The Inbetweeners Movie

Directed by Ben Palmer. Starring Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison, Joe Thomas, Emily Head, Anthony Head 16 cert, gen release, 96 min

OH, NO. The characters in a popular TV show are going on holiday. Even in the early Palaeolithic era, when Are You Being Served?visited the Costa Plonka, this seemed like a lazy way of injecting cinematic breadth. The least said about Kevin and Perry go Largethe soonest mended.

Against the odds, The Inbetweeners Movieworks pretty well. It's criminally overextended and weighed down by a very predictable story arc – we know they will end up with the nice girls – but the talented, young (well, youngish) actors bust every gut to keep us amused. For the most part, they succeed. Think of it as an upmarket Christmas special and you'll get on just fine.

As the nation will be aware, the series – less Skins, more a softer, wittier American Pie– concerns the adventures of four suburban lads at a comprehensive in suburban London.

Aware the performers are now getting on (all but one in their late 20s), the film-makers have wisely propelled them from school and invited them to engage with something a little like adulthood.

When supposed sex-god Jay’s granddad dies, he uses his small inheritance to treat the pals to a holiday in the grotesquely boozed-up Greek resort of Malia. With stunning, but somehow comforting, inevitability their hotel turns out to be a rancid dump with dead dogs in the well and (eventually) massive turds in the bidet.

Wearing our big serious hat, we might worry whether we’re being asked to play along with the lads’ mid-level misogyny. The pleasant girls they meet on their first evening are sensible, but they are never invited to be all that funny. Happily, the wise nerd that is Will (the brilliant Simon Bird) offers a voice-over that, while never less than hilarious, grants the film unmistakable moral ballast.

Wearing our stupid floppy hat with beer cans on either side, we can revel in an inexhaustible supply of first-class one-liners. “Fathers are like arseholes,” someone says at one point. “Everyone’s got one, but they’re arseholes.” Has nobody done that joke before?