How I Did IT..

Ben Palmer, 42, Film And Tv Director Of The Inbetweeners.

I wanted to be a journalist in my teens.

I dreamed of doing music reviews for Q Magazine, but I realised I was a dreadful writer. So I decided to be a film director instead.

I was a passionate prankster as a kid.

I went through a long phase of hiding in my baby sister’s bedroom cupboard and waiting until she fell asleep before jumping out to scare her, sometimes in a makeshift costume. I once even climbed onto the roof so I could jump through her skylight. It was incredibly childish but I like to think it showed “commitment to the joke” from an early age. She gave as good as she got, though; on a family holiday she filled my bed with dead prawns.

A life without laughter is a life not worth living.

I’ve always been a big laugher and I’m lucky it’s something I’m now paid to make people do. We don’t laugh enough in today’s world – people take life too seriously. Comedy is the only medicine.

Never be afraid to blag into your first job.