff won’t be happy when they have to clean up spilt drinks and thrown snacks after pack screenings finish. Unless you’re a cinema buff, you probably won’t know this little snippet:

“Between Wednesday and Sunday The Inbetweeners Movie took £13.2m, putting it comfortably on top of the UK and Ireland box office chart. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason held the previous record for highest opening by a UK comedy. According to the producers of The Inbetweeners Movie, that film took £10.4m in its first weekend in 2004.”

If movies based on real life experiences are going down a treat at the box office, then we’ll be working on a script over the next few months in which three people have an awkward conversation in a launderette. Eventually, one of them will realise that they’ve mixed their colours with their whites… with hilarious consequences.

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The Inbetweeners film, which is bafflingly going to see the light of day, ran in to a bit of bother a while ago in a move that was in no way an exercise in drumming up some interest in the film in a PR exercise.

Remember us telling you about Simon Bird and how he was refusing to appear in the movie unless he got more cash? Well, that’s all history now as he’s signed up to appear in the forthcoming flick.

That’s good news isn’t it? Good news if you’re the kind of dimwit who likes hurhurring at the word ‘clunge’ and watching a group of 46 year old men try and pass themselves off as schoolboys. Honestly. You’d call it ‘grooming’ anywhere else in the world.

Bird is said to have accepted the role after programme makers Young Bwark Productions failed to meet his pay demands and put out a casting call for another actor to play the part of Will McKenzie.

Basically, they showed him his arse and he didn’t like it.

A ubiquitous source said: “The original cast are all back together for the Inbetweeners film and have started work on the movie over in Crete.

“Simon is back on board and everyone’s happy. He had to come back with his tail between his legs when the producers refused to bend over and concede his demands.

“As soon as the call went out for another actor, he decided to do it. Luckily for him, there was still lots of good will on the set and he is brilliant at the part.”

As predicted, The Inbetweeners film will focus on Will’s summer holiday abroad with friends Jay, Simon and Neil and will no doubt feature the insultingly obvious scene where the nerdy one ends up losing it and going wild in a club or something.

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The Inbetweeners is rubbish. 40 year old blokes dressing up like schoolboys (hang on! That sounds like that stupid bloke from AC/DC!) and blithering on with themselves and inventing the worst swearword ever in ‘clunge’. It’s Coming of Age with more expensive cameras.

Unfathomably, the show has become something of a success and bafflingly, there’s a film being made of the show.

However, it has run into some sticky stuff as Simon Bird (who plays Will McKenzie)  has apparently refused to sign a contract to appear in the upcoming shitflick.

If the rumours are true, Bird is holding out in the hope of receiving more money for the role. Bwark Productions have planned to go ahead with the project without Bird, according to The Sun.

A source said:

“The movie is definitely going ahead. It will start shooting in Malia, Crete later this month and then from November onwards.”

“Simon’s agents at Avalon won’t accept the offer that Joe, James and Blake have all said they’d accept. So Bwark are moving on without Simon to pretty much call his agent’s bluff. They sent out casting notes last week to show they are serious.”

They added:

“Simon’s agents have always tried to push him as the star of the show and everyone’s fed up with it. If some high-profile young actor won the role then Simon won’t be in the film.

“Avalon will have to come crawling back to accept the offer. It’s sad, but he has kind of shafted himself.”

It’ll no doubt be like one of the On The Buses films with the cast going on some ‘lads holiday’ trying to get laid. It’ll be dreadful… which of course means that it’ll be a runaway success with the simpletons that watch the show.

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Tune in, turn off.

Folded:

• Eagle Eye on DVD (couldn’t be any dumber if Shia LaBoeuf was wearing Bermuda shorts, but it is fun)
• Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood (delivers all its title promises)
• Easter (not the being able to eat chocolate like you can do every day of your life, more the time off. Time off is nice)
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (no, of course we’ve not watched it, but some people who have say it’s pretty darn good)
• New series of The Inbetweeners (sod Skins. If this doesn’t take you back to being a teenager then you weren’t a teenager)

Creased:

• Why do letters from your bank always arrive on a Saturday? (because they want to ruin your weekend, that’s why)
• Domino’s piri piri pizza (it’s piri piri everything at the moment and it tastes like someone’s spilt an entire spice rack into a bottle of ketchup)
• Baby Mama on DVD (even Tina Fey can’t save this empty movie about absolutely nothing from being as boring as hell)
• Taylor Swift (pick a reason)
• People who still get stoned all the time (just grow up and be miserable like the rest of us)