Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation’s new team captain Laurence Boxhall

HE’S the youngest team captain on Nine’s new remake of the series, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation. But don’t underestimate Laurence Boxhall.

WHEN Josh Thomas first hit our TV screens, in the comedy panel show, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, the Queensland-born actor sparked early water cooler chat for his strange hybrid accent.

Replacing him as the youngest team captain on Nine’s new remake of the series, Laurence Boxhall can at least present a British passport to explain his “legit” estuary English, he tells TV Guide.

Moving to Australia from the UK back in 2006, the 21-year-old has pursued local acting roles which required him to subvert his natural dialect and speak with a local twang — admitting it can go awry, a la Meryl Streep in the Lindy Chamberlain biopic, Evil Angels.

“I go full Streep and when I Streep, I Streep hard,” he jokes.

The son of an Army officer, the family moved around England often, so while he does “have a weird [English accent],” he says, “it’s not as nondescript as Josh Thomas.”

Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation team captain, Laurence Boxhall. Picture: Supplied

Cast to represent the new Generation Z, opposite Andy Lee (Generation Y) and Robyn Butler (Generation X), and host Shaun Micallef, Boxhall says he was invited to apply for the job back in 2016 — securing the gig after two auditions and a pilot recording.

That “mock taping” was alongside Butler, with Lee making a point of the fact he was signed to the show on reputation alone.

“He brings that up all the time. He goes ‘I’m quite a big deal, I didn’t have to audition.’ And we go, ‘we get it, Andy ... you know [comic partner] Hamish [Blake], that’s fine.”

While the new series features all new games and cross-gen challenges, the pilot saw Boxhall tested with an old game which asked contestants to identify TV families by their dogs.

He may not have always got them right, but he always had an answer, he says.

“I think I called any of the dogs I didn’t know ‘Keith’ just because that’s sort of my default name to go to ... meaning no disrespect to anyone out there named Keith.”

* Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, 7.30pm, Monday, Nine.