Matt Le Blanc is "cool" with being ridiculed on ‘Episodes’.
The ‘Former’ friends star has been praised for being good-humoured about jibes about his weight and age on the comedy show, in which he plays an exaggerated version of himself.
Co-star Stephen Mangan exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "He is really cool. He’s more cool in a way, [because] you think, how cool you have to be to deal with a show which holds you up to that much ridicule.
"Everyone knows it’s not really him but at the same time, especially in this [new] series, [there’s] a lot of jokes about him being too old, too fat and past it, and you’ve got to have a pretty good sense of humour about yourself. I can’t think that there are many actors that would do that, so it really shows the good guy he is."
The first series of ‘Episodes’ centres on a hit British comedy being remade in the US, and Stephen, 41, feels the abundance of home-grown shows being remade around the world is a testament to the talent to come out of the UK.
He explained: "It just shows what talent we have in this country, generating ideas."
Meanwhile, the actor has dismissed the idea of a movie follow-up to ‘Episodes’, which also stars Tamsin Greig.
He added: "I don’t think so. It is very hard, because spin-off movies with comedy shows very rarely work. I think it suits that half-hour format, but I don’t mind an hour version of it."
‘Episodes’ airs Wednesdays at 10pm on BBC Two.
Stephen’s new film ‘Postman Pat’ is out on May 23.