Joe Thomas interview
Joe Thomas says Kingsley's biggest low point was probably the soul patch...
This is going to be the last series of Fresh Meat. How dos that feel?
It's quite sad, obviously. I've really enjoyed doing it. But I suppose it can't go on forever. I'm really proud of it - I think that people have really taken to it, and we've got a proper following now - a 'fan base', dare I say it. I'm really proud that we've achieved that. So I have a mixture of pride and a slight sense of sadness that we won't be doing it anymore.
As you say, you couldn't keep going, you'd end up with a bunch of 47-year-old actors playing students still meant to be in their third year.
Yeah, although I'm only 46 at the moment! I want to bow out while I'm still slightly able to get away with it. I suppose age is a little bit vague with students, but we probably are at the top end of it. It's quite often the way with acting, though. You tend to 'act back', as it were, to a younger age. It's much rarer to have someone play a much older role. You'd not have someone younger than a student playing a student. But I'm happy to have graduated now.
How do you feel about Kingsley?
I like him. He's a nice guy, and I think he's had quite a sort of muddled time. I think that's quite representative of what university is like. It's quite confusing, and it doesn't necessarily reach a conclusion that's neat. It just stops. When you start, you see it as being something that will revolutionise your life, and often it doesn't, and one day you just have to leave.
Kingsley's love life is very muddled, and the Josie storyline is quite poignant, because it doesn't quite resolve in a satisfactory way. So I have some sympathy for Kinglsey. He's a really interesting character to play - quite challenging, in that he hasn't really got any massive funny traits. His lurches into pretentiousness and artiness are quite funny, but in general he's somebody who takes life relatively seriously and wants life to be decent and make sense. And it doesn't, always. I think there are quite a lot of Kinglseys out there. I think he has a recognisable set of neuroses to a lot of people.
He's got neuroses, but he's also one of the most well-balanced members of the household, isn't he?
I think so. But I think he's got quite a high sense of responsibility, which he can't always switch off. He's one of the more decent characters in the show, and in general, I think he's grown up quite a bit over the series. He's spent a lot of the previous series trying on disguises that don't really fit him. I think he's probably learnt a bit more about who he is now, and accepting that. But he's still capable of being a mess, and this series is set around their exams, so there's a lot of stress as well. That pressure is obviously quite madness-inducing, and everybody loses it a bit. I think university is a fairly unhappy place to be during exam time. It's just a lot of people wandering around in quite a lot of pain.
How do Kingsley's experiences compare with your own time at university?
I didn't live in a house, so I think my university experience was a bit more solitary. I spent quite a lot of time on my own. When I left university I lived in a house in London with two of my friends, and we were trying to become writers, and in some ways that was more like the Fresh Meat house. There was more of that "Whose turn is it to do the shopping? Will someone clean the toilet? Why is this room such a mess? Why is that soup still there?"
So I think my day-to-day university routine was probably quite different from Kingsley's, but the emotions were quite similar. I was probably still quite pretentious, still dressing in weird ways - always wearing a blazer and a scarf, and trying to be a poet. Kingsley's got a bit of that in him, and he takes himself too seriously, which I was quite prone to.
Do you think there's a pressure on students to enjoy their time at university because it's meant to be the time of their life?
Yeah, I think there is an element of that. And it's also quite a competitive place - you're supposed to be really cool and letting it all hang out, but then at the same time, you're kind of supposed to be getting your act together. What should the balance be? And there's so much to do, you wonder what you're missing out on by not joining stuff. I always felt that I could get my work done and then do maybe one other thing properly. I did comedy, and I'm really pleased that I did that. But I could have worked harder, or done other hobbies, or fallen in with a different crowd.
How was the last day on set?
It was quite emotional. I think we finished with a scene where we were all together. The reason it's poignant is because you never quite get that big pay-off that you think you're going to get. It's a bit like university itself, really. I remember when I finished my last exam, I imagined there'd be this moment of euphoria, and actually it wasn't like that.
Which one of the gang is the most likely to succeed in the real world, and how will Kingsley do?
What I hope is that Kingsley leaves university and gets a part in The Inbetweeners. That would be perfect. And for my next role, I'd like to end up playing a student who'd just been cast as a schoolboy. I think he'll do well, because he's basically nice, and I think nice people tend to do alright. I think they've probably all got a decent chance. I think even the outwardly eccentric among them will do okay. They'll all find their path. The characters are so well-done, you feel like you've met people just like them, and they all do fine, they all find their way.
What do you think have been Kingsley's high and low points at university?
I think the low point was probably the soul patch. And the series where he was trying to have two relationships at once, and is almost literally running between them. I mean, in some ways, I suppose, "Legend", but actually going through that is probably quite difficult and not to be advised. High point? Getting to sing songs by both Graham Coxon and Gaz from Supergrass. Two insanely talented people and incredibly friendly as well.