It’s been 14 years since we were introduced to Will, Simon, Jay and Neil, the four foul-mouthed teens better known as The Inbetweeners.
The comedy series perfectly married cringe and hilarity throughout the course of its three seasons, particularly with the boys’ romantic relationships – or attempts at relationships, anyway – and poor Simon always seemed to find himself on the wrong side love.
Fans of the third and final series will remember how Simon spent 'as much time as was humanly possible munching his girlfriend's face off', before Tara took him to Warwick to have some 'lovely sex together'.
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However, their romance wasn’t meant to be, lasting only three episodes, after an awkward exchange involving Simon angrily slapping his flaccid penis and then exposing himself to a room full of people left Tara asking him to never contact her again.
Ah young love.
While it wasn’t meant to be for Simon and Tara, it was for actors Joe Thomas and Hannah Tointon, who played the characters – and in fact they are celebrating 10 years together this year.
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According to the Metro, the pair moved in together a couple of years after The Inbetweeners ended in 2010, before becoming engaged in 2017, seven years after starring alongside each other in the show.
While they've remained fairly private about their relationship, Thomas once mentioned his romance with Tointon in a 2018 interview on Lorraine.
At the time, the duo had teamed up for a comedy film called The Festival, in which Thomas starred as Nick, who was dumped by Tointon's character at his university graduation and then headed to a music festival with friends in a bid to try and move on.
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Thomas told presenter Christine Bleakley that it had been 'nice and easy' to work alongside Tointon, joking: "I've just got used to it. She's just in everything. Because my brain is so simple, I was just like 'Yep, there she is!'
"It went very well, I think."
When Bleakley asked if they were able to 'switch off' from talking about work when they got home, Thomas said: "I guess I do try and switch off when I get home, yeah. Doing comedy all day, sometimes you just want to be calm and chilled."
Back in 2014, he also opened up to Cosmopolitan about what he was like as a partner, saying he is 'such a romantic'.
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When asked if he believed someone could laugh a woman into bed, Thomas replied: "A sense of humour is pretty much my favourite quality in any person. There's a lot of embarrassment involved in relationships and, if you've got a sense of humour, you can skirt around those bits.
"It becomes a way of making somebody feel comfortable. You have to accept that if you're a man, you're a bit of a fool, and a sense of humour is a way of taking responsibility for your own awkwardness and pathetic-ness."
Topics: The Inbetweeners, TV and Film