Latest news with #Funboys
Irish Post
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Post
‘Funboys forever': Stars react as comedy commissioned for a second series
BBC comedy series Funboys has been commissioned for a second series, much to the delight of its stars. The show follows Callum (Ryan Dylan), Jordan (Rian Lennon) and Lorcan (Lee R. James) as they attempt to navigate the hardships of life in small-town Northern Ireland. From first girlfriends to dead pet pigs, it takes a fly-on-the-wall approach, prioritising authentic, naturalistic comedy. 'Series Two is here,' Dlyan said as the news spread. Funboys series two has been commissioned 'We've learned nothing, grown less and legally can't be left alone,' he added, 'Funboys forever.' Fellow star Lennon said: 'Our show is like what if the teletubbies took off the dang suits and got real for a second. 'We don't pull punches, we've written a show that's hard as rocks. 'And if you don't like it you can jog the frigging hell on.' Filmed in rural Northern Ireland, the series started as a BBC Comedy Short Film before securing a full series commission which launched to critical acclaim in February this year. Eddie Doyle, Head of Commissioning for BBC Northern Ireland, said it is a 'real treat to be able to serve audiences another portion of Funboys with Ryan, Rian and Lee'. 'This backs our commitment to giving a platform to new comedy voices and local talent, and we can't wait to see what the boys from Ballymacnoose have up their sleeves for series two,' he added. Critics described the first series of Funboys as 'some of the most fearless comedy in years' and 'beautifully bonkers'. The second four-episode series is being produced by Mayhay Studios for BBC Three and iPlayer. The show is written by Lennon and Dylan, and directed by Lennon. They also serve as executive producers alongside Mayhay's Simon Mayhew-Archer.
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
BBC Comedy orders more fun from the Funboys
Funboys is a show where frigids get their first kiss. Pigs fly in the sky. Three chubby little lads frolick fields, navigate life's dramas, and learn how funboys become funmen. Ready to put it all on the line and die a horrific jumping death for the sake of friendship, these are a group of boys who understand the healing power of touch; touching hearts, themselves, the nation. And if you think for one second they're afraid to talk to each other about their feelings just because they're guys, prepare to have your f*cking lid blown off. The series, filmed in rural Northern Ireland, started as a BBC Comedy Short Film before securing a full series commission which launched to critical acclaim in February this year. Ryan Dylan says: 'Series Two is here. We've learned nothing, grown less and legally can't be left alone. Funboys forever.' Rian Lennon says: 'Our show is like what if the teletubbies took off the dang suits and got real for a second. We don't pull punches, we've written a show that's hard as rocks. And if you don't like it you can jog the frigging hell on.' Simon Mayhew-Archer, Executive Producer and CEO Mayhay Studios says: 'We go again.' Eddie Doyle, Head of Commissioning for BBC Northern Ireland, says: 'It's a real treat to be able to serve audiences another portion of Funboys with Ryan, Rian and Lee. This backs our commitment to giving a platform to new comedy voices and local talent, and we can't wait to see what the boys from Ballymacnoose have up their sleeves for series two.' The first series had critical acclaim with The Guardian describing it as 'some of the most fearless comedy in years' and the London Evening Standard calling it 'beautifully bonkers'. Funboys (4 x 30) is a Mayhay Studios production for BBC Three and iPlayer. It has been commissioned by BBC Director of Comedy, Jon Petrie and BBC Head of Commissioning for Northern Ireland, Eddie Doyle. The show is written by Rian Lennon and Ryan Dylan, and directed by Lennon. They also serve as executive producers alongside Simon Mayhew-Archer. The commissioning editors for the BBC are Navi Lamba and Seb Barwell, and Jason Butler for BBC Northern Ireland. HM2
Telegraph
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Funboys, review: imagine This Country transported to Northern Ireland, and you're halfway there
Funboys (BBC Three) began life as a BBC Three Comedy short film in 2023. In its first guise, it featured a trio of emotionally backward Northern Irish lads who started the Funboys' Fun Club: a sort of playgroup for callow young men to free their inner baby and generally mess about. Extended to a series, Funboys has ditched the Fun Club and instead just focuses on the messing about. Jordan and Callum (Ryan Early and Rian Lennon, who also write and direct), along with their tousle-haired friend Lorcan (Lee Dobbin) live in the fictional Antrim town of Ballymacnoose, where nothing much happens. Across the first series of Funboys nothing much happens either – a girl, of all things, arrives to upset the applecart; at one point they get a pet pig. It's a low-budget, low-concept comedy that lives or dies on the goofiness and kind-heartedness of our three emotionally-stunted manboys. Perhaps because Funboys has been in the works for several years, the central trio work together very well. Clever people pretending to be stupid is a tough line to tread – there is always the danger of wry observation descending into ridicule and contempt. But there's an ease between Jordan, Callum and Lorcan as they gorge on video games and chug fizzy pop that does feel like real friendship. It comes with a sense that the writers love their characters, rather than looking down on them and mining them for lols. It helps that there are only four short episodes in this series, so in general you find yourself laughing with and not at the trio, as well as the out-of-the-way hicksville of Ballymacnoose. Swap Northern Ireland for the Costwolds, however, and Funboys is ploughing a similar furrow to This Country, another BBC Three comedy that only ended in 2020. It's no surprise to find that the two shows share a producer, Simon Mayhew-Archer, as well as the mockumentary style and a keen eye for the comedy of social awkwardness. Funboys adds a dab of the scatological from The Inbetweeners and borrows many of the idioms from Derry Girls. It is hard to be distinctive when your antecedents loom so large; on the other hand comedy moves fast and it's possible that the 16-34 audience BBC Three is aimed at won't have a clue, or care, that we've been here before. Funboys is at the very least funny and while it doesn't aspire too much more than some good jokes about pigs and masturbation, its main subject, in as far as it has a subject, is young men admitting to, and then dealing with, their feelings. Admittedly, this subject is approached with all the subtlety of a hammer drill ('It was as though my constipated heart finally took a big, big poo,' for example). But it shows that at heart, Funboys isn't only out to have fun. For that, it should be commended.
