On a grey, non-descript estate in Watford, Jack Rooke tells me the room he has just emerged from is “full of double-ended dildos”. It could be a joke but, given that the comedian and TV writer once turned a sex scene into a fantasy about a Tesco meal deal, and wrote another about someone pooing their bed, a prop room awash with sex toys sounds about right.
He’s here filming the second season of his coming-of-age autobiographical comedy, Big Boys, which follows gay student Jack (Dylan Llewellyn) and his straight best friend Danny (Jon Pointing). The blue shed that Jack and Danny live in is literally a big blue shed in real life, based on the guardianship buildings Rooke lived in after university. “It’s really nice because my mum lives around the corner,” says Rooke, who is proud to put his home town on the map. “Sitcoms thrive outside cities – look at The Office.”
The dismal set might not scream inspiration, but spend a few hours with the cast and it’s clear they have enough warmth and gags to make magic happen anywhere. “We are like a family,” says Camille Coduri, who plays Jack’s mum Peggy and becomes a matriarch to Danny. She can’t stop cuddling and cooing over Pointing, with whom she stops for a chat at lunch. So genuine is this bond, Coduri recalls that when the cast went to LGBTQ+ festival Mighty Hoopla to introduce Kelly Rowland on stage, she let Llewellyn stay at her own son’s house for the weekend. “He’s so nerdy isn’t he?” she says. “I’m very fond of them all.”
No wonder this lovely lot have charmed so many fans, earned Bafta nominations and won best sitcom at the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain awards. Based on Rooke’s Edinburgh fringe show and book Cheer the Fuck Up, it follows Jack’s experience of grieving his dad, coming out to his mum, going to uni and making an unlikely friendship with lads’ lad Danny, who, behind the banter, struggles with depression and family estrangement. In real life, Rooke’s best mate killed himself. But at the end of the first series, a tearjerking letter soothes Danny, who decides to accept help from Jack and stay with his family for the summer. “I’m writing Big Boys for people who have gone ‘I wish I’d said that at that time’,” says Rooke. “It’s me writing in hindsight.”
If this sounds heavy, that’s because at times it is – and how refreshing to see men’s mental health explored so freely. But for every weepy moment, there’s a raucous gag to make you spit out your tea (like the moment a student union rep confuses ISIS with ASOS). It’s also loaded with fun 00s pop culture references – a love letter to a time when Alison Hammond did Strictly, Holly and Phil ruled daytime TV and the “Live, Laugh, Love” sign was everywhere.
Season two picks up straight after the first: Danny and Peggy have been smoking weed together all summer, and Jack is determined to live his new life as a confidently gay man. “I’ve finally come out but my sex life is still a disaster,” he puffs after being poked in the eye by a pub DJ’s penis in the loo. Danny, meanwhile, wants to be with on/off love interest Corrine (Scottish Bafta-winner Izuka Hoyle), but now that he’s got his erection back, he also just “loves the puss”. After failing to find a new house together, they cram back into the blue shed ready for another turbulent year at uni.
When I meet up with the gang again a few weeks ahead of the show’s release, there’s no sign of second album nerves. “Me and Phoebe Waller-Bridge have just been texting,” says Rooke casually, followed by a knowing laugh of disbelief. “She just asked me to write a play for her.” Waller-Bridge is not the only famous fan. Russell T Davies was so impressed that he contacted Rooke and spoke with him over FaceTime to help go through his contract. “He’s so kind and generous.” Richard Curtis also invited him to dinner to ask for help producing a project, while Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee has become a mentor. Self Esteem singer Rebecca Lucy Taylor is a great friend too, and gave him the advice: “You’ve got to stop fucking putting success down. You fucking won an award.” But the personal hero that topped them all? “When Kathy Burke tweeted about the show, I just took the day off.”
