Thorpe Park (The Inbetweeners)

Thorpe Park is the third episode of the first series of The Inbetweeners. It first aired on 8 May 2008 on E4 and had 305,000 viewers.^[2]

Plot

Simon is about to take his driving test, but does not feel confident that he will pass, whereas Will, Jay and Neil are over-optimistically discussing the possibilities of one of their group owning a fully-fledged driver's licence. Before Simon even takes his test, they have already decided to go to Thorpe Park - where Neil works.

Despite Simon's poor driving abilities, he is able to pass his test, because his female examiner has a crush on him, touching him sexually and letting him off all his mistakes. His dad then buys him a small yellow Fiat Cinquecento Hawaii with a tape deck, much to his dislike and embarrassment. Simon then goes to collect Will and Jay to take them to Thorpe Park.

After the journey - which includes "stalking" a car full of girls and interfering in a funeral procession - the boys finally arrive at Thorpe Park; although things do not go to plan there either. Jay detaches the passenger side door when he impatiently opens the door whilst Simon is still driving and the boys end up having to carry the door around with them all day. Neil tells Simon that his sister's boyfriend is a highly-skilled mechanic and could easily fix the door before Simon's dad finds out. However, later in the episode it is discovered that Neil's sister's boyfriend is not a mechanic, he just works part time for one, performing basic tasks.

When Will finally gets to the front of the queue for Nemesis Inferno, he is told that there is only space for one more person at the front, meaning that he, Simon, Neil and Jay cannot all sit together. This annoys Will, as he and his friends have queued for an especially long time (in a different queue) for the special front seats. Will demands that whoever has pushed in moves, calling them "inconsiderate assholes", before angrily sitting down next to them, only to realise they are from the "Happy Foundation", a charity for people with Down syndrome. After the ride they return to the car which has been vandalised by the Happy Foundation. They see the Happy Foundation people leaving on a bus, making rude gestures at them.

Cast

• Simon Bird as Will McKenzie
• Joe Thomas as Simon Cooper
• James Buckley as Jay Cartwright
• Blake Harrison as Neil Sutherland
• Henry Lloyd-Hughes as Mark Donovan

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Thorpe Park

• "Thorpe Park" at E4.com
• "Thorpe Park" at TV.com
• "Thorpe Park" at channel4.com
• "Thorpe Park" at the Internet Movie Database