Chris O'Dowd has said he enjoyed being reunited with his IT Crowd cast mates - but joked that the years have not been kind to them.

The Irish actor - back on the small screen in new BBC comedy Family Tree, has recently finished filming an hour-long special of the hit Channel 4 sitcom.

"It's a special of sorts, a long version of the show and it was a lot of fun," he said. "We shot it three weeks ago and it was great to see everyone. And we have high hopes for it, though it's hard to tell. We haven't done it for a few years but it felt like we'd never been away."

Although, Chris added, jokingly, time has not been too kind to his fellow cast members.

"Everybody's aged pretty badly frankly, especially Richard [Ayoade, his co-star]. He's pretty bald now and he had quite a distinctive haircut so it looks odd. But still sexy because he's got the sexy voice," he said, teasingly. In truth Richard still has an afro and his character Moss sounds ever the geek.

It might be three years since he last played angry IT lad Roy, but it didn't take Chris long to get back into character.

"It's just bad posture really and a mistrust of people, and I've been developing both over the last few years so that helped," he joked, before revealing this could be the final time the group unite.

"It was lovely to say hello to the characters again - but also to say goodbye to them. I think we've probably done it now and I'd be surprised if we did any more."

:: Family Tree begins on BBC Two on Tuesday July 16.