1. Matt Smith of Doctor Who fame actually auditioned to play Will and made it down to the last two, but ended up losing out to Simon Bird because he was a bit too handsome and heroic.
2. Greg Davies, who played Mr. Gilbert, was a real-life teacher for 13 years before becoming a stand-up comedian and actor – so he was perfectly trained for the role.
3. One of his students once nominated him for a “Teacher of the Year” award, and on the four-page submission document wrote only: “Mr Davies is a well good laugh, and he don’t make us do no work.”
4. Across all three seasons, there are only two scenes which do not feature any of the Inbetweeners. The first is when Mr. Gilbert talks to himself after the prom in the final episode of season one, and the other is in the second episode of season two, when Will’s mum and Neil’s dad meet Mr. Gilbert about their sons’ work experience.
5. The incredibly awkward bit in the Thorpe Park episode where Will shouts at the kids with Down’s Syndrome sitting at the front of the rollercoaster – that really happened to one of the writers in real life.
Image: Bwark Productions
6. In fact, a lot of the stories are based on the creators’ real lives. Iain Morris once told his mates he was going out with a girl who later turned up on their school’s blind date show saying she was “single and up for fun”, just like Will with Charlotte in the show.
7. Also, at a uni ball, a girl came up to him, kissed him and offered him sex, and he suggested that instead they skid up and down the floor in their socks, which Will does at the caravan club.
8. The other creator, Damon Beesley, was once wanked off on the side of a dancefloor in front of his friends – just like Simon.
9. Also like Simon, he was bought an extremely bad yellow car by his parents.
10. And perhaps worst of all, he once jumped up and down on the bonnet of a car shouting “Friend! Friend!” at one of his mates.
Image: Bwark Productions
11. When the random girl calls Will a wanker as he’s walking into class in the first episode, that line wasn’t in the script at all.
12. In the same episode, Jay tries to get served at the pub using an Australian driving license under the name Brett Clement. This is a homage to Bret McKenzie and Jermaine Clement in Flight of the Conchords, in which the two New Zealanders are repeatedly mistaken for Australians.
13. The school they use to film the outside shots for Rudge Park Comprehensive is actually Ruislip High School in London.
14. When the first episode of the show was aired, Joe Thomas (Simon) was 24 years old, even though he was supposed to be playing a 16 or 17-year-old.
15. Joe Thomas has a story many British ’90s kids would have absolutely dreamt of – he was part of the school team which built T.R.A.C.I.E, a grand finalist in the first series of Robot Wars.
16. The Inbetweeners was the first ever sitcom created for E4, and only the second ever show of any kind created for the channel – after Skins.
17. Simon Bird (Will) and Joe Thomas (Simon) were in the Cambridge University comedy sketch group Footlights together before being reunited for the show.
18. Belinda Stuart-Wilson, who played Will’s mum, is actually only 13 years older than Simon Bird.
Bwark Productions
19. Simon Bird once claimed in an interview that Blake Harrison (Neil) has a “fantastic penis”, so there you go.
20. Anthony Head, who plays Will’s dad in the first movie, is actually the real-life dad of Emily Head, who plays Carli.
21. The gang go on holiday to Malia in the movie, although almost all of the filming actually took place in Magaluf.
22. There’s a scene where Jay’s dad says to Neil’s dad: “Who’s this then, the vicar?” This is a cheeky reference to when Alex Macqueen, who plays Neil’s dad, actually did play a vicar in the IT Crowd.
23. During the film, the boys were allowed one “get out”, which meant they were allowed to opt out of doing something gross or embarrassing they didn’t feel comfortable with. James Buckley used his to get a body double for when his penis got whipped out, which meant he had to suffer things like having ants crawl all over his face.
24. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is when the boys get stuck on the coach with a bunch of Burnley fans who sing chants the whole way. When they later get to their hotel, the man who meets them has a tattoo for Burnley’s fiercest rivals, Blackburn Rovers.
25. Joe Thomas liked to read on set sometimes, so to mess with him while filming the first movie, James Buckley (Jay) cut out the very last page of his book with a scalpel and fed it to one of the writers.
26. They played a similar prank on him while filming the second movie – James went through and blanked out every fourth or fifth word of the crucial final chapter so that none of it made any sense.
27. While filming the second movie in the outback, James Buckley was convinced at one point that he was having a heart attack. Actually, he’d just eaten a huge bowl of chips and downed a pint, and was suffering from indigestion.
28. The Australian night club where the boys discover Jay working as a toilet attendant is actually the Ministry of Sound in Elephant and Castle in London.
Image: Film4
29. Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was originally supposed to be in The Inbetweeners 2, but she had to be cut because the scenes she had filmed had to be changed and she wasn’t available to reshoot.
30. After finishing The Inbetweeners, Blake Harrison (Neil), became the voice of Scoop in Bob the Builder.
31. Earlier this year, he also appeared as Frank Pike in the Dad’s Army movie remake.
32. Both Blake Harrison and James Buckley appeared in The Bill before getting their parts in The Inbetweeners.
33. By the time The Inbetweeners 2 came out in 2014, James Buckley already had two children with his wife Clair Meek – showing he’s basically nothing like his bullshitting, useless-in-love character.
