Joe Thomas admits it’s ‘nice’ to feel like the least talented person on set

You’re in the comedy-drama We Are Not Alone, which is all about an alien invasion. What was the appeal?

It reminds me of Hot Fuzz or Shaun Of The Dead, that kind of mash-up. There’s a level of bureaucratic incompetence to the invasion, like the aliens can’t get their guns to plug in properly.

It reminds me of a picture book I read when I was a kid, called Dr Xargle’s Book Of Earthlets. It was like, ‘Why do they take this animal around on a rope and then clean up its poo for no reason? Do they work for the animal?’

Human behaviour would appear quite irrational to an enlightened alien.

What’s it like playing your alien, Greggs?

I liked that it did the heavy lifting for you in terms of you just look different. Greggs’ rank is ‘underling third class’.

He’s the lowest of the low and a general dogsbody. They don’t think he’s going to do anything useful as he messes everything up, so he’s left to his own devices.

Did it take long in make-up?

It was about 90 minutes every morning but it was OK once it was on. A lot of the work I’ve done has been very normal real-world pots-and-pans, suburban housing and this felt like, ‘I’m really an actor now, I’m dressing up’. I liked the skin as well.

In the script it says they’re blue but actually the hair’s blue and the skin is more white with patches in the areas where their capillaries are because Gu’uns are slightly reptilian and blue blooded.

We’d often forget, though, and everything became like a scene from Extras. You’re checking your phone and saying, ‘You must use my financial adviser. I’ll give you his number.’ Then you remember you’re dressed as an alien. All small talk became ridiculous.

It’s a great cast…

Is comedy where you’re the happiest?

It’s what I most know. I’m conscious of not being trained in anything and in comedy, no one really is trained. You can’t really study comedy so I’m on an equal playing field with everyone else.

I’ve done serious acting as well and I love it. But I think I have a sense of slight inadequacy because I haven’t got a certificate saying you’ve got an A in this. A lot of people have that charlatan syndrome.

I’ve auditioned for serious stuff where I’m supposed to be a policeman but I haven’t got any authority. I was a prefect at school and could never even get a kid to stand in line. So I tend to go for more comic roles. And comedy was my first love in terms of what I wanted to be.

Have you seen the comparison made between Will of The Inbetweeners’ voice and Rishi Sunak’s?

No, I haven’t but that is quite good. There are some quite bad voices in politics at the moment. I know it shouldn’t make a difference but it does. Politics is performing to such a huge extent and 
I think if you’re a politician, it’s worth accepting that.

Is there any chance of you revisiting The Inbetweeners? All grown up, married with kids?

It was the start of my career; the writers, Iain Morris and Damon Beesley, really mentored us and I’ve got a huge amount of gratitude for that. I miss them a bit. Iain is in the States now and I haven’t seen Damon for a while, while the other three guys I see occasionally.

Was it nice being reunited with Greg Davies when you did Channel 4 show Taskmaster?

Greg’s just so nice. He was one of the first people I met in comedy when I left university. I think my first job was when he was presenting a radio show that I did some sketches on. He’d been a teacher and was meant to be the presenter but he was also in charge of everything like a teacher. I sometimes wonder whether his whole stand-up is just a big extension of controlling a class.

You’ve been doing some stand-up over the past couple of years – is it a new direction?

I’ve always been fascinated with stand-up because it’s not really about the material, it’s about the context you create for yourself on stage.

I think sets work if they’re about 20 minutes long but I tend to struggle if they’re an hour. I did an Edinburgh show two years ago where I did an hour and I felt like I almost had to pretend I’d come there to make a big point.

I feel like sketch comedy is such a young person’s scene whereas stand-up is more of an older, weary, cynical thing.

We Are Not Alone airs tonight on Dave and is available for catch-up free on UKTV Play

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