Greg Davies says it’s “unlikely” he’ll reprise Inbetweeners role as Mr Gilbert

Actor Greg Davies has said it’s “unlikely” he would reprise the role of Mr Gilbert – his fan-favourite character from The Inbetweeners – stating that “everything has a shelf life in this business”.

The actor and comedian was speaking at an event launching the second season of The Cleaner; the anthological sitcom where he plays crime scene cleaner Paul ‘Wicky’ Wickstead.

The role is something of a departure for Davies, who admitted that he didn’t want to play “another middle-aged dad” and was excited by Wicky being “a more unusual role”.

Nevertheless, Davies seemed open to the prospect of returning to characters from his previous sitcoms, including Channel 4’s Man Down and BBC One’s Cuckoo, when quizzed at a press Q&A.

Davies said: “I think some people would probably give you a very earnest answer to that and say ‘the past is the past, we must always be looking forward’. But I don’t know – maybe? I don’t have hard and fast rules.

“To quote a really good friend of mine, ‘I just can’t believe I get to do this s**t’. So I think I’d be open to anything really.”

However, he went on to say that some characters – such as The Inbetweeners’ memorably bitter Sixth Form head Mr Gilbert – may have been rightfully retired.

“You have got to be careful not to flog a dead horse,” continued Davies. “Everything has a shelf life in this business. So you have to be very mindful of that. So I think it’s unlikely you’ll see me as Mr. Gilbert – but then all of the boys are 50.”

He jokingly added: “That said, if there’s a Mr Gilbert spin-off…”

Davies is not the only one to have expressed skepticism about the idea of any kind of revival for The Inbetweeners, with star Simon Bird recently saying it would run the risk of being “sad and creepy”.

Meanwhile, co-star James Buckley claimed there is “not enough money in the world” to convince him to step into the role of Jay Cartwright once more.

The Cleaner season 2 is on BBC One and iPlayer.