Big Boys: it's the final season of TV's funniest sitcom – and it's as sharp, wise and filthy as ever

The Guardian

08-02-2025

In the street yesterday, a man asked me if I'd heard the Good News. Happily, I had: Big Boys is back on Channel 4 this Sunday! Now, it turns out we were talking about different things. It wasn't much of a discussion anyway, as he was yelling into a megaphone, which is poor mic technique. It's his loss, because Big Boys is the funniest, sharpest and wisest sitcom around. Spread the word.
Loss is baked into the series, which is drawn from creator Jack Rooke's real-life experiences of coming out at university after his father's death. He is befriended by hunky straight lad Danny, who yearns for closeness with his alcoholic dad, while feeling overwhelming guilt for abandoning his nan in a care home. There's swotty Scots firebrand Corinne and sophisticated fashion student Yemi, who becomes Jack's gay mentor. Due to an administrative error, they all live in a shed. Classic stuff.
It really is – that shed idea could have come from Last of the Summer Wine. There's a bit of Derry Girls in the DNA, not just for the angelic, diffident presence of Dylan Llewellyn as Jack. Gavin & Stacey too, another touchstone of working-class warmth. Big Boys is a queer coming-of-age story but totally universal. Its theme is friendship, and it is British to its underpants. Big Brother, Alison Hammond and the Tesco Meal Deal are sacred texts, much pored over. And it's filthy. Remember when Jack drank poppers? Or Danny shat himself in bed with a girl? If not, go back to series one and get to know your culture.
In the gang's third year at Brent University, Jack's misadventures include meeting his school bully through Grindr and using a curly font in the section of his dissertation that deals with Aids, in order to 'cheer the markers up'. There's an Adrian Mole-esque sweetness to Jack's anal-virginity mission. Yet he has less to do for much of this series, as Big Boys widens its empathetic lens to embrace its supporting characters. This impeccable roster includes Annette Badland as matriarchal savage Nanny Bingo, a regally charismatic Olisa Odele as Yemi, and my favourite, Katy Wix, unrecognisable from Stath Lets Flats. The awkward zealotry she brings to the role of union officer Jules is spellbindingly odd.
Jon Pointing, though. There should be terrace chants to Jon Pointing. Alongside Paul Mescal and Leo Woodall, we are living through a golden generation of Sensitive Lads. Pointing plays Danny, half of the touching straight-gay friendship at the heart of the show. His tart-with-a-heart, cheeky Nando's, geezer ally with secret mental health struggles has always been the rug-pulling, painful heart of the series. Trust me when I tell you that his performance will shred you. Just put your heart into a Magimix, turn it on and leave the room. Consider yourselves warned.
The boys in Big Boys are various sizes, all handsome and very funny. The show has zingers to spare. The sound design is funny. Even the subtitles are funny. But this is also the most emotionally literate show on TV. Not in the debased sense that characters throw therapy-speak at each other or self-diagnose attachment styles. Rooke's script has a dramatic commitment to emotional beats, and pulls them off with the economic specificity of comedy. It's beautifully judged; the show has always been about life and death, but nothing feels mawkish or manipulative in it, only human and tender. Sorry for saying 'pulls them off'.
We haven't talked about the soundtrack: glorious 2010s needle drops from Patrick Wolf, Self Esteem and Hot Chip. It is a huge injustice that Danny's improvised song Batty on My Lappy (about charging his computer) has been left off the Spotify playlist, as I have used it as a personal pick-me-up for years. Apart from that, it's a perfect 10.
This is the show's final series. The end is nigh, so let me get my sandwich board out: this beauty of a sitcom is something to shout about. The adventures of Jack and his inner circle (sorry, sorry) feel like the warmth of spring, ready to come in. Open your hearts, and let them in.
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Big Boys on Sunday 9 February, 10pm, Channel 4.