Small Screen Big Screen Cardboard Box

Let's start with  a fact:

* 100% of big screen TV adaptations are shit. Alright, I'm rounding up the number, but if you consider it for a minute, probably not by much. This week sees the (not very) much anticipated cinema release of Channel 4's hit comedy 'The Inbetweeners'. Not seen it much, but good show. Obviously had a massive following in the UK, along with the kind of critical endorsement that Danny Dyer would 'give his nuts for'. It's had 3 series' to date (and may well return one day), and didn't seem to have reached saturation point just yet. In fact when you consider 'Two Pints And A Packet Of Crisps' was re-commissoned 8 times (E.I.G.H.T/ VIII) then 'The Inbetweeners' seemed positively in it's infancy.



Bad film



So with all the evident goodwill and zeitgeist behind it, why not make a film of it?! Wouldn't that be a laugh!!! Well, probably not. History says as much. Yes, there's a been a few examples of films striking out successfully from their TV roots (South Park being one), but consider the considerable evidence against: 'The X-Files', '24', 'Miami Vice' (yes, it's bad), 'Charlie's Angels', 'The Dukes of Hazzard', 'Starsky & Hutch' and, most importantly of all, 'Kevin & Perry Go Large'.

Kevin and Perry Go Home.
Please.

The latter was of course based on an overblown sketch, a couple of teenagers rebelling, getting into scrapes, then trying to get laid on a generic Euroisland. It bombed. Deservedly. There was barely enough plot in the TV version to fill the small screen. Sound familiar?

British comedy struggles to unearth real gems, and it's only every now and again that a 'Royle Family' or 'The Office' comes along and laughs a nation into bed. These were 2 comedies that shunned the bright lights of the multiplex, and rightly so. The result? Legacy intact.

In it's defence, 'The Inbetweeners' may turn out to be that rare exception to the rule, but the timing smacks of financial greed and audience manipulation. British film fundng is again at a low ebb, and striking whilst the iron is hot means the captive audience will make this a relative success, but it's far more likely that the producers will take their money back ten fold whilst delivering a contrived package and damage a show that could have been left to carry on doing what it did best, being good.



Definitely not a film awards

An hour long epsiode featuring the japes and antics of teens abroad would be pushing it, 100 minutes seems a fragrant and opportunistic cash in.

Of course, if the venture does end in tears, slipping back in to the comfortable slippers of a weekly repeat slot on Channel 4 won't mean the show suddenly dying a death. But it may leave a critical wound which could be tough to recover from. The great shows have always tended to leave the audience wanting more. By cashing in so transparently, 'The Inbetweeners' is in danger of leaving them, full stop.