Latest news with #JackRooke
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Derry Girls star 'becomes latest to sign up for Celebrity Race Across the World' after Strictly couple Molly Rainford and Tyler West
A sitcom star has reportedly become the latest star to sign up for the next series of Celebrity Race Across the World. Derry Girls star Dylan Llewellyn has joined the line-up taking on the travel challenge on the popular BBC series, according to The Sun. The actor, 32, began his career with roles in some of the UK's biggest soaps, including The Bill, Hollyoaks and Holby City. However, it was playing only boy and Englishman James Maguire, on beloved comedy Derry Girls that saw him shoot to fame. Dylan then took on the lead role in comedian Jack Rooke's semi-autobiographical Channel 4 series Big Boys for three seasons, playing a closeted uni fresher grieving the loss of his father. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Speaking about the show to Attitude: 'Everything about it was beautiful to me. I really wanted the part and to tell Jack's story as best I could. I'm really proud to be in it.' He also starred in 2022 miniseries Pistol, playing Wally Nightingale, who formed a band with schoolmates Paul Cook and Steve Jones in 1972, but was replaced by Johnny Rotten when they transformed into the Sex Pistols. And since February 2023, Dylan has starred as PC Kelby Hartford in Beyond Paradise, a spin-off of the hit show Death In Paradise. He will allegedly be taking a break from studio sets to race across continents in the gruelling Race Across the World special, with a teammate and no mobile phones. Representatives for the show declined to comment when approached by MailOnline. The last series of the celebrity version of the series saw Kelly Brook, Scott Mills, Jeff Brazier and Kola Bokinni face off against each other as they dashed across South America. Dylan's casting for the new series could see him joined by Molly Rainford and Tyler West, who were reported to have also signed up last week. The EastEnders actress, 24, and the broadcaster, 29, who met during BBC 's Strictly Come Dancing in 2022, are said to be taking on the travel challenge together. A source told The Sun: 'Molly and Tyler are a huge coup for the show. 'They're popular with millions of viewers from their stints on Strictly, and Molly will bring in loads of EastEnders fans too. 'They are a very adventurous pair and have brilliant chemistry, so bosses are confident they will become huge fan favourites.' Last year, Molly and Tyler moved into their first home together and began sharing their home improvements journey with their followers. Alongside a clip of the couple inside their new home and in the 'Strictly' ballroom doing a clapping routine, Molly wrote on Instagram: 'Well guys, it was only right that we let you into our little home, the next part of our journey starts now @homewithmolty.' At the end of the clip, Tyler quipped: 'We've got a lot of cleaning up to do babe.' After previously denying speculation they were dating, the pair posted a TikTok with Tyler seen placing his hand on Molly's leg as they recited lines from 'Friends'. The audio they used was of Rachel Green and Joey Tribbiani telling each other they knew Monica Geller and Chandler Bing were dating in secret. The clip was captioned: 'Did you know? @MollyRainford,' with Tyler adding a red love heart and a crying with laughter emoji. Molly has played Anna Knight on EastEnders since 2023, after starting her career on the CBBC, presenting Friday Download and starring as the titular character in sci-fi series Nova Jones. While she first came to fame after getting to the finals of Britain's Got Talent in 2012 and made new fans with her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing in 2022. After failing to win BGT when she was 11 years old, Simon and his record label sponsored her to