Corinne (Izuka Hoyle) is there to work, but may yet come to see that there is more to university than lectures, and that some of it may involve Danny. Among the students proper there is hot girl Mad Debs (Rhiannon Clements), who burns bright but briefly. Katy Wix gives a tremendous turn as effortfully fun-loving Jules, a thirtysomething student union rep for whom university was, is and will be for as long as she can cling on to it the best time of her life. “I only really know him as an actor,” says Jack, adding in with voiceover for the audience that Eric “gets his willy out in You and the Night. Danny assumes from Jack’s Eric Cantona poster that he is a football fan. “Beers?” says Danny, pleased, as his roommate comes in carrying cans. The growing friendship between the two young men, in a genre and world when such things are seldom showcased or made part of the cultural narrative, is genuinely uplifting. Danny, at 25, is a mature student, and whether his delayed start has something to do with the antidepressants he is covertly taking is not clear.
The meat of the series is about him – cowed, nervy and nerdy – establishing himself, coming out and making friends, particularly with Danny ( Jon Pointing), a lairy lads’ lad who accepts Jack, but is keen to see him maximise the social and sexual opportunities offered by freshers’ week and beyond, as Danny himself intends to. Jack tries again at Brent University the following year. “We’d stuck together during dad’s illness like Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. Jack and Peggy (Camille Coduri, whose tearfully caught breath at one point nearly undid me) see each other through. The odd thoughts, the lasagnes and platitudes offered by kind people who don’t quite know what to say, the comfort telly and the comfort eating. “It’s shit,” says the narrator, voiced by Rooke, “when he’s 57 and it’s your dad and he’s the only one.” The opening minutes of the first episode are a collage of those surreal early days of bereavement. Jack Rooke’s new six-part comedy, Big Boys (Channel 4), based on his autobiographical stage shows, centres on – yes – a character called Jack (Derry Girls’ Dylan Llewellyn), who as a teenager is facing a devastating loss.
This is Jack’s second attempt at student life and they are hoping he will manage to stay the course this time.
She got the idea from Paul O’Grady’s programme about rehoming animals from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. J ack’s mum, Peggy, is busy in his university accommodation, reproducing his bedroom at home as best she can.