With the release of The Inbetweeners Movie now mere days away, series creators, selective episode directors, and both series and film writers Iain Morris and Damon Beesley, appeared at Empire – Big Screen this weekend to talk about the upcoming film, and their work over the show’s three seasons; including discussing their favourite moments, the idea behind the film, their own lads holidays, and the use of the word ‘Clunge.’
Apparently the duo; who worked on The Peep Show, and collaborated with Ricky Gervais before he made The Office; didn’t set out to write an Inbetweeners film, but had a number of ideas and anecdotes they wanted to use in a teen comedy they planned on writing at some point. After they were approached about potentially making a comedy movie…
“We thought ‘why not?’ We’ve already got these four teen characters, loads of material, and they already have an inbuilt audience; which will make securing financing easier; and so we took the lazy way out and ended up making an Inbetweeners movie.”
They also approached the movie in a much more philosophical manner than the TV show (according to Damon); “because the show is about friendship, and teenage lads stuck in suburbia, but the film shows that you might be able to leave suburbia, but you will always take who you are with you”. Though Iain insists that “if you get that from the movie you’re a genius, because you’re never far away from some vomit, or someone wanking.”
Yet while they promise many more laughs in the film, seemed quite proud of the fact they managed to use a few arial shots, kept it to a comedically appropriate 96 minute runtime, and love reminiscing about the show (often about Joe Thomas’ private parts; and their appearances in several episodes) it doesn’t look like The Inbetweeners will be getting another series, or even an American Pie style reunion; as they insist this is “the end”, and spoke of the tears they cried upon first screening the film themselves, and seeing their baby reach maturity.
Now E4’s biggest, and clearly best, comedy series is heading to the big screen, and will feature the four lads; Will, Simon, Jay, and Neil; going on a lads holiday to Malia in search of the ever elusive clunge (a word that Iain and Damon; who confess to being the real-life Will and Simon; seldom use, and chose simply because it’s not perceived as overtly offensive), and getting into a number of hilarious mishaps, when The Inbetweeners Movie is released on August 19th (after previewing on the 17th & 18th).
