On tour to promote their new film The Inbetweeners Movie, Simon Bird and Joe Thomas (who play Will and Simon respectively on TV series The Inbetweeners) sat down with us to discuss British humour, lads holidays, using a stunt penis, bonding, bullying, and which is the fairer sex.

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Can you tell us about the film?

Joe Thomas: The film's based on the TV series The Inbetweeners, which is about four typical British teenagers. The series sees them primarily in and around school. The film is very different to the series because it's about their summer holiday, so it takes them out of the world that you sort of see them in. It's basically like the English version of schoolies, it's them participating in this tradition of going to, in our case, Malia, the resort of Malia in the Mediterranean, and trying to sort of do whatever it is that you're meant to be doing when you finish your exams.

Simon Bird: Which is basically trying to get drunk and…

[Together] Get laid.

Joe Thomas: Basically, get drunk. Try and have sex, but then after the first hour that you've been out the sex thing, you lose track of it a little bit so it's pretty much just getting drunk.

Simon Bird: We should point out as well that it is a comedy.

Joe Thomas: Yeah, it's a comedy. Yes, yes, yes.

Simon Bird: It's sort of a British take on the American teen comedy genre. Eg Superbad and American Pie, so it's like that with a British sense of humour.

I actually read the other day that "Lewd humour is hard-wired into the English DNA"...

Joe Thomas: I think there is probably something in that. I think the English swear a lot, it's one thing we're quite good at. I think there's also the sort of tragic, loser quality that these characters have is quite English as well. And often that involves them being sort of humiliated so we're often… which does include nudity or something equally disgusting.

Simon Bird: And there's been some brilliant swearing recently. The Thick of It and In the Loop and Peep Show really elevate it to an art form, and hopefully we're in that tradition.

Joe Thomas: Absolutely. There's some wonderful stuff in The Thick of It, it's just great. So yeah, we are participating in that noble tradition.

Have either of you ever been on a lads trip?

[Together] Yeah.

Simon Bird: We both have, in different capacities. So I did something that was exactly the same as The Inbetweeners movie. I went to a, because it is sort of a right of passage in the UK, I went to a resort called Tenerife and I had an experience very similar to the four boys, which was I didn't really speak to anyone outside of my friendship group. And sort of wanted to leave within the first day.

Did you bring your own t-shirts as well?

Simon Bird: Yes, we had our own t-shirts.

No way.

Joe Thomas: Did you have a nickname?

Simon Bird: Yeah. I did. I don't want to… it's so embarrassing. I don't know why? It was, um, S Dog. Dog spelled D-A-W-G. So, why not?

Joe Thomas: That hasn't really stuck, has it?

Simon Bird: No, it's hasn't caught on, certainly. Um, Joe had an equally crazy post-exam holiday...

Joe Thomas: Oh yeah, God, I don't know if you've heard of the English mountain range the Pennines? I went on a sort of nature walk, with five quite studious boys. Walked up mountains, so yeah, that was my sort of…

No Pussay Patrol?

Joe Thomas: There was no pussay there, no.

It's hard to even say that.

Joe Thomas: I know, we don't even like saying it to be honest. So it's lucky that it's literally our job. But yeah, I never did do that lads holiday, never without my parents. I remember that thing, of like… I had more of the experiences that are more explored in the series, which is sort of quite tragically trying to pull girls at holidays that basically you're on with your parents. So I tried to do that, but I never did the full blown, just the lads, nobodies going to tell us what to do, we're going to go absolutely mental type of holiday. So this was a chance to try and relive my non-lived adolescents I guess.

What was it like taking your characters off on holiday?

Joe Thomas: It was a new challenge for us. I think with the series we all got pretty comfortable playing those characters. It was nice doing something that had a proper story to it, like over an hour and a half to show the characters learn something, face a challenge, and kind of fall out and come back together again. So it was good, I think it was the right time to do it. Also a lot of it was similar, it was made by the same team who made the series, so it was really nice to do a longer story and I think to take the characters out of their comfort zone was important. In the series, as I said, it was in and around their hometown, so there's always a natural cutoff point where if things have gone wrong they've always been bailed out by their parents, where as here, things reach a certain point and they just keep getting worse because there's nobody to come and rescue them. They reach a point and they just have to carry on, and they have to resolve the situation themselves, rather then get their dad to pick them up. It was really nice seeing that happen to them.

