Whitehall: My new show jitters

Jack Whitehall has admitted to being "incredibly nervous" about his new TV show Bad Education.

The comic plays a secondary school teacher in the BBC Three comedy, which has picked up impressive viewing figures.

But he confessed: "I am incredibly nervous about what people will think, but I think that's impossible to escape. If you create something, you're putting it forward to be picked apart and judged, so that's part and parcel of it, but I really enjoyed making it."

Jack plays Alfie, an immature teacher at a state school, who turns up to work hungover and ropes the kids into taking the blame for his mishaps so he can impress his attractive colleague Miss Gulliver, played by Sarah Solemani.

"He's sort of based on that breed of younger teachers who you feel are there because they are trying to relive something they didn't have at school," Jack explained.

"And they sort of still behave a bit like they're pupils. Alfie's a bit of a man-child and wants to be everyone's friend."

Jack began developing the idea more than three years ago, and reckons it's a "blessing in disguise" that it's taken so long to come to fruition.

"I'm still quite young to be believable as a teacher but I think it's now just about possible, whereas when we first started it probably wasn't," he said.