Created by Joe Tucker and Lloyd Woolf, it stars Blake Harrison as Ben, a directionless, young graduate who returns to his hometown of Great Yarmouth after leaving university.

Harrison is adept at the whole man-child thing and he's surrounded by a convincing bunch of slacker, lives-going-nowhere mates, for whom a trip to Chelmsford is the height of excitement”[7] and later praised the show as "a clever and funny insight into graduate life".

[8] Criticising the show as being "marred by some unnecessarily post-Partridge moments", the Radio Times nevertheless said, "Big Bad World sparks into life when it stops trying too hard and forges its own path.

Ben and Beth are easy to warm to, while Scarlett Johnson expertly cuts a diabolically fluffy figure as femme fatale Lucy.

"[9] DIY magazine praised the opening episode's "innate watchability", commenting that "Making us care for characters is no mean feat and creators Joe Tucker and Lloyd Woolf seem to have a plan to make us fall for Ben and his merry band of men and women.