The comedy Inbetween

“I’ve not been aware too much of how it’s been going over there,” James Buckley explains. “It feels strange because it’s very British so it’s quite interesting to see how it works in a different country.”

23 year old Buckley is one of the four principals in the UK sitcom The Inbetweeners -a knockabout character comedy about four hapless school boys whose trouble with girls, parties and authority always sees them in disastrous predicaments.

About to see its third season air on GO!, the comedy is arguably bordering on cult status in Australia and Buckley is curious as to its popularity, given the humour and the dialogue about “well-fit” girls is so terribly British.

But The Inbetweeners, which centres around a private schoolboy forced to muck in at a public school, is also about the universal subject of class.

“Black Adder is one of my favourites and that has a lot of social comment in whatever time it was set in,” he notes.

Buckley plays Jay, the most reckless, untruthful, delinquent of the four friends.

“When I was 18 I auditioned for the Pilot for a show called Baggy Trousers and I played the character of Neil. But I’m not sure if the Pilot was a great success with Channel 4 because they didn’t like me as Neil so it had to be re-cast,” he says.

“But I was lucky enough to be asked back by the writers to play Jay and obviously the show was changed to The Inbetweeners and we made it.

“I didn’t know anybody before I auditioned. It was just another audition that I turned up for hoping it might be something fairly successful. Luckily enough it was.”

Fans of the show praise both the performances of the four boys as well as the writing, noting a comedy of errors is complemented by the dynamics of the group. Theirs is a love / hate relationship that cleverly juggles visual gags, jokes and a need to belong.

“They spent a long time casting and when the four of us came together it was quite strange. There was never a period where we became mates, we just sort of ‘were mates’ from the start. We all get on really well. The show wouldn’t work if we didn’t. So we just enjoy making each other laugh,” says Buckley.

Of the 4 characters he adds, “In some situations people are friends because they just have to be. They understand each other and that’s what keeps them close, I think.”

Buckley, who has appeared in  Les Miserables, Whistle Down the Wind, The Bill, Skins and Teachers admits he relishes playing the mischievous Jay.

“You don’t get to behave like that in everyday life, so it’s fun to be able to do it,” he says.

He brands Season Three, the final in the series, as both the funniest and his most favourite yet.

“It’s more of the same of the four boys being who they are but I think there are more laughs in it,” he says.

“I’m not sure whether we stopped worrying about filming or just became lazier. It’s one of the two!”

In the coming weeks he will resume the role for a feature film, which sees the boys on a wild European vacation, to conclude the Inbetweeners story. It will be released later this year.

“They go on a ‘lad’s holiday,’ as we call it over here. All your mates leave school and you go to a foreign country to get drunk and get the girls. Obviously these are things that the boys know nothing about and can’t handle, so it should be funny,” he says.

“The four boys are going to be movie stars for 15 minutes!”

Meanwhile a US adaptation under creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris is also in development.

Buckley isn’t up to speed on the finer details, but is cautiously optimistic about its chances given not all British shows survive the Atlantic transition.

“I’ve not watched of the American Office but that’s gone on to several series,” he notes.

“But I think I’d be slightly bitter if it became more successful than our Inbetweeners.”

The Inbetweeners returns 9pm Thursday on GO!