Characters / Fresh Meat

The main characters

Josie Jones

Actor: Kimberley Nixon

Tropes:

• The Alcoholic: Probably the heaviest one of the house, and that's saying something. Deconstructed when drunk drilling gets her thrown off the course.
• Alpha Bitch: Albeit an ineffective one.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's much less sweet than she initially seems, and often gets violent or destructive when she loses her temper.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: "I'm a single lady! Can't you handle it?"
• Dumb Blonde: Not the brightest of the house and can be quite unprofessional and superficial.
• Anti-Villainy is petty: Can act quite petty towards Kingsley and Heather, especially when she first decides she's a single-lady.
• It's All About Me: Probably the worst offender followed by JP.
• Hypocrite:
  • She's upset at Kingsley for his deception in regards to actually losing his virginity to Ruth instead of her, but Howard points out that she never broke up with Dave, a fact she never admitted to Kingsley.
  • Despite being ok with an open relationship with Kingsley she chews him out for merely flirting with Sam, whilst sleeping with an entire other house and getting defensive when Kingsley calls her out on it.
• Never My Fault: Starts the 'Hole Drilling' protest, as opposed to just facing up to the consequences. And accepts no blame whatsoever for breaking Heather's arm when trying out a martial arts move Sabine taught her.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's the Red to Heather's Blue.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After her reveal as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, she only gets worse. Season 2 does see her getting taken down a peg, though, and she returns to normal.
• Villainous BSoD: In series 2, when the housemates learn that she has been thrown off her course: "All I wanted was to give myself to dental hygeine..."

Kingsley Owen

Actor: Joe Thomas

Tropes:

• Butt-Monkey: Not a lot goes right for him, what with the Embarrassing Nickname or two he gets labelled with, JP falling on him and breaking his leg, being left stranded in the Pennines with said broken leg, not doing too well with his relationships (at first) (though he does get more action than JP) suffering from ocular migraines due to stress before his finals.
• Characterization Marches On: Though he is initially set up as a poor victim of circumstances, he has a radical change of identity at the beginning of the second series, gaining a completely new fashion sense and an interest in music that has never been mentioned previously.
• Dirty Coward: Confrontation is not his strong point.
• Extreme Doormat: Doesn't always stand up for himself as often as he perhaps should. Dave had him on toast in every interaction.
• Small Name, Big Ego: When Heather asks Kingsley what genre his music fits into, he replies "That's for the NME to decide".
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Starts off as pretty normal and more sensitive than the other housemates, but descends into playing multiple girls at once after his change in identity.
• Unexpected Virgin: Lies about having had sex so he can fit in, but he doesn't lose his virginity until the first season.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Josie, until they get together in the second season finale.

Jonathan "JP" Pembersley

Actor: Jack Whitehall

Tropes:

