James Buckley has offered more comments on the ill-fated Inbetweeners reunion that aired on New Year’s Day to overall negative feedback.
The sitcom star previously apologised for the programme, during which he, Blake Harrison, Joe Thomas, and Simon Bird reunited on Channel 4 for a two-hour special hosted by Jimmy Carr, marking the 10th anniversary of the sitcom’s debut.
While Buckley thought an Inbetweeners reunion would be “impossible to f*** up”, many viewers complained about the special on social media.
Some seemed confused to realise the programme, titled Fwends Reunited, wasn’t a new episode but instead adhered to a chat show format, and some said it looked as though the four actors didn’t want to be there.
As it turns out, Buckley, who was in the US while the episode was in its infancy, says he didn’t become fully aware of the show’s format until he sat down in the studio with Carr and the audience.
He had gone in thinking the reunion would consist of himself and three co-stars reminiscing about The Inbetweeners. Instead, the special alternated between studio bits, pre-taped segments, and excerpts from the series.
“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,” he said in a video posted to his YouTube channel, Completed It Mate.
“I didn’t have the personality or the intelligence to cope with it, especially when you’re up against someone like Jimmy Carr, who’s super quick and super funny. So I come across as a complete moron through the whole thing.”
Buckley also says he got confused because he wasn’t sure whether or not he was expected to act like himself or his Inbetweeners character Jay.
“So that was another one of the reasons why it was a disaster,” he said. “And I’m not saying that’s an excuse because I should have done my f****** job and been an entertainer and been funny and I sort of couldn’t get over it and couldn’t get my head around it. I just didn’t have what it takes to roll with that.”
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