Simon Cooper

Simon Cooper is a student at Rudge Park Comprehensive and is the oldest of the group. He becomes best friends with Will after initially avoiding him due to his "actual briefcase", "clumpy shoes" and "*** hair". Simon's first task of the new term is showing Will to his classes – task assigned by the head of sixth form, Mr Gilbert. Simon was also the first to learn how to drive, having passed his practical test (in dubious circumstances) before Christmas. His father bought him a small, yellow Fiat Cinquecento Hawaii – Simon, his friends and others think the car is highly embarrassing and a horrible colour, and specifically mock the fact that it has a tape deck. The car loses its passenger-side door due to a reversing incident at Thorpe Park, but in series 2 the door has been replaced, albeit with a red one.

Personality
Along with Will, he is generally seen as part of the more level headed and mature half of the group, though he is shown to be easily swayed. He appears at times to be somewhat neurotic and easily angered as he responds to the boys' jocular but offensive comments with anger in particular scenes. He reacts similarly when interacting with members of his family. He is intelligent, but lacks a high degree of common sense. He is at times gullible and initially believes some of Jay's outlandish claims of sexual success, though he will occasionally see through these comments. He occasionally even takes his useless sex advice. Simon has had a crush on his childhood friend Carli D'Amato since she was eight, an interest which becomes more apparent throughout the series. Despite many pathetic attempts to show her his feelings, he does not give up on her.

Simon is a romantic at heart, believing in soul mates, and how he can finally win Carli's affections. One of the reasons he may have not been able to have sex with Tara, may be due to the fact he didn't love her, always pushing it aside when she bought it up. Examples of his pure romantic view, is when he makes a CD for Carli when they get together (if only for a few hours) and he finally tries to swim all the way to shore to win back Lucy's affections in the movie.

Appearance
Simon is average height, with a distinctive fringe, spiked up with gel, that is commented by Jay to look like the Statue of Liberty's crown. He is quite handsome, having had the most successful female attention, and Carli even comments that he has a 'great body'. He has distinctive smiles, which make him look a little silly, but also very endearing. He wears the school sweater, and can keep a low profile most of the time, avoiding school bullies, quite unlike Will.

Friendships
Will McKenzie: At first, he sees Will as an annoyance, something that will bring his reputation down to a lower level. He makes a load of insults about him, including 'Gay Hair', but he eventually warms to him, relaxing, and telling Jay and Neil to lay off him. He gets respect for him when he insults every student in a pub and gets them thrown out.

As time goes by, he becomes best friends with Will, coming to him first for advice, and hanging out with him more often, to the point where Will invites him to his house willingly, and even arranges a camping trip for him when he leaves. He is also the only one to not instantly insult his car, seeing it from another point of view. Simon comes to him first for his opinion. This may be due to the fact that Will and Simon are the most alike, knowing how hard it is to 'pull' girls, having similar accents, both being down-to-earth and intelligent, and genially considerate of each other's opinions and beliefs.

Out of Jay, Neil and Will, it is the latter who ultimately becomes Simon's truest friend, and this shows in their constant support of one and other throughout the series.

Jay Cartwright: Simon claims to have known him for ten years, and while they are very good friends, their conflicting personalities prevented them from becoming 'best' friends.

Jay is very different from Simon. Simon is a romantic, while Jay will go for anything that moves. But despite their differences, when push comes to shove, they will both help one and other if they need to. Examples are in, when Simon tells everyone to drop asking Jay about his breakup with Chloe, when he can see Jay is upset, and Jay in return agrees and pulls off, putting on the right music at the Christmas party for Simon's wooing of Carli at the former's request.

As the series comes to the third, Simon starts to become skeptical towards Jay's tall tales, even telling Jay to 'try them' when he doesn't believe one of Jay's many lies. He also gets pissed off at him to the point of screaming when Jay lets his car roll into the lake in the last episode, but after calming down, he does agree that it was a little shit anyway. He also has Jay to thank for hitching with Carli, Jay writing an embarrassing text that seems to catch Carli's attention, though this was done mainly as a joke.

Neil Sutherland: He and Neil have a strong friendship, with Neil meeting him at Thorpe Park and daring him to take his crappy car to 100 mph. Neil is far more sensitive than Jay, trying to help and support Simon, and telling him 'Bad Luck' when he misses out on Carli time after time.

Simon is the kindest to him, not having too much of a go at him while he tries to grasp something, but he, like everyone else, believes Neil's dad is gay. Neil helps him out at the fashion show, helping him to dress, though he draws a line at putting speedos on him.

