Funboys cast and creators tease some "good wholesome mucking about" in the new BBC comedy

BBC News

07-02-2025

Funboys is a brand new comedy series for BBC Northern Ireland, BBC Three and BBC iPlayer. From the BAFTA-award winning producer of This Country (Simon Mayhew-Archer) and produced by Mayhay Studios, Funboys is a 4x30 comedy series about three emotionally-unassembled young men in small-town Northern Ireland. The series will air on BBC iPlayer and BBC NI on Monday 10 February, BBC Three on Thursday 13 February and BBC One on Friday 28February.
Funboys sees friends Callum (Ryan Dylan), Jordan (Rian Lennon) and Lorcan (Lee R James) attempt to navigate through the hardships of life. From first girlfriends to dead pet pigs, the lads are put through the psychological ringer. But will their shared love of innocent fun and wholesome mucking about land them in hot water?
Funboys, set in Northern Ireland and filmed with support from Northern Ireland Screen is an irreverent series exploring the emotional chaos of young men navigating their own messy lives. The ensemble cast includes Ele McKenzie, Jamie Demetriou, Brian Devlin, Owen Colgan, Paul Bazely, Richard Croxford, Emer O'Connor, Amanda Hurwitz, James Martin, Vanessa Ifediora, Walter Chigui and Brendan Quinn.
Meet the cast of Funboys...
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Interview with Ryan Dylan (Callum)
What makes a Funboy?
Someone who loves good wholesome mucking about. Someone who loves their friends and isn't afraid to show it. Someone with traits of depression, anxiety, and narcissism - all rolled into one overthinking, over-feeling, overflowing burrito of existential crises.
What inspired the show?
Mundanity meeting melodrama. The idea of three young men navigating life with unfiltered emotionality, while being completely clueless about what any of it means. Deep feelings colliding with shallow understanding. Also, low self-worth. Desperation.
How would you describe the series?
Handjobs, Class A drugs, and pigs. An embarrassingly honest look into the growing pains of three stunted, ill-equipped twenty-somethings.
Tell us about your character?
Callum is the human embodiment of Eeyore the donkey. Confused, sad, afraid; but not without friends. Two, to be exact. Gullible and left adrift, Callum is like an orphaned fawn frozen in the headlights of the joyriding lorry that is adulthood.
Interview with Rian Lennon (Jordan)
What makes a Funboy?
Someone willing to put it all on the line for fun. Someone willing to die a horrific death for the sake of friendship. Someone willing to give his best pal a big lovely kiss on the cheek to cheer him up, even when all the other guys will say there's something sexual in it when really it's just a platonic thing and they're just really close mates who understand the healing power of touch.
What inspired the show?
Myself, Ryan and Lee all experienced something known as dream meshing. It's when you share the same dream with someone at the exact same time, sort of like online gaming. We were fully lucid and could consciously bring our personal memories to the surface. We all scanned through each other's minds, like a Matrix combat simulation, and when our dream stomachs were full we began constructing the town of Ballymacnoose and the storylines surrounding it. We spent seven nights like this, sleeping over in each other's houses in sleeping bags. We would spend the days physically recuperating with nourishment and warm hearted laughter, readying ourselves for the night's construction ahead. At bedtime we would kiss each other on the cheek, take a sip of warm milk, tuck ourselves in, and enter the dream. Our day was only just beginning.
How would you describe the series?
It's like strawberry flavoured chewing gum. It's sweet, gives you something to chew on, and if you swallow it it'll stay with you forever.
Tell us about your character?
Jordan has taken the scenic route through mental development. He's a brat. A nightmare. But a good boy all the same. His love languages are quality time and gift giving. He might scream and cry because you aren't hanging out with him, he might even threaten to throw himself into the path of an oncoming bus because you haven't replied to his texts. But it's because he cares so, so deeply about his friends. That's what being a Funboy is all about, and if there's a better way to live then I don't want to know about it.
Interview with Lee R James (Lorcan)
What makes a Funboy?
Being a Funboy is in the eye of the beholder, anyone can be a Funboy with the right mindset. Whether that frame of mind is burning passion for your friends or being hellbent on a good time regardless of the consequences.
What inspired the show?
The show was inspired by the lack of representation of the rural folk who wander these lands. The small towns we grew up in are filled with oddities that deserve the spotlight.
How would you describe the series?
It's like that certain Scottish soft drink, a strange and unique flavour. Every episode is like a cold can, by the time you've got to the fourth one you'll be craving more. Funboys is a show that'll make you laugh and could maybe even make you cry.
Tell us about your character?
Lorcan is the glue that holds the boys together, he's essentially like a mother. Callum and Jordan are like his two favourite sons, there's not much wrong those boys could do in Lorcan's eyes. His humility lets him see the world through rose tinted glasses but that sometimes gets the better of him and he struggles to navigate through some of life's more mundane problems.