When The Inbetweeners first aired on British screens in 2008, it quickly cast off its humble budget to become one of the nation's most beloved cult series. The story of four horribly average but deeply endearing teenage boys stuck in smalltown suburbia told a story that television had never really touched: that of those kids who are neither cool nor dorky, neither pretty nor pug ugly, neither intelligent enough to join the high achievers nor stupid enough to flip burgers. In short, it was a beautiful, riotous, foul-mouthed celebration of the unapologetically average, of the kids who fall between the cracks. Its four protagonists each become cult icons in their own right. Will, a privately educated eccentric rarely seen without a briefcase, who for all his uptightness possesses a wit to rival Oscar Wilde; Simon, a deeply insecure romantic with "a pimply face and hair the Empire State building"; Neil, a guy so committed to gormlessness you eventually realise he's a genius, and Jay, the classic class liar whose claims that he has threeways with supermodels and once had trials for West Ham are beaten only by his insistence that golf stands for "gay outdoor lifestyle with fellas". The show would go on to fire out two critically-acclaimed movies and scoop a BAFTA, but its real legacy is a series of tropes that have become a way of life for hardcore fans. Such a way of life, in fact, that a petition was recently launched to demand a third and final series in which we can finally say goodbye to those lovable losers who came to define 21st century teenagedom. Here, then, are the best ten. Don't forget the thumbs up.