Romances
Carli D'Amato: Simon and Carli's families have been very close since the two were eight years old, which, as Simon says, is the since which he has 'lusted after' her. The two have been very good and close friends all their life and while Simon keeps desperately trying to ask her out, these attempts always have devastating and humiliating results for Simon and often others. Carli, on the other hand, likes Simon very much; albeit as a friend, and bears no romantic feelings for him. Despite their friendship, Carli is not above using Simon to her own advantage, such as when she gets him to help her study Geography during the run-up to exam time, despite the fact that Simon does not study Geography, and in the movie when Carli kisses him passionately on the party boat to get back on her boyfriend, who repeatedly abuses the gang. Simon eventually gets his intimate moment with her after helping Carli study, with the latter kissing him twice on the lips, giving Simon the impression that they are now dating, much to the disbelief of Jay, who tells Simon to "come back to [him] once you're wanking over her arse as she frigs herself off." Later, Simon is crushed as Carli tells him that she's back with her old boyfriend, Tom, a massive rugby player. However, at the end of the show's finale Simon apparently gets her back after Jay, through Simon's mobile, tells her that Simon, "loves [her] from the bottom of my cock." .

This is confirmed at the beginning of the movie when Simon and Carli are shown snogging in the latter's bedroom, though it is quickly followed by a crushing breakup due to 'their relationship being "too hard to keep things going long-distance" when the two go to uni.' The truth is Carli fancied her rep in Malia, who turns out to be Carli's new boyfriend. The rejection leaves Simon in tears though he maintains his hopes for their relationship after spotting Carli in Malia due to Neil's extremely awful holiday planning. At the end of the movie, Simon realizes that he means nothing romantic to Carli, and her hold over him is finally broken.

Lauren Harris: During the pilot episode of series 2, part of the school goes on a field trip to Swanage, including Lauren Harris, an Irish new girl whom Will fancies after sharing the coach with her. However, it is made very clear that Lauren prefers Simon. The brief relationship causes friction between Simon and Will, up to the point where Will manipulates Simon into choosing to meet up with Carli instead of Lauren after Simon hastily makes plans to meet them both at the same place and the same time. This results in the relationship to end.

Tara: Tara is a temporary 'fifth Inbetweener' in series 3. In episode 2 of series 3, Simon accidentally sits on a girl called Tara after chasing Carli into school. This results in the Simon chatting her up, much to the amazement of his onlooking friends. The two arrange a date after Simon lies about being a drug dealer, which turns Tara on. Jay manages to get a hold of weed at the club for Simon, despite the dealer assuming he and Neil are "two little suburban racists, who see [him] as some kind of a stereotype". After Simon accidentally smacks Tara off the stage during 'moshing', he takes her to the back of the club. The result of the weed-headsmack combination is Tara vomiting over their shoes then snogging Simon, who immediately forgets that Tara has sick in her mouth and throat. In episode 3 Simon goes so far as to dress up in a completely ridiculous getup which makes him look like a bent posh child to please Tara.

He also sets Will up with Tara's friend, Big Kerry, an extremely tall, monotonous, boring person whom Will can't stand by informing him of Kerry's claim to fame; she is infamous for, as Will angrily puts it, "giving out ******** like they're going out of fashion", omitting the fact that Kerry's father had recently died. In episode 4, Simon and Tara are seen snogging in Simon's bedroom, but are soon interrupted by Simon's parents, who remind of their arrangement; Simon can have girls in his room, so long as he keeps the door open, so that they "don't miss any of the good stuff." After Simon's parents leave, Tara makes plans with Simon to have sex at her sister's place at Warwick University. Jay, Neil and Will all tag along to 'offer Simon sex advice'. The night is ruined by Simon being unable to get it up, Neil pissing all over Heike's bedroom, and Jay drunkenly propositioning Sophie and Heike, resulting in Will, Simon, Jay and Neil being kicked out of the house and spending the night in Simon's car. In the morning, while driving home, Simon recieves a text from Tara, ordering him to never contact her again, thus ending the relationship.

Lucy: The gang meet Lucy and her friends at Marco's Nightclub in Malia. Lucy bears romantic feelings towards Simon, however the latter seeing Carli in Malia results in him boring Lucy senseless and frigid with stories about Carli and how amazing she is. Despite this, Lucy keeps on hoping that Simon will notice her affection and reciprocate them. When everyone goes skinny-dipping at the sea, Simon and Lucy share a romantic moment until the former spots Carli walking along the beach herself and swims right past Lucy. Her feelings for Simon even run as deep as giving him her ticket to the boat party, thus handing him the way to win back Carli. Simon immediately takes advantage of the offer but later regrets it as he realizes that Carli has no feelings for him. As Simon sees how much Lucy actually means to him he strips to his boxers, swan-dives off the boat, and tries to swim to shore, but fails, spending time in the hospital after nearly drowning. Simon and Lucy then spend the rest of their holidays together.

Unfortunately Lucy's personality from a kind and polite girl turned into a abusive, obsessive and clingy girl in the second film. At Jay's Uncle's house, Simon attempts to break up with Lucy via Skype, however Jay's Uncle interferes, which causes Simon to propose to Lucy so much to her enjoyment. Lucy likes to cut up Simon's hoodies, burn all of Simon's possessions such as his trainers and his PlayStation. At the end of the film, Lucy breaks up with Simon after confirming she had sexual intercourse with Simon's so called "best mate" Pete and begins a relationship with him instead.

Family
Alan Cooper: Simon's dad sees him as more of a mate than a son, as he has no problem bragging about his sexual exploits. Simon in turn can't stand his dad, refusing to talk to him and begging his friends not to say anything after going to parties, as that usually sets him off.

