Season 2 - Episode Guide

The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society put on a Nativity play in this festive special - but with the BBC refusing to fund their disastrous productions, they are forced to seek corporate sponsorship. As usual, the show descends into chaos with an ingenious pop-up book proving a danger to cast and crew alike, the two actors playing the donkey falling out, and the baby Jesus being eaten by a sheep.

A coup in the ranks means that Robert is in charge of this week's show, and he is not going to accept the usual shambolic standards as they present a Downton-esque family saga.

Chris returns to the leadership of the Cornley Drama Society and puts on a production of a little-known play by Shakespeare (Colin Shakespeare). Sadly, his attempts to bring culture to the masses are thwarted by self-raising drawbridges, flammable props and an unfortunate meeting of power cable and metal suit of armour. Robert doesn't take his relegation to a non-speaking part lying down either, attempting to infiltrate every scene with his ‘relevant trumpeter.' And there's a battle scene for the ages, where none of the stops have been pulled out.

An American prison break drama is this week's offering from the Cornley Drama Society, full of intrigue, excitement and double cross. It's also full of errors, as the cast struggle to escape from the set, their costumes and… a phone box. There's a bizarre talking bird, a flying system which operates at random, and a prosthetic chin with a life of its own. And Robert's terrified niece Lucy makes her debut, with predictable disaster. It doesn't help that none of the cast understand the plot.

It's a different sort of show this week, as Chris asks each cast member to put on their own performance in order to head off a coup. Robert's acting disasterclass kicks things off, resulting in injuries both mental and physical. Max misunderstands what a Kitchen Sink Drama is, in a mercifully short music interlude. Vanessa attempts to cure her lack of spontaneity by putting on Whose Line... style improv, and fails. And Chris attempts to bring culture to the masses by performing an understandably long-forgotten ballet.

Continuing last-week's Disaster Festival, The Cornley Drama Society put on four more performances. An audio drama is a thinly disguised Marks and Spencer voice-over audition for Sandra. Dennis performs the world's least interesting play, Annie stages a 70s farce that's been long-forgotten for moral and ethical reasons, and Jonathan puts on a triumphant circus-based musical as the show's finale. Also, there is a horse, and there are tranquilisers, and terrible things happen as a result.