The Only Way is Essex may have notched up a million viewers on ITV2 and be nominated for a BAFTA, but a pair of guerilla comedians have decided that the show doesn’t quite meet their standards of the county and have decided to make their own version.

Craig Power and David Head send up the “pretentiousness” of the hit programme in their own ‘unreality’ show which has been watched over 27,000 times on YouTube.

Actor and comedian Craig, 26, and his friend David, 31, have created the videos in which a pair of car-washers called Tony and Nige live the dream lifestyle by sitting in luxury cars that they are cleaning for other people, topping up their badly applied fake tan and drinking “eight nights a week”.

Craig, originally from Hackney, and now of Chigwell, said: “I’ve been doing stand up comedy for a while and I’d been thinking about spoofing the pretentiousness you sometimes get about having to have a nice car and certain hair cut.

“Then when the programme come out I said to my friend if we spoof it something good will come out of it.”

The comedy involves the pair visiting real locations used in the show, and at times having to evade security and staff – inspired by Sacha Baron Cohen.

One particular highlight is when one of the characters decides to top-up his tan by using an advert for Brentwood’s own Sugar Hut nightclub at the side of a busy road.

“That bit was all improvised,” said Craig. “We were just going back to the van having done a close up of it when I said to my friend: ‘You need to lay down there and get in your pants’.”

The videos can be seen on YouTube by searching for “The Only Way Is NOT Essex” or Productions Plastic.

But like the real show, their videos are only suitable for adults.