INTERVIEW: The Inbetweeners 2 cast on childish humour, gap years and what we can expect from their new film

Tell us the truth - is this film as funny as the last one?

Joe (Simon): I think it's funnier actually. I think this film is closer to the episodes as in it's based off quite a simple premise and develops from there - which is a better canvas for the type of humour the Inbetweeners is famous for. It's a lot more bantery and there are two or three big characters who come into the film who are hilarious.

Blake (Neil): We genuinely believed the last one was the end. We didn't have cynical plans to come back and do a sequel, but because we have such amazing, passionate fans, in the end the writers succumbed and wrote a script. We read it, it was amazing, and the reasons not to do it became less and less. As far as we're concerned this is the end, but you never know.

The film is based on a gap year of sorts - did any of you take one, and did your experiences help you during filming at all?

Joe: I had a pathetic Inbetweenery type gap year. I hung about in Perth for a while working at a drama club, although I looked about 15 so people genuinely had no respect for me, people though I was someone's child rather than a teacher. I then had the opportunity to go backpacking and do the hippy trail and go to Vietnam and Cambodia, but in a very Inbetweenery way - I had a girlfriend back home and I was kind of scared of travelling alone, so I went back to England and got a job at a Civil Engineering company.

I just wasn't ready, and the film evokes memories of that for me because the thought of being 18-years-old and travelling southeast Asia was just absolutely terrifying. I think at the time I underestimated how well trodden that backpackers trail would be and that other English speakers would be there, but I thought 'Why would I go somewhere where I can't speak the language, I have no source of income and I'm alone? That's madness.'

And I think that almost sums up the essence of The Inbetweeners really, it's that feeling that 'other people know what they're doing and I don't and I still sort of wish I was at home with my parents.' It's that lack of confidence; of knowing you're not a total loser but also knowing you aren't cool enough to pull off a lot of things that other people seem able to.

And what was it like filming in Australia?

Blake: Well when you grow up in London, and you go to somewhere that has a population of literally 67 people and it's 50 degree heat, you think - wow we are gonna see some mental wildlife - but actually what you get is just flies everywhere, because the only thing dumb enough to live in that kind of environment are flies. We had an ongoing battle with them, like putting tiger balm on and spraying different lotions around.

Joe: By the way, none of those things worked. It was exhilarating because you're in an environment that can kill you so quickly if you don't have shelter and water so it feels like an adventure.

Was it easy to slip back into your roles after a three year break?

Simon (Will): Scarily easy actually. We're like brothers now. We can not see each other for a while but when we get together we return to that same juvenile, stupid humour we've always had. The set of the Inbetweeners is like no other set I've ever worked on - it's completely unprofessional, full of pranks, it's a great excuse to act like a child for a while and we all missed it.

Can you give us some examples of what you got upto on this film?

Simon: Well there was this time with Joe, who as you know is kind of pretentious. James doesn't like the idea that Joe reads for pleasure, so when we find him with his beak in a book, we'll try to find some way of messing with him.

In the first film, James very carefully cut out the last page of his novel with a scalpel - with surgical precision - and then Ian (one of the writers) ate it. We built on this for the sequel.

James (Jay): So for film two, I took a marker, and all the way through the crucial last chapter, every fourth or fifth word, I blanked it out, so it'd read: 'Did you see blank?' It made absolutely no sense and he was very upset. He bought a new book, but then I just read the last chapter before him and slowly ruined it by telling him what happened.

Are you like your characters?

James: People are always disappointed that I'm not this sex obsessed pervert. They come over and I'm like 'oh you alright guys I'm just dropping off my laundry and then I've got to get back to my wife and kids,' and I see a bit of their soul die like 'this is NOT Jay from the Inbetweeners.'

Simon: I don't think we could function in society if we were truly like our characters, sorry.

And James, will you let your kids watch the Inbetweeners when they're a bit older?

James: People won't be talking about it in ten years! And besides, I'll have such a credible body of work behind me, I'll have my Oscar etc, so they won't need to.

Simon: Yeah you'll be on your fifth James Bond film…

You're all in your twenties and thirties now, do you ever wonder that you're getting too out of touch to play 18-year-olds?

James: The characters are out of touch themselves. It's like fashion. If you've never been fashionable, its not something you worry about. Like Simon's hair…that is not of this decade, but it works.

And finally, what's your favourite Inbetweener's joke?

James: Mine is 'Nobody brings a bag of s*** to a pub. Your dad does. No your mum.' It's simple and just so stupid.

Simon: I like the scene where Joe had his testicle out, it was funny to make him do it, funny to see, and something that I can never unsee.

The Inbetweeners 2 is in cinemas from Wednesday 6th August.