There is a sweetness that runs below the cluelessness in the film.

Simon Bird: Absolutely. I think that is important to draw that out in the film. And I think it sort of excuses the offensive language as well, the laddiness.

Joe Thomas: And they're wearing these awful t-shirts, the Pussay Patrol t-shirts, that image of like a cat with an erection is pretty much the vilest thing, but somehow it works because they are so obviously not the Pussay Patrol, they're not any kind of Patrol and they've never seen a pussy, so it's laughable that they're pretending to be that. The joke is on them, I mean it's completely transparent that they are not what they say they are, not even close. Hopefully, that sort of redeems the crudity of the language.

Simon Bird: And I think that sort of makes the audience empathise with them as well. You feel sorry for them and their disillusioned expectations.

Joe Thomas: They're sort of low to average boys. [Laughs] But they're trying to do what every boys wants to do on holiday, and there's nothing but competition from men who are clearly better equipped than they are to get those things. You do sort of feel for them. I think you do know right from the start they're not going to get what they want, so hopefully it's the thrill of seeing what actually will happen to them.

Humiliation is also a big part of the humour. Is it a nervous read, going through each new script?

Simon Bird: I don't think it is really, because the reason it's in there is because it's funny and that's a big part of the success of the show. When we're having to film those scenes I don't think we ever really feel that embarrassed, because we know it's for a good reason and that the results will be worth whatever humiliation you have to feel at the time. I mean, I say that, but I hard ever have to do anything. Joe? Joe?

Joe Thomas: To be honest, it would be a surprise, but the writers can't contain themselves from ringing me up as soon as they've written some humiliating thing. Not in the film, but in the series there's a bit where Simon my character is doing a fashion show and wearing Speedos and a testicle comes out the side of his Speedos. They rang me up as soon as they'd written that, I think to sort of check that I was alright with it.

Simon Bird: Certainly not to check if you were alright with it.

[Laughs]



Joe Thomas: No, that's it. They just sort of told me 'You're going to do this.'

Simon Bird: Just to extend the bullying.

Joe Thomas: Yeah, more or less. There were a couple of awkward moments in the film as well. Nudity is actually the worst, because you have to do it for real. Some of the situations are incredibly embarrassing for the characters, but you don't actually have to do it. Like, Will shits himself in his exam in series three, but you don't actually physically have to do it. Where as I ...

Simon Bird: Oh. Whoops. Somebody could have told me?

Joe Thomas: Oh mate, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the thing about, there's no other way … Well I mean I'm sure there are sophisticated, CGI ways of achieving nudity, but we definitely don't use them, so...

Simon Bird: Although we did with James [Buckley who plays Jay] actually.

Joe Thomas: That's true.

Simon Bird: James has to get his penis out in the film, but he didn't want to.

Joe Thomas: Fair enough.

Simon Bird: So they, ahh, that's a stunt penis you see CGI'd onto his body.

The old stunt penis, hey?

[Together] Yeah!

Joe Thomas: It's quite the stunt!

Inbetweeners has come a long way.

Joe Thomas: Tell me about it. Basically, that was the entire CGI budget for the film was spent on some engineer sitting in a room for two days looking at this penis and trying to graft it on to James body. That must've been a grim 48 hours.

Is there a situation you'd like to see Simon, Will, Jay and Neil in, in the future?

Joe Thomas: Oh, that's an interesting question. Oh yeah, we should probably try and come up with one?

Simon Bird: Well first of all, it's never really up to us. It's based so entirely on Iain [Morris] and Damon [Beesley's] lives that that would be weird of us to start speculating, but, that said… What?

Joe Thomas: For me the heart of the show is that's it's just so nice and unusual to see characters that aren't being led down conveniently dramatic tangents, but who are primarily living the life that a typical teenager would live. And Iain and Damon have such a keen comic eye, so as long as they're able to kind of keep doing that and keep making it funny.

