Fresh Meat, Channel 4, TV review: The antics of this larger-than-life lot still appeal way beyond the student realm

The gang were back and the final year fear brought out the worst in them – in the best way possible

Class act: Richard Goulding as Tomithy and Jack Whitehall as JP in 'Fresh Meat' (Channel 4)

As reclusive geology student Howard (Greg McHugh) declared himself “the Fritzl of revision”, we were reminded of the strength of Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong’s university-set show. It’s close-to-the-bone, dark comedy with a house of brilliantly drawn characters that are elevated from student stereotypes to personalities whose ludicrous moments we savour – even if uni is a distant memory.

The six are all heightened versions of people everyone meets at university, particularly obnoxious toff JP (Jack Whitehall) and deluded, insecure Oregon (real name Melissa, played by Charlotte Ritchie) and pretentious literature student Kingsley (Joe Thomas), who in this episode started eating imported cornflakes to give himself “foibles”. They’d entered their final two terms and the fear started to kick in, hence why Howard had bunked down below stairs to revise. The revelation that the house had a cellar too provided one of JP’s best one-liners: 'Now you tell me. And all this time I've been storing my wine in a rack, like some....accountant.”

We were treated to double the posho action as JP’s brother Tomothy (Richard Goulding) was in town. With the same shiny, pasty pink hue as our prime minister, it was hard to look at and listen to him without thinking of pigs and drinking societies. He was ostensibly up north to help JP take advantage of the old-boy network that had helped him secure a graduate job as a banker. In reality, he was using time away from his family to indulge in a bit of “flirty shirty” with Oregon.

Zawe Ashton’s weirdly mesmerising Vod was on usual outrageous form, turning to drug dealing to pay off her debts. Crisis was averted when the pill she flogged to Tomothy turned out to be harmless, but at least we learnt that dealing’s an occupational hazard, kids – while having a laugh about it. “The fun’s running out,” said Josie (Kimberley Nixon) at one point, which is why I’m going to savour every bit of it until finals.