'Bad Education'
When the last series of 'Bad Education' came out I had it on my list to review, however other shows took over at the time. This time round I was not going to miss the chance to review this hit BBC Three comedy. There have been changes to this series with people leaving and joining but the bad teaching has not changed one bit. Whether series three will have the same magic that the previous series is another story.
Alfie Wickers (Jack Whitehall) has not grown up at all. In fact, I would say he has got worse as we head into series 3. He is still involving his class into his crazy plans - well, mostly Joe (Ethan Lawrence) who always gets himself in sticky situation thanks to Alfie. Alfie’s professional career might be hopeless but his romantic life is improving now that he and Miss Gulliver (Sarah Solemani) have started dating, although Alfie seems to mess this up fairly often. But as they say, the course of true love never ran smoothly.
Alfie’s troubles do not just end there, Headmaster Fraser (Matthew Horne) has the clever idea to hire Alfie’s dad Martin Wickers (Harry Enfield) as the new Deputy Head. Martin is nothing like his son, he actually teaches and follows the rules. Martin is not the most supportive father by nearly sacking Alfie but it does feel like a struggle to support Alfie at times.
One of the down points of this series is the departure of Mitchell (Charlie Wernham). The pairing between Mitchell and Rem Dogg (Jack Binstead) is part of the reason why this show works. (Although Rem Dogg has currently become a silent emo, which I hope stops soon.) Mitchell’s crude jokes will be missed and I am not sure the show will have that same spark to it.
Since the departure of Miss Pickwell (Michelle Gomez), 'Bad Education' has lost a piece of its funny bone and with Mitchell now vacating the premises I am quite sad for the future of the show. However, these departures might allow us to open up more to characters such as Chantelle (Nikki Runeckles), Jing (Kae Alexander) and Stephen (Layton Williams). My fingers crossed are for you, 'Bad Education'.
Catch 'Bad Education' every Tuesday at 10pm on BBC Three, and BBC iPlayer.
'The Paedophile Hunter'
I was all ready to review another show up until I saw 'The Paedophile Hunter'. I was waiting for a sign and then it hit me at the V&A Museum - where there was an exhibition on political changes, and groups of people making trying to make a change for the better. 'The Paedophile Hunter' follows the vigilante Stinson Hunter and his crew as they punish paedophiles in their own way that is reminiscent of US TV show 'How To Catch A Predator'. This involves a lot of embarrassment and humiliation for the predator before being arrested by the police.
Hunter and his associates pose as underage children and spread themselves through social networking sites and chat rooms waiting for people who they deem to have paedophilic ways. As they lure these men to come to their set up decoy house they have the camera waiting for ready for them to walk into the house and grill them like Michael Parkinson. These men seem to have poor excuses as to why they are in an underage child’s house - one man even stating he had come over to watch a scary movie and eat some Chinese food.
Hunter calls himself a freelance journalist, which I would say, is quite a loose term but nonetheless when he is grilling these men, he is on point with his questions and has the facts to back it up. My only issue with this whole show and Stinson Hunter is his posting the videos on YouTube, exposing these people and tearing families apart. Some of these paedophiles have their own families, some with children that could end up with years of bullying, depression or worse. Now of course these people need to be exposed but I would have wished Hunter had shown a bit more consideration towards the families.
Overall, Stinson Hunter has come across really well in this documentary. The police should be allowed to do more to deal with paedophiles and whether that means working with people like Hunter. They could be quite valuable with a bit of training to polish a few of their techniques. Morally these shows expose you to the bad in the world but also show how there are still decent people in this world.
Catch 'The Paedophile Hunter' for a limited time on 4oD.
Read previous Telly Text columns here and find more from Jordan at @jrory.
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