James Buckley interview
The Inbetweeners star James Buckley is taking on a new lead role, in Dave's fantasy sitcom [z]Zapped]. We spoke to him about the new show, the legacy of The Inbetweeners, and his career so far.
What can you tell us about your character?
My character is Brian Weaver. There's a mix-up with a phone charger he's waiting for delivery of and he ends up with this bracelet. He puts it on whilst sat at his desk at work, and is transported to another universe. A parallel dimension.
That's how the show starts. He then meets all these weird people, and spends pretty much all of his time trying to work out how to get home.
He's very boring, very ordinary. It's a very surreal situation that he finds himself in.
What attracted you to the show?
It follows a lot of sitcoms that I love. I felt that it had a lot of similarities with things like Red Dwarf: Dave Lister is in a strange situation and trying to get home. Red Dwarf's one of my favourite, favourite sitcoms. I also thought it felt a little bit like Blackadder. Blackadder II, especially. It just felt like there's a character stuck in the middle of a bunch of clowns, and he's the only one - to him - who makes sense in this situation. Everyone else is just talking gobbledegook. I really liked that.
Obviously then you've got Baby Cow co-producing the show and I've loved a lot of what they've done, from The Mighty Boosh to recent Alan Partridge stuff. Steve Coogan's been involved, lending a hand, going over scripts and things. He came in yesterday to do a part, which was huge for me. He's probably my biggest influence, on what I do as a performer. It was a masterclass in how you should be funny.
So it's just a good part, with some really good people behind it. It felt like a good opportunity to do something different to what people know me for.
Is there some part of Brian that's a bit excited to be in this strange place?
His main focus is really to get home, that's all he's bothered about. There are a few scenes where he's really fed-up. He's annoyed with the people around him. It's all that struggle really, he's desperate to get home. This place is weird, he's not a part of it. He could be anyone. He wants to get home from this bizarre world where he doesn't understand the rules.
How do you think you'd cope if you found yourself in this kind of situation for real?
I think if I ever found myself in some kind of difficult situation like that, I'd probably curl up into a ball and just sit there and wait for sweet death. Deep down I'd love to be gallant and strong, but I know my character; that's why I'm an actor! It's an easy job, I can't handle any sort of difficulty in my life. I mean I'm out of my death doing this job! If you've watched The Inbetweeners and things like that and think "He probably shouldn't be doing this", you should watch me try to put a shelf up or something like that - you'd go "Yeah, actually we'll give him a break, he's doing the best he can".
Your name is likely to be a draw to a lot of Inbetweeners fans to watch Zapped.
Hopefully, yeah, that'd be good. It's very much in my comfort zone. It's on Dave, and what I like to do is avoid those big channels and surprise people, go "we're doing something good over here". Then the audience feel they're into something that's almost a bit of a secret. It's fun to do things that way.
And Dave's been really supportive and behind it as well, a really original programme for them. And going on the back of Red Dwarf as well - it's really exciting times for James Buckley!
Do you feel this is doing a bit for fantasy what Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy did for sci-fi?
Do you know, I've actually not seen much of Hitchhiker's Guide. I've seen almost everything - I've got an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of comedy, the history of British comedy especially - but Hitchhiker's Guide sort of never came on my radar. It's not been used as a reference, but it's been brought up a couple of times now - but I think that's good. If you took a photograph of me - Brian - and Hitchhiker's Arthur Dent, maybe we'd look quite similar, but it's good to take those influences but not copying them. I can't imagine this will be too like it, but I get that there's a similarity, a guy travelling the universe...
Zapped also has some similarities with E4's Tripped, in the character being taken off to another world and trying to get home - have you compared notes with Blake Harrison at all?
Of course! Yeah - it's not similar in many ways; I know Blake is a huge comic book fan, so whenever something like that would come his way, the fantasy thing, he's really into that. But we're not meeting alternate Brians or anything like that. This is more like if an office-based comedy was set within Game Of Thrones. Even though it's a bizarre idea, it still feels really traditional. It feels like there's a lot of traditional British comedy style in it.
That's another thing I liked about the show. If you say "a guy puts on a bracelet and goes into another dimension", that might make people go "oh, a bit weird - maybe I won't try that". But it's really accessible even though it's in a strange situation. It feels very traditional, which I really like.
Do you think the fantasy genre is particularly ripe for comedy at the moment?
I think somebody needs to start taking it down a peg or two! I'm not a fan of Game Of Thrones or Hobbits and towers and things like that. I just hate all of it. Cannot stand it. I watched all of those Lord Of The Rings films, and just - boring. So boring. They go on forever and ever and ever. I think it's time for somebody to start poking holes in that genre, and I'm up for it!
What do you particularly like about the fantasy world of Zapped?
What's great about this world is that it feels like it's not finite. When we started The Inbetweeners I was a teenager. On day one, it was like "oh this is really great fun, but this will end at some point", whereas... I could spend the next decade of my life doing this - hopefully! The rules just aren't there. It makes for something that feels endless, that there are so many different things that you could explore, different characters that could come up, different situations that Brian can find himself in.