The Guardian
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Funboys review – some of the most fearless comedy in years
Like so many great comedies, Funboys is an idiosyncratic, gently nurtured, quietly horrific thing. The creation of RyanDylan and Rian Lennon, who also play two of its main characters, it began life as a 14-minute film – small but perfectly formed – that premiered at the BBC Two comedy festival two years ago. Now, with cast nicely broadened and content nicely deepened, it has become a series. We follow the three 'emotionally unassembled' twentysomethings – Callum Brown (Dylan), Jordan McCafferty (Lennon) and Lorcan Boggin (Lee R James) – whose earnestness belies their self-chosen funboys moniker, as they attempt to assemble and entertain themselves with the sparse resources on offer in the tiny town of Ballymacnoose, Northern Ireland. Callum is no longer engaged to his ultra-religious fiancee Morgan (Emer O'Connor), but the gang is disturbed and astonished when an English girl, Gemma (Ele McKenzie), arrives in town and promptly makes Callum her boyfriend. 'Strong, rugged, good-looking,' she tells him. 'I'm sick of that rubbish.' Jordan quickly gets very drunk to cope with his friend's absence from their group gaming sessions. 'I'm worried about Callum's post-nut depression,' he insists. 'I don't want that for you, Callum.' I must pause here to give Gemma and McKenzie their due. I haven't seen a character written or performed with such fearless monstrosity since Julia Davis was last on screen. The masturbation scene on a swan pedalo in the middle of a lake in apark is nightmarish, but the kissing that precedes it may actually make you temporarily blind. Unspeakably, brilliantly awful. Let's move on. Lorcan, who amounts to the group's philosopher king – perhaps thanks to his familiarity with life's entrances and exits from his work on the Boggin family's artisanal abattoir ('We look them in the eye') – offers Jordan solace away from the bottle. But the wheel of fate continues its cruel turning, and soon Lorcan has replaced Callum in Gemma's bananas affections and the group must reconstitute once again. On top of which, poor Callum must face the wrath of a park caretaker every time they meet in the supermarket: 'You killed seven of my ducks with your jism.' Forgive the pun, but this is a difficult situation to row back on. Funboys shares some DNA with This Country, with its fiercely naturalistic portrait of even smaller town life, shot through with moments of pure surrealism. It also explores the difficulties of young people managing their frustrations, or even identifying that they are frustrated in the first place. Limited opportunities and narrow horizons bedevil the trio just as they do Kurtan and Kerry, and they don't even have a friendly vicar on their side. But the three-man setup also allows a little light commentary on modern masculinity too, as the boys navigate Jordan's neediness, Lorcan's unexpected sexual prowess (at least as far as Gemma is concerned) and Callum becoming the enraptured mentee of Boggin Sr, who promises to teach him how to become one of 'the bastards who rule the world'. A natural-born doormat, Callum begins to assert himself at home and at work. 'When you didn't clean your cereal bowl this morning,' Boggin Sr says with pride, 'I knew something had begun to shift.' 'I did my time in nice-guy prison,' says Callum. 'I ain't going back.' Funboys won't be to everyone's taste and that's fine because it is patently not trying to be. But if you like your comedy gentle yet harrowing, charming yet brutal, light but insidious, these are the guys, and the Gemma, for you. Funboys aired on BBC One and is on iPlayer now.
BBC News
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Funboys cast and creators tease some "good wholesome mucking about" in the new BBC comedy
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... MM2 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.
