Simon Bird rules out The Inbetweeners reunion

Bird appeared on Lorraine this morning to talk about the new film he’s directed, Days of the Bagnold Summer.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly on her show, Bird discussed the synopsis of the film.

“It’s a film about this boy Daniel who’s a bit of a metal head, just likes eating crisps and listening to Iron Maiden and he thinks he’s going to spend the summer holidays in Florida with his dad, but at the last minute his dad cancels and he’s forced to spend it with his mum at home in England. And to him, his mum is the most annoying person in the world,” he said

Talking about working alongside his wife, Lisa, he said: “Lisa’s a novelist and this was her first go at screenwriting, so she adapted the screenplay from the book. And I’m biased, obviously… I think she did an alright job!”

Addressing The Inbetweeners, Lorraine questioned the frequency of fans approaching Bird about its return with Bird revealing that it comes up “ten to twenty” times a day. However, Bird went on to note that it isn’t going to happen and seemed pretty resolute on the matter.

“I mean I will say ‘never’ now. I think the reason that show worked is because the characters are kids, so they could say the terrible, awful things they said. Whereas if the characters were in their mid to late thirties, it’s slightly different!”

The Inbetweeners revolved around school pals Will, played by Simon Bird, Jay portrayed by James Buckley, Simon actor Joe Thomas and Neil played by Blake Harrison. Episodes followed their adventures and misadventures as they attempted to figure out adolescence, school life, horrid teachers, women, boozing and sex.

The series aired on E4 between 2008-2010 and while it has seen no new episodes since a two-hour special to mark 10 years since the first episode aired on Channel 4 last year. Fwends Reunited was blasted by viewers as being “awful”, “cringy” and “painful” with James Buckley admitting on his podcast that it was “really rushed” and not as celebratory as he would have liked. 

“It became a thing that wasn’t a celebration of this good thing I did in my life, it was me being taken the piss out of for hours on end,” Buckley noted. “I didn’t have the personality or the intelligence to cope with it, especially when you’re up against someone like [host] Jimmy Carr, who’s super quick and super funny.”