Simon Bird: That's exactly right. My favourite episodes in the series are the ones that on the surface seem the most boring and mundane. Just, people come over to Will's house and then they try and get into a party, so it's not really about the situation. In may ways the show is about four boys that don't find themselves in any crazy situations, they just muck along and make themselves laugh.  

Joe Thomas: I'd like to know where, I mean obviously these characters would have a life beyond this school, I mean, the slightly sad thing is that they probably wouldn't hang around together after school. I don't think?

That's why it's quite nice at the end, that it kind of touches on that sadness finally clicking.

Joe Thomas: Yeah, I think it really is. It is never really the same, and you get so bored of your friends when you're at school and you think 'Oh, I'm never going to miss this!', but actually that sort of situation doesn't particularly return and it is kind of sad. There are maybe ways to bring these characters together again, but we've exhausted all the obvious avenues I think.

So what's next for the The Inbetweeners?

Joe Thomas: Well this is it for the moment. I think it's pretty unlikely that we'd go back and do another series. Mainly because that is set in their school world and we've gone to the end of that line. They've done that, they've finished. Although, I think there will be people who would like to do another film, and certainly, I mean, we would put ourselves in that group.

[Together] It's kind of up to the writers.

They might want to bully you some more?

Joe Thomas: Yeah exactly! And that is literally why they'll do it. They'll get 'sad' or they'll 'miss us', by which they mean they'll miss bullying us and they'll get us back to do some ridiculous stuff. [Laughs] That is honestly how it operates.

Did the team bond more while being overseas shooting the film?

Simon Bird: Yeah, but to be honest we were pretty bonded after doing three series. We did have lots of new people, we welcomed the gang with open arms and that was great.

Yes, you have some new lady friends...

Joe Thomas: Yep, four great girls. Like a girl Inbetweeners. I think they were initially intended to be like a girl equivalent of us, but I don't think you can make girls look quite as pathetic as teenage boys. I just think girls always retain some sort of dignity and boys just let themselves go.

Simon Bird: Most girls are pretty, where as

[Together] Most boys are ugly.

[Laughs]

Joe Thomas: You very rarely see a man and think 'My God, that is a thing of beauty!' It's just the fairer sex, isn't it? But yeah, the girls were great and they bonded with us really well. Although, I think we were pretty annoyed that we had to tone down some of our banter, but they were a right laugh and we did enjoy working with them, it was good.

Simon Bird: We did have to stop… We did have quite a lot of homoerotic banter between the four of us. We had to tone that down.

Joe Thomas: There was a lot of, like, trying to kiss each other. And honestly, people just don't understand. Although, in a way, it does sound weird? Like, why would anybody understand that?

Simon Bird: Yeah, that just doesn't travel.

Joe Thomas: It doesn't translate. So we had to stop doing that. James Buckley would do a thing where you're trying to film a scene and he'd just reach his arm around and just put his hand on your bum. And I'd be like 'I literally can't concentrate! What are you doing?' So, why that happens, I don't know? I really don't know.

Simon Bird: It comes from the top. It comes from Iain and Dame.

Joe Thomas: Yeah, it really, really does. Iain instituted a tradition of beginning each take with people [Laughing] giving each other a little, gentle kiss on the cheek. I don't know why we find it funny, we're just really immature I guess and we just find it funny? The girls ruined it. But no, the girls were good, they were very, very charming and patient with us.

Simon Bird: They were, yeah.

[I get told to wrap it up]

Lastly then, outside of The Inbetweeners, what do you guys have going on at the moment?

Joe Thomas: I'm in a show called Fresh Meat, which is set in a university. That's just been recommissioned for a second series so I'll be doing that next year.

Simon Bird: And I'm in a show called Friday Night Dinner, which is another sitcom, which is also doing a second series later this year. And me and Joe are writing a show called Chickens with our friend Jonny Sweet, which has been commissioned. So we are quite busy…

Joe Thomas: We are now too busy. Watch this space! I mean, watch it for about a year, then you'll get bored.

So... watch it for now?

Joe Thomas: Yeah, yeah.

[Together] Yeah.




The Inbetweeners is in cinemas now.