There's a thing with Brian, he's a loser back home. And maybe there comes a time when he realises that maybe he has more in common with these people who he considers weird, because he's considered so weird back home.
But the potential for it - there's no cap on it. That's so exciting for someone in my position, as an actor, a comedic actor. I want to do it; I want to do more!
So is there a romantic interest for Brian to stay in this world for?
Yeah! Brian has a romantic interest in one episode; what's nice about it is that he's naïve throughout the whole thing. Then there's this point where a girl asks if she can buy him a drink. And he thinks, "Do you know what, that would be really nice right now". There isn't a situation where Brian's on the pull - I've done that enough with The Inbetweeners! This is really sweet and quite innocent.
So then he gets a wish, but there's a girl involved now, and will he go home, will he stay, can he take her - there's all of this going on.
Sharon Rooney's character is quite into him, too...
Yes, that's quite obvious and he becomes quite fed up with it! There's no way of avoiding that because of how blatantly she puts it. I think she says at least twice every episode, "Brian, you're my tall, dark stranger." That's very funny though, Sharon's brilliant.
What ages do you think the show will appeal to?
I really don't know. After The Inbetweeners you just can't call that. That was on E4, it was put up against Skins and things like that. The channel wanted 'hip' and youths, but there's never been a single age demographic that has identified with The Inbetweeners.
Some shows, like Skins, I think they will have an age bracket that they go after and think "this is our market", but with comedy it's wide open. Everyone enjoys a laugh. I was obsessed with things like The Young Ones and The Comic Strip Presents... when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I didn't get half the stuff, I just knew that something funny was happening and really enjoyed it. So I'm not sure what the rules are!
I think you limit yourself if you start thinking about ages. I'm not that kind of person and I've never worked with channels that are like "THIS is what we should be after", coming with clipboards telling me what I should and shouldn't be doing. We want everybody to watch it.
You're working with Joe Thomas again on a show set in 1980s Essex?
Yeah, White Gold! Half the band's getting back together. I can't say too much - it will inevitably feel Inbetweeners-influenced because there are so many Inbetweeners people coming back to it. I just hope people like that!
I can tell some people will go "Oh it's just like The Inbetweeners". Well, that's what you keep asking me to do! So you know, it'll be fun, but you can't think like that. I'll be with Joe again, and we're so close, just like family. There'll be lots of things like that I think, us involved together in different bits and pieces throughout the next God knows how many years. We'll never stop wanting to work together.
That's why we did The Inbetweeners 2; we said for ages "no, let's not do a second film", but it went a few years and people were still asking us. That's not how it works in this industry. Normally you want to do a film and you have to go and knock on other peoples' doors. But it got the point where we were just like "Miss you! Miss seeing you every day!" So we thought it'd be fun, people will like it - we didn't have a reason not to do it.
We just scraped through it though. I think we're all too to do that now. If I could have been a teenage forever I could have signed on to do The Inbetweeners for the rest of my life, I'd have been very happy with that. But look at the state of me! Tired and haggard - and I'm the youngest! So unfortunately I think that's done and dusted.
You're a dad now. How old do you think your own kids will be before they can watch The Inbetweeners?
I ... don't know. I will probably never mention it - I'm not sure. I don't think anything your dad does is cool, is it? I can imagine the stuff I do in it would be very embarrassing, so I don't think they'd be interested.
They've got a weird little life. I grew up poor in Dagenham, basically in poverty. And they, I think, just assume everyone is on the television, and that's normal. "Oh here's your godfather, Steve Cradock, and that's him playing with his band, Ocean Colour Scene." That's just what they're used to. They've never travelled in anything but first class on long-haul flights, and you just think "You've got no idea. You're not even grateful..."
You've gone from The Inbetweeners' outrageous Jay to quite a straight character in this. Is that a new challenge?
No, because I'm not like Jay! Not at all. I'm more straight, more dry and more sarcastic. So this character's easier for me. It's just like a commentary, going "that's weird". And saying it really deadpan: "You're weird, I'm not going to talk to you anymore." But there's room for that character to grow and get used to where he is and, dare I say it, end up liking it... It's great to have been given that.
This is really a pilot. We've been given the chance to do a three-episode pilot, and that's really great. That shows a channel that's ready to get behind comedy. I think a series, every comedy, every sitcom, should get a second series. I know it's difficult, I don't run a channel, I know there are reasons... but you should be allowed to make mistakes. Have a chance, see what works, see what doesn't, then change it and come back better. You should be allowed to do that.
Like Monty Python's Flying Circus. "You lot are quite funny, go off and do something. We'll leave you alone. Here you go, what're you going to call yourselves? We want 'Flying Circus' in the title. Monty Python's Flying Circus? Great, it's going on TV tomorrow.'" Money, isn't it. Money's important.
But Zapped - I can't wait for you all to see it.