Bowled over

BBC1, 9pm COMEDIAN Jack Whitehall is perfectly cast here as a posh Oxford University student who is set upon a quiet life of contemplation as a priest.

He and his friend play chess and plan days out to do brass rubbings. Cue lots of innuendo and arched eyebrows – and perhaps a cheeky nod to certain news stories about politicians and their university antics.

But as this Evelyn Waugh adaptation begins in 1928, poor innocent Paul Pennyfeather (Whitehall) is accidentally embroiled in a scandal when a group of drunken students strip him naked – oh, the shame.

“He ran the whole length of the quadrangle without his trousers? That’s not a standard we expect from a scholar.”

And so Pennyfeather is unceremoniously booted out, left to fend for himself with a reference that screams “this person behaved in an indecent manner in public”.

He ends up taking a job at a terrible public school in Wales, tasked with teaching all manner of subjects, including cricket (which he can’t play) and German (which he can’t speak).

And his class of fifth form boys are complete horrors, tormenting the hapless Pennyfeather at every turn.

Everything is looking pretty dismal for him until the arrival, like a ray of sunshine, of the beautiful Mrs Beste-Chetwynde (“Beast Cheating”) played by Desperate Housewives’ Eva Longoria.

And he falls head first for the wealthy widow.

Also, watch out for Stephen Graham as creepy butler Philbrick, Vincent Franklin as fellow teacher Prendergast, David Suchet as the stern headmaster Dr Fagan and Douglas Hodge as the onelegged and usually drunk Captain Grimes.