Kevin Sutherland
Kevin Sutherland is the father of Neil Sutherland and Katie Sutherland in The Inbetweeners He is currently single; his wife having left him. His occupation or employment status is not directly stated, however it is acknowledged that he is short of money, with Jay regularly calling him 'pikey', suggesting that he is most likely unemployed.
Sexuality[edit | edit source]
A recurring theme throughout the series is whether or not Kevin is gay. Both Kevin and Neil deny this and try to justify otherwise, for example, Neil acknowledges that his Dad has a collection of heterosexual and lesbian pornography (which could not be located). There are subtle hints however that Kevin is indeed homosexual. For instance, when accompanying Will's mother Polly to a meeting with Mr. Gilbert following Will's assault by his work experience colleagues, Kevin expresses his disgust of them throwing "a young naked boy into the water", an image he appears to dwell on. Polly quickly points out that she "never said Will was naked". He also only goes out on Wednesday nights, to play badminton which Jay describes as a "bender" sport.
Relationships[edit | edit source]
In terms of his relationship with other characters, he seems to have a rather strained relationship with the Inbetweeners.
Neil:
Despite obviously caring deeply for his son, he comes across as frustrated at some of Neil's actions. After suffering an off-screen broken arm from falling off the garage roof, Neil returns home with his cast covered in drawings of penises following a run-in with Mark Donovan whilst together in detention. This greatly irritates Kevin given that Neil's granny was due to arrive at the house any minute.
His general dislike of Jay is made clear in the episode 'Bunk Off'. Upon finding Neil, Jay, Simon and Will drinking in his living room instead of being at school, he angrily announces to Jay that "there is always trouble when you're around".
His perception of Will is also altered in "Bunk Off" in that he expresses his surprise that Will is amongst them. A drunk Will responds by throwing a tirade of abuse at Kevin about his rumoured homosexuality, calling him a 'Bumder' (a portmanteau of 'bummer' and 'bender'). Kevin responds by furiously throwing Will, Simon and Jay out his house and was later present at Will's house where Polly, Pamela and Alan are waiting to reprimand Will and Simon on their return from Carli's house.
Kevin's arguably negative relationship with Will is further demonstrated in Series 3 in the episode 'Will's Dilemma'. At Neil's eighteenth birthday party, Will 'breaks up' Tara's friend, Kerry, who technically he was not seeing, although she thought they were. She becomes upset and announced that Will tried to have sex with her and dumped her because of her size. After everyone in the party (including Kevin) takes her side, Will, in an act not dissimilar to that mentioned in Series 1 goes off on a rant, declaring that he did not try to have sex with her and that he was the first person to turn down a blowjob from her. Just as before, Kevin throws Will out his house. He then phones Polly about what happened and as a result, Will is grounded for three weeks.
It is not known whether Will was ever able to fix this dilemma with Kevin or Neil's other relatives, however given that Kevin did not knowingly object to Neil staying overnight at Will's house in 'Home Alone' and had no problem standing in Will's presence in the first and second films, this may be an indication that the truth about Kerry eventually came out and the pair have patched things up.
Alternatively, he just might not care what goes on so long as Will is not causing any more mischief in his house.
In either case, Kevin has still not forgotten that Will (along with Neil's other friends) thinks that he is gay as indicated in the airport scene in the second film.
Kevin's relationship with Simon is less clear. Although Simon was amongst the boys when Kevin caught them drinking in his living room, he did not individually reprimand Simon for being there. That said it is likely that he dislikes Simon in that the former is amongst those who think he is gay. As with Will this was also highlighted in the second film, when Kevin looked straight at both Will and Simon following a comment saying he was going to get some men into the house, insisting that it was to decorate Neil's bedroom.
Other Characters:
He is on generally good terms with Polly McKenzie and Pamela and Alan Cooper, although he is frustrated that they too believe him to be gay. His relationship with Jay's relatives is less clear though when he meets Jay's dad (apparently for the first time) Kevin was thoroughly insulted by Terry who said he looked and talked like a gay vicar, Kevin was left both shocked and hurt.