• Aerith and Bob: His older brother is called Tomothy (his mother wanted to call him Tom, his father wanted to call him Timothy) and his name is Jonathan.
• Ambiguously Bi: Has demonstrated attraction to other men, especially Kingsley and Javier (the latter, who even comments on how much JP compliments his body).
• Broken Pedestal: Averted; though he worships his late father (especially since he didn't get a chance to say goodbye to him before his death), Vod finds a series of letters from his father to his illicit lover, and burns them before JP can read them.
• Casanova Wannabe: Although JP does have a healthy enough sex life, he has only a lukewarm success rate with picking up girls, and gets fobbed off and rejected many, many times throughout the show. Compares badly to Kingsley who casually sleeps with almost every girl or woman he talks to.
• Chivalrous Pervert: So crude and horny that he often doodles extremely detailed cocks on any kind of flat surface, but doesn't take advantage of women, and only ever sleeps with those he has some kind of bond with.
• Deadpan Snarker: For someone so sheltered and thick-headed, he can be a pretty sarcastic guy when the mood takes him. "Maybe he did some work and got paid for it", when answering Oregon's question as to how the handyman can afford so much money.
• First Girl Wins: He hooks up with Josie twice in the first season. After a long period of being Just Friends, they end the series as a couple.
• Handsome Lech: He's not a bad looking guy but his try hard flirting has turned off many girls as it has turned them on.
• Hidden Depths: Can be insecure and eager to please and fit in, though the fact that he's not a true Jerkass like his posh "friends" attracts some girls to him.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Continually hangs out with his old friends from Stowe, who obviously don't like him and just use him for money. He's incredibly naive about it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kingsley once describes JP as this trope: "[JP] is a dick, but for a dick he's surprisingly all right."
• Lovable Coward: When hiding from Dave because he slept with Josie whilst Josie was still in a relationship with the man.
• Ladykiller in Love: For all of his gusto, he does genuinely fall for a few girls over the course of the series. Especially Sam then Josie, who ends up being half of the Official Couple with him.
• Only Known by Initials: Downplayed since that while most characters refer to him as JP, a few do call him Jonathan (such as his mother).
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: His posh family means he can routinely hire barges or buy expensive items for the house. Come series 4, his reckless spending habits force his older brother to "turn off the money pipe" as incentive for him to find a post-university job.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: JP tries variants of this pretty often, from paying Vod for the biggest room in the house, to bribing his way into a BP careers event. Sam even lampshades this in series 3: "You can't just throw money at me like a one-man Bullingdon Club".
• The Nicknamer: Some of his nicknames are affectionate ("The Funky Vodster" for Vod), others not so much ("The Pig Man of Arbroath" for Howard)
• Upper-Class Twit: An ultimately harmless example but he is posh and at times lovably dumb.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: To his distant dad "I know you loved me, even though you never said it... or showed it... or even implied it..."

Violet "Vod" Nordstrom

Actor: Zawe Ashton

Tropes:

• Boyish Short Hair: Is a Ladette and usually keeps her hair short, meaning her flatmates are thrown for a loop when her hair is given a Girliness Upgrade when she gets with one of the handymen.
• Deadpan Snarker: Is one of the biggest offenders in the house, along with JP and sometimes Howard.
• Easily Forgiven: Gets away with selling out her friends alot and hiding away from her problems.
• Hidden Depths: Often accused of being flippant towards her education and not caring about anyone else. In reality, as she reveals to Josie and Oregon in series 4, she worked incredibly hard to get into university (doing night courses on top of several menial jobs) and cares about doing well.
  • While not the most academic person, she is good enough to get a 2:1 as her final grade; a degree mark from a British university is determined by how well the student does over their final two years. Not that surprising since English Literature is all about backing up opinions, which Vod is very, very good at.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Seems rough around the edges, but has a gruff, but sincere way of showing kindness to friends.
• The Lad-ette: Crass, vulgar, masculine, and sex-obsessed. Her intentional Girliness Upgrade to impress a man she likes makes her housemates appropriately shocked.
• Scholarship Student: Her "RAF scam"; her father is a member, and she's funding her studies through an officer bursary.
• Starving Student: When her RAF money runs out, she takes to borrowing money from the housemates until they all demand it back at once, forcing her to get a job as a cleaner.
• Sticky Fingers: A Running Gag is Vod "borrowing" Oregon's things without permission, including a skirt, a dress, and even her passport.

Howard McCallum

Actor: Greg McHugh

Tropes:

• Badass Bookworm: Series 3, episode 4: two bookworms fight over a book, Howard is victorious.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Boy is he ever. His first appearance sees him blow-drying duck carcasses with a hairdryer, while wearing a woolly jumper and no trousers. He tells Vod (who saw him like that upon first meeting him) that he is used to wearing "trousers of the mind". Right...
• Damned by Faint Praise: Referred to as 'not dangerous' by Josie during her first vlog.
• Deadpan Snarker: Shares this role with JP and Vod, he's a Meta Guy to boot pointing if Kingsley hates Josie he must like her.
• Loners Are Freaks: Oregon calls him a freak when with Tony Shales. Though he's way more normal and self-aware than Brian.
• Lovable Nerd: Starts off as The Friend Nobody Likes, but the others warm up to him after a while, and he gets the highest grade at the end of the series.
• Geek Physiques: Pudgier variant.
• Nerd Glasses: He tries contacts but they don't work out for him.
• The Stoic: Or so he claims. To Stowe Boy JP, the term means something very different.
• TV Genius: His list of pub quiz specialist subjects is rather impressive.