Pamela Cooper: Simon constantly gives his mother the cold shoulder for no real reason. Pamela, however, shows Simon nothing but affection, possibly as a way to make him feel worse for abusing her, but it doesn't seem to work.

Andrew Cooper: Simon flat-out hates his younger brother, who seems a lot more confident than him and is presumably more popular at school. Andrew takes pleasure in any moment when Simon makes a fool out of himself.

Simon's Car
Simon is the oldest of the group and was the first to learn how to drive, having passed his practical test (in dubious circumstances) before Christmas. His father bought him a small, yellow Fiat Cinquecento Hawaii – Simon, his friends and others think the car is a horrible colour. It lost its passenger side door due to a reversing incident at Thorpe Park, but in series two the door has been replaced, albeit with a red one. Moreover, the most unfortunate feature of the car is that it has a tape deck.

Series 1
Simon becomes good friends with Will after initially avoiding him due to his "actual briefcase", "clumpy shoes" and "*** hair". His first task of the new term is showing Will to his classes – a task assigned by the head of sixth form, Mr Gilbert.

Simon sprayed "I Love Carly D'Amato" on her driveway – for a long time she didn't reciprocate, partly due to having a boyfriend.

Simon got his first car and took a road trip to Thorpe park

Series 2
In the first episode, Simon falls in the river while the boys are on a boat.

His parents briefly split up in the episode "The Duke of Edinburgh Awards", but they had reconciled by the end of the episode.

In the final episode of the second series: "Exam Time", Carli seemed interested in Simon after she split up with her boyfriend and they end up kissing while studying for A-Levels at Simon's house. Carli agreed to meet Simon at the local pub for a post-exam drink, but when she arrived it was revealed she had reconciled with Tom, her boyfriend.

Series 3
In Series 3 Simon takes part in the school fashion show, but embarrasses himself and Carli when he walks along the catwalk in Speedos with his bare ******** visible.

In the episode 'The Gig and the Girlfriend' Simon gets a girlfriend, Tara, with whom he went to a concert and got stoned. In 'Will's Dilemma' he is seen receiving a ******* from Tara at Neil's party (this was after Neil had given consent, loudly saying "Don't spunk on the sheets!" in an elderly relative's presence).

Simon is perhaps the most neurotic of the group, especially when in discussions with his family, where he frequently overreacts to gentle goading and even kindly advice. In the last episode, the boys play a phone game where they have to send embarrassing messages to anyone on their phonebook. Simon later receives a text back from Carly that leaves him with a smile, which suggests she feels the same way as Simon, and shows there is more in store for him and Carly. His car is left in a lake in the last episode with the "honk if you want a **** ***" sticker on the back. Simon never gets his car back.

Film:
In the film Carli breaks up with Simon, because they are both going to different universities and won't be able to see each other anymore. Simon sinks into a depression, but decides to go on a lads holiday with his friends to Crete. Things go from bad to worse when Neil reveals that he purposefully picked the boys hotel because it is close to the hotel Carli and her friends are staying at. Simon meets Carli later that night outside a club, unfortunately he also meets James, the aggressive, obnoxious holiday rep and also Carli's new boyfriend, this wrecks any chances Simon has to get back together with her, and to add insult to injury James 'accidentally' runs over Simon with a quad bike. Later, in a club four girls walk in and start talking to the boys, one of the girls, Lucy is obviously attracted to Simon even though he is totally oblivious and only talks about his love for Carli. Simon and the boys hear about a boat party that Carli is attending, so they head over to Carli's hotel but instead they find the four girls again. Jay then gets the boys banned from the boat trip for nearly drowning a local boy, and an enraged Simon 'brawls' with Jay in the street untill he storms off, Will following. A depressed Simon heads to the bar where they first met the four girls and meets Jay there, Jay shocks Simon by apologizing for his behavior, and the four boys make up. They then meet the girls again and Simon and Lucy decide to go skinny dipping, apparently forming some kind of connection, that is untill Carli walks by and Simon abandons Lucy in the sea to talk to Carli, even though Carli doesn't want to talk, and Lucy leaves feeling rejected. Simon, along with Will, Jay and Neil realize the holiday is a complete waste, until they get proper drunk and head back to the hotel. Once there Simon seems to upset Jay by telling him that when they get home he is going to university. The next morning Lucy's friends tell Simon to apologize to Lucy, he does so and she offers him a ticket to the boat party, which he eagerly accepts leaving her alone on the beach. On the boat Carli passionately kisses Simon, much to Simon's Joy. That is until he realizes that she's only flirting to make James jealous, suddenly Simon realizes that Carli is just not the right girl for him, but Lucy is. Simon decides to show his love to her by jumping of the ship and swimming back to shore, but he soon get's caught in the current and must be airlifted out of the sea. On the beach he says to Lucy, 'Lucy.... I... I think..... I think..... I think I've **** myself' just before he gets driven to the hospital, he spends the rest of the holiday enjoying himself with Lucy and goes back home ready for whatever the future will bring.