It may have been a huge hit with teens during its three-season run, but one of The Inbetweeners’ performers believes it would not be filmed today.
The teen sitcom followed the escapades of suburban teenager William (Simon Bird) and his friends Simon (Joe Thomas), Neil (Blake Harrison), and Jay (James Buckley) at his fictional comprehensive from 2008 to 2010.
While it addressed subjects such as friendship, it also addressed others such as sexuality and lad culture in a way that Simon believes implies it would not hold up to today’s standards.
‘I honestly think it wouldn’t be commissioned today,’ he told the Telegraph.
He added it hadn’t aged well because of the sexism and ‘casual homophobia’.
‘I rationalise it to myself by saying that at the time it was an accurate representation of the way teenagers talk to each other. Is that still the case now? I assume not,’ he added.

Simon, who played the hapless public-school transfer who was frequently the brunt of his friends’ jokes, also stated that the show had a hefty dose of lad culture.
‘Although the programme was set in the 2000s, it was based on a pilot set in 1990, so even in the 2000s it wasn’t really an accurate reflection of how teenagers spoke,’ he said.
The sitcom was a great sensation when it initially aired, and it generated two feature films that followed the lads as they went on vacation, first to Greece for their end-of-school trip, and then to Australia a few years later.

While there was a cast reunion in 2019, some of the stars, including Simon, have since dismissed the possibility of a third film.
Last year Simon was asked if there was a prospect of the four lads coming back to play parents themselves, he stated it was a ‘hard no’.
‘It just wouldn’t be the show people want or remember.’
His comments came after James said there ‘wasn’t enough money in the world’ to make him go back.
It wasn’t because he wouldn’t have ‘an fantastic time doing it,’ because it was ‘the best job in the world,’ but because he didn’t want to spoil it, according to James.
The Inbetweeners is streaming on Channel 4.