Big Boys returns for a second series: Jon Pointing Interview

Channel 4 comedy Big Boys is back for a brand new series.

Series two takes the whole gang straight into the second year of Brent University 2014, where alongside dealing with virginity hang-ups, drug experimentation (both legal and otherwise) and Jack’s obsession with Alison Hammond, this time round their degrees actually count!

Meanwhile Jack’s family continue to navigate their lives after his Dad’s passing, beginning just as much of a new chapter as the gang at university. And Danny gets to revisit his past as he learns how to better deal with his mental health issues.

Join Pointing plays Danny

What is Big Boys and who is Danny?

Big Boys is a semi-autobiographical comedy drama by Jack Rooke, about him losing his dad, starting university, and dealing with his sexuality and his identity. He’s thrown together with my character, Danny, who at first seems like this uber lad who just wants to get off with girls and drink and party, they seem like opposite energies but quite quickly form a bond and a friendship that is the central theme of the show – along with lots of crazy antics around being at uni.

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We get more of an insight into Danny’s upbringing and potentially some of the reasons that he struggles with his mental health. How was that for you and your journey playing Danny and what do you think people watching will take from it?

It was really nice; everyone’s storylines go into more detail this series, so it was good to be able to play that. I think a lot of people were heartened by his relationship with his Nan and that’s why he is how he is with Jack. In a similar way, I hope that some of the stuff you see with his family in the second series, will do the same thing and give people that context. There are some scenes with his dad, where you see the other side of his personality, his feelings, and thoughts. He’s got this love, support, and bright side of his life for his Nan and then there’s this fear and all his trauma wrapped up in this other character.

This series continues to explore universal issues that you wouldn’t associate necessarily with comedy (broken homes, grief, trying to find somewhere to live in a housing crisis) why do you think it works?

I think it works because Jack primarily writes about people that love and care about each other and a lot of these topics are very close to his heart. He’s not tackling them or talking about them in a finger wagging way. And it’s not about judging anyone for not having that experience or not knowing about it. It’s like, look, this is a person who happens to be struggling with mental health, and this is a person who’s going through the difficulties of coming out and they both do things like sh*t themselves, get wasted on nights out and argue. It all comes from a good, warm place – you can talk about or make comedy out of anything if that’s your starting point. I think as soon as you’re trying to make fun of people or you’re trying to make a point that’s when it doesn’t work.

We see how important the gang is to Danny, would you say those relationships become his chosen family?

Yeah, he really needs and wants that family unit, it’s something that he’s obviously lacked. This group happen to be a bunch of students, but they’re really important to him. Danny is Mr. Positive, that’s his default setting, he says ‘it’s going to be good’, even if he doesn’t believe it, he’s trying to convince himself which is obviously part of the problem, but I think it’s the thing that the gang find both irritating and endearing about him.

What is your best memory from filming Big Boy series 2?

It’s hard to pick out one because the whole experience was amazing. And I really tried to savour every bit of it. I had some really nice scenes with Dylan, but also Camille and Izuka and Olisa so that was great. We’re so lucky because not every job is like this, I really tried to savour the fact that this filming is not going to last forever.

Watch Big Boys Sundays at 10pm on Channel 4.