David Schaal thought ‘The Inbetweeners’ would be a disaster when he was filming it.
The 56-year-old actor played the role of Terry Cartwright, the father of main character Jay (James Buckley), and recalled how he was left unimpressed by his initial experience whilst shooting the ‘Caravan Club’ episode.
Speaking on Paul Danan’s ‘The Morning After’ podcast, David explained: "I turn up for the ‘Caravan Club’ episode and the first thing that I film is on Camber Sands in the caravan and I come out and two of the guys had been to Cambridge, Simon Bird and Joe Thomas, and then there was James Buckley who played my son and then there’s Blake (Harrison) who plays Neil.
"I was thinking, ‘This is never gonna work. These guys don’t gel. The acting is a bit ropey.’
"In fact, when we did the scene in the toilet about three weeks later, it was a freezing cold day and we shot in these toilets in north London, I froze my a***e off and I remember thinking, ‘This is f***ing b******s, these kids are terrible.’
"Honesty, I thought it was crap. Iain Morris (the producer) said to me, ‘Can you give them acting lessons Dave, they’re a bit stilted.’ This was the f***ing writer asking me to give the kids acting lessons."
He then joked: "What I’m illustrating here is how I don’t know a f**ing thing about telly."
Prior to his role in ‘The Inbetweeners’, David starred in ‘The Office’ and admitted that the success of both shows had taken him by surprise.
He said: "My attitude towards ‘The Inbetweeners’ was very similar to my attitude toward ‘The Office’. I did ‘The Office’ some years prior to that and when you’re filming it you have no idea what this is going to become."
David Schaal thought The Inbetweeners would be a disaster