Melissa "Oregon" Shawcross

Actor: Charlotte Ritchie

Tropes:

• Bookworm: More scholarly than the others, barring Howard and Vod of all people.
• Bad Liar: "Oh my god! I forgot I had a car!"
• Hipster: Very anti-mainstream especially when trying to impress Vod.
• May–December Romance: With Tony Shales.
• Nervous Wreck: She's very neurotic about fitting in and sleeping with the right boys.
• Secretly Wealthy: Comes from a rich background like JP, but unlike him, it's not revealed at first.
• 0% Approval Rating: As president of the Student Union. Cutting the funding for the wheelchair rugby team to start a poetry prize in her name, then cutting from everywhere else to cover up her mistakes, leads to a vote of no confidence from the student body, leading to her impeachment.

Supporting characters

Other housemates

Paul Lamb The Invisible Man

Tropes:

Sabine

Actor: Jelka van Houten

Tropes:

• Brutal Honesty: Not afraid to dispense it.
• The Comically Serious: She's very, very straightforward and sensible. That's what makes her funny.
• Funny Foreigner: Averted. She's probably the most serious character on the show.

• Only Sane Man: She often comes across as this when the other housemates are doing something particularly stupid.
• The Teetotaler: Doesn't drink, much to the shock of the other housemates, who admit they need alcohol to do just about anything slightly risky.

Candice

Actor: Faye Marsay

Tropes:

• Corrupt the Cutie: Vod and Oregon are doing their best on her.

• Nice Girl: Nicer than the other lot for sure and the most innocent.
• Oop North: The only genuinely Mancunian member of the household, with a harsh accent to boot.
• Put on a Bus: In Series 4, she breaks up with Howard over the phone. Apparently they couldn't get Faye Marsay to return, because she's not seen or heard at all, we only hear Howard's side of the phone conversation.
• Token Good Teammate: In Series 3, she's pretty much the only housemate who doesn't act selfishly and doesn't do anything mean to the others, at least not intentionally.

Teachers

Professor Tony Shales

Actor: Tony Gardner

Tropes:

• Dirty Old Man: When he's together with Oregon, he's portrayed somewhat sympathetically, but after their breakup he moves to this category, as he simply won't stop lusting after her.
• May–December Romance: Old enough to be Oregon's father, as evidenced by the fact that she later dates his son.
• Sex with the Ex: Does manage to hook up with Oregon even after their breakup.
• Stalker with a Crush: Won't leave Oregon alone after they break up.
• Teacher/Student Romance: With Oregon.

Dan

Actor: Robert Webb

Tropes:

• One of the Kids: Despite being in his late 30s or early 40s, Dan is desperate to prove he's hip with the kids.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Subverted. He tries to come across as this, but when he feels betrayed by his students (such as when Kingsley files an anonymous complaint on him), he becomes petty and vindictive.
• Totally Radical: Except not really cool at all.

Other students

Heather

Actor: Sophie Wu

Tropes:

• Put on a Bus: In the beginning of Series 3, Sophie goes to Hong Kong and abruptly breaks up with Kingsley, so Kingsley doesn't even get caught cheating on her with Josie. Though everything eventually comes out when she returns for one more apperance at Howard's birthday party.
• Deadpan Snarker: Loves Irony.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's the Blue to Josie's Red.
• Romantic False Lead: She starts off as this, dating Kingsley while Josie longs after him, but eventually she becomes rounded enough to escape the stereotype.

Dave

Actor: Ben McGregor

Tropes:

• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humour: Towards Kingsley.
• Jerk Jock: Confident, subtly arrogant and aggressive. More so when drunk and comes damn close to beating up JP and Kingsley.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Justified, Josie slept with JP and Kingsley.
• Mr. Fanservice: Wears a Jerk Jock jacket and is ripped.