E4 Programme Research

The Inbetweeners

The Inbetweeners is a British sitcom that originally aired on E4 from 2008 to 2010. Created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, the show followed the life of suburban teenager Will McKenzie (Simon Bird) and his three friends at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive. The episodes involved situations of school bullying, broken family life, indifferent school staff, male bonding, and largely failed sexual encounters.

The four main characters are seen in every episode as well as the 2011 and 2014 movies. They consist of:

Will McKenzie-(Simon Bird) is the show's principal character, with his voiceover introducing and concluding each episode. In the first episode he has transferred from a private school, after his parents' divorce, to Rudge Park Comprehensive, where he eventually befriends the others. He is an unconventional hero – although he is generally the wittiest and most level-headed of the group, he is prone to making bad choices and his sarcasm occasionally leads to his making outrageous and offensive remarks. Will is bright, focused and eager to get into a good university. However, he is shown to be romantically frustrated, and pessimistic about his chances, due to his awareness of his lack of any kind of coolness.

Jay Cartwright-(James Buckley) is the most immature and arrogant of the boys. He is also the most vulgar of the group and harbours a generally misogynistic outlook. He is obsessed with sex, with almost all his comments being about the subject. In his mind, he is the most sexually experienced of the group. He frequently tells wild and fictional stories about his experiences (sexual or otherwise), and handing out highly dubious advice which demonstrates that in reality he has very little understanding of the subject. In fact he is the least sexually experienced of the group, frequently relying on pornography to attain gratification, as he finds it difficult engaging with girls. In addition to his sexual stories, Jay compulsively lies about just about anything to make himself seem cooler, no matter how wildly unbelievable.

Simon Cooper-(Joe Thomas) is the most cynical and grumpy of the group, being prone to bouts of hysterical swearing at the slightest provocation – such as gentle goading, family rules, or even kindly advice – from his family or peers. However, he is also shown in several scenes to be the friendliest and most trustworthy member of the group, and he maintains a closer relationship with Will than any of the others. Simon considers himself to be the most romantic of the boys, his on-off relationship with Carli propelling many of the plots.

Neil Sutherland-(Blake Harrison) is known to be the slow, somewhat dim-witted and gullible "nice guy" member of the group. He often fails to appreciate he is responsible for the bad situations he causes, and fails to pick up on sarcasm, often taking comments seriously and consistently believes Jay's compulsive and blatant lies. Neil's simpler mind means he is often happy and positive as well as more accepting of Will and he displays less of the selfishness and obsession with sex as the others. He tends to be the most successful with girls of the four.

Inbetweeners Target Audience

The 'Inbetweeners' uses dissimilar features to charm to its target audience. Its target audience is young people aged 15-25. This can be seen from its use of young characters and its implementation of the characters within a modern social and school environment Firstly, the use of clothes on the main characters in the segment,  help appeal to the target audience. The referent of the main characters clothes,  are what would normally be considered ‘trendy’ or 'in fashion 'clothing. This signifies that as these characters are ‘trendy’ in appearance this show must also be ‘trendy.’ This is a marketing technique used to engage the target audience more so as it makes the characters seem more appealing, and more people can relate to them.  The suburban setting of the show also remains appealing for many, as this again enables more people to relate to it. This setting also signifies a more realistic element to the show, which in turn makes it more immersive.  The performance within the show is appealing as the comedic value of it offers a sense of escapism. Furthermore, the crude humour used in the show appeals to the target audience far more than other comedy shows. The fact that this humour is also used in the context of situations,  (like having an embarrassing first car) further assists in enabling more people to relate to it and it is overall more appealing for the target audience.

Finally, the lighting is kept fairly high key. This is to fit in with the genre and humour of the programme, to plea to and entertain the target audience. This appeals to the target audience as they find that with this they can simply watch this show, be entertained and laugh at it, without taking it too seriously. This shows target audience as they, (young people aged 15-25), are people who are stereotypically thought to enjoy comedy shows more than drama. In conclusion, this show uses multiple aspects to appeal to its target audience, entertain audience, and to overall immerse the target audience in the programme more. This is achieved successfully as the show occurs in a realistic suburban environment. Given the regularity of this setting, this creates another easily forged link that the audience can form between themselves and the show, making the events and occurrences more relative and ultimately making the show more immersive and entertaining.