However critical Davies is of his work ethic, he’s not exactly coasting. I will waste a day untangling a pair of headphones.” “I’m an intrinsically lazy person, and I just wibble around my flat or I go and stare at things. He admits that he finds the writing process hard. The Inbetweeners at 10: “We wanted to write something about ‘normal’ teenagers” Inbetweeners revival ‘wouldn’t work’, says Neil actor Blake Harrison Stop trying to make an Inbetweeners reunion happen I don’t think I needed to do a whole f*cking 13 years.” Still he got a comedy series (or four, to be more accurate) from that time: Man Down, about a man who hates his job as a teacher and has recently split up with his girlfriend. “My family always say to me you had to have that experience or you wouldn’t be able to do what you do now. “I will waste a day untangling a pair of headphones.” After graduating from Brunel University with a degree in English and Drama, Davies had envisioned a career in stand up but work as a teacher took over – for a much longer period than he intended. The decision to pursue a career in comedy in his late thirties didn’t come totally out of the blue. Luck has played a massive part in my career.” Davies with The Inbetweeners co-stars James Buckley, Emily Head and Blake Harrison (pic: Getty) You must never underestimate the power of luck in this business. “It was so ludicrously popular that it reached so many people. “The Inbetweeners was a massively lucky break for me, considering I’m barely in it,” he admits. Davies’s performance earned him instant cult status and he went on to film three series and two films as Gilbert. His first major role came in the form of Mr Gilbert in The Inbetweeners, the pupil-despising headteacher invariably on hand to humiliate teen morons Simon, Will, Jamie and Neil. Little more than 10 years ago he was still a Drama and English teacher at a Home Counties secondary comprehensive. You could say the same of Davies’s unexpected, accelerated rise in British comedy. “Luck has played a massive part in my career.” Strange things happen to seemingly normal people.” “There’s a warmth in this strange family unit which is living in this very straight suburban setting. “It’s no surprise to me that families like Cuckoo,” he says. The fourth series begins next month, and Davies reveals that further series have already been commissioned. But within the first day, I breathed out and realised that he is so naturally funny.” Davies, Lautner and Cuckoo co-stars Tamla Kari and Helen Baxendale (Pic: BBC) So it’s a very different prospect to have the wolf from Twilight play the same role. “As a comedian it was really exciting to work with Andy Samberg because I already loved what he had done. Davies says he was “massively” concerned before Lautner arrived on set. He was then best known for playing Jacob Black, the love rival to Robert Pattinson’s Edward Cullen in the Twilight films. Samberg was a far more logical pick than Lautner, who arrives at the home in series two claiming to be Cuckoo’s son. “I regularly swap texts with Taylor while he’s over in his LA supermansion.” His arrival followed the departure of Andy Samberg who, with seven years on Saturday Night Live under his belt, had expertly played Cuckoo – a hippy who moves into Ken Thompson and his family’s home after striking up a romance with his daughter Rachel (to Ken’s horror). Lautner joined the cast, which also includes Helen Baxendale and Tyger Drew-Honey, in 2013. We just have a great laugh.” Davies and Twilight star Taylor Lautner are reunited for series four of Cuckoo (pic: BBC) I’ve not seen it, but he’s invited me to go and see him when I’m next over there and I will. “The whole cast gets on well, but I regularly swap texts with Taylor while he’s over in his LA supermansion. “We’re really good mates now and I think that’s weird,” Davies says. Yet Greg Davies and Taylor Lautner, who have now shot three series of the BBC comedy Cuckoo together, have built a bond against the odds. He talks to Jessica Barrett about ‘Cuckoo’, mum jokes and eccentric fanmailĪs far as unlikely friendships go, a 50-year-old former teacher from Shropshire and a 26-year-old Hollywood heartthrob is definitely up there. Greg Davies has gone from drama teacher to sitcom star.
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