It seems Britain is not quite as ready as Australia to embrace the quirky humour of Chris Lilley's Logie award-winning TV hit Summer Heights High.
BBC aired the first episode of the popular ABC series last night, after buying the local rights in May.
But many British TV critics have already canned the show.
In a scathing review, The Daily Express critic Matt Baylis labelled the show's "mockumentary" style tired and dated, with the humour "coming from another century".
"It pretends to be a documentary, a trick that probably looks groovy if you happen to live in Wagga Wagga. However, it's been doing the rounds of the rest of the world since This is Spinal Tap in 1984," Baylis wrote.
The program's controversial reputation gave it more credibility than was deserved, he said.
"The only thing controversial about this is the BBC's decision to spend our licence money on it and slap it on the schedules."
Despite the BBC enthusiastically billing Summer Heights High as a favourite program of Kylie Minogue and gossip blogger Perez Hilton, the show was given the low-profile time slot of 10:30pm on the broadcaster's digital channel BBC3.
However, the Aussie show still attracted plenty of attention from British critics who drew largely unfavourable comparisons with their own home-grown comedy hit The Office.
While conceding Summer Heights High had its moments, The Times critic Andrew Billen suggested Lilley, who stars as the show's main characters — teacher Mr G, snobby schoolgirl Ja'mie and naughty schoolboy Jonah — should stop casting himself in all the "plum" roles.
"It was like seeing [The Office actor] Ricky Gervais play Brent, Gareth and Dawn. Virtuosity is good, Chris. Funny is even better," Billen wrote.
Some critics were a shade kinder to the satirical series, however, with a few predictions the show, described as "chucking Molotov cocktails at the barriers of bad taste", could become cult viewing.
Lilley has not yet responded to ninemsn's request for a comment on the reviews.
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