Llewellyn had already enjoyed a taste of this sort of success after his breakout role as “wee English fella” James in Derry Girls. At last year’s Baftas, the next level of fame really hit when he had to choose which of his two nominated shows’ tables to sit at (he chose Derry Girls, who won, but joined the Big Boys lot for dessert). “Sometimes I do forget that I am an actor,” he says, in his very unassuming way. “When someone stares at me I’m like ‘What are you looking at?’ I do freak myself out.” The real pinch-me moment, though, was when Big Boys featured on the Gogglebox Pride special: “Seeing Rylan and H from Steps react to Jack’s coming out scene and how much it meant to them? It was really beautiful.”
Llewellyn was first introduced to Rooke by their mutual friend Nicola Coughlan after his comedy show. How did it feel later auditioning to play his mate’s mate? “Jack is a very light-up-the-room person,” he says. But, despite sharing the same curly mop of hair, he takes on a certain version of him: “My Jack is still trying to come out of his shell, you know, and it’s when he was younger and trying to discover himself and be comfortable.” There’s a clear mutual respect between the pair, with Rooke calling Llewellyn the hardest working person there because his dyslexia means he needs to spend more time with the scripts. “I do find it tough when there’s a fresh draft and we need to shoot the day after,” says Llewellyn. “But it’s a very safe space. It always works out because everyone’s just looking out for each other.”
Pointing, who started out as a standup, met Rooke on the comedy circuit nearly seven years ago, and they bonded in a kebab shop. “You know when you meet someone and you feel like ‘Oh, I’m home’?” he remembers. They immediately started talking about developing Rooke’s series. “Look, how many times have I been half cut and some other performer or writer has said, ‘I’ve got this idea for a show’?” But Rooke realised he had found his perfect “straight mate” Danny. “I’m not saying I was exactly like his friend,” says Pointing. “But I think he saw something in me.”
The success of playing Danny – along with his compelling blend of deadpan wit and laddish charm (enough to make an interviewer burst into a five-minute laughing fit with a sarcastic comment on how the “straight male community” isn’t represented enough) – has boosted Pointing’s career over the last two years. He starred in the BBC’s recent Agatha Christie adaptation, and won hearts as a single dad looking for love in Sky Comedy’s modern romcom Smothered. He and Llewellyn are almost in danger of being typecast as really lovely blokes. Would they ever play the villain? “Yeah sure!” says Pointing. “I used to do a really unpleasant person in my comedy. But I’d look around the room and think ‘Oh I’ve just ruined everyone’s evening.’” Llewellyn, meanwhile, would just “love to play an adult” and for people to say “‘What the hell? But that’s the Wee English Fella!’” What he’s most keen on, though, is to work with McGee again on a soppy romcom.
Beyond these triumphs, the most meaningful thing to happen to the boys is the open-arms response from not just the LGBTQ+ community but also straight men who have taken something positive from the show. “The most important thing is when someone’s like, ‘My husband’s a builder and he loves Danny!’” says Rooke. It’s a big middle finger to the commissioners who rejected Big Boys because they would ask, “Do we believe this gay guy would have this straight best friend?” Pointing adds that, while there are lots of posters on the tube and in pubs these days about men’s mental health, many still don’t know how to articulate it. “Maybe the show helps a little bit.”
How about a third season, then? Everyone is keen, obviously – Rooke even admits that he’s obsessed with the ratings figures. “My aim is [like] Gavin and Stacey vibes. I want a huge span: that’s my dream.” Then again, after turning 30 last year, he also says he has “milked this story” to death. He’d like to focus on writing characters inspired by the working-class women in his life. He adores his mum – who always believed in him but also prepared him for working-class failure in a very middle-class industry – and says the best thing about all of this is that he’s finally been able to buy her a fridge. “She’s got like three framed Bafta-nominee posters on the wall at home. I can just tell that for her, it’s the best thing.”
There’s only one disappointing thing about this second season: no one has yet met Alison Hammond, who Jack’s goldfish was named after. “I don’t think she likes it,” says Rooke. “I can’t imagine she would. I think it would be weird being written up in a sitcom as a fish.”
Series two of Big Boys starts on Channel 4 on 14 January.
Join Jack Rooke and the cast of Big Boys on 15 January for a livestreamed Guardian Live event where they will be talking about the series. Tickets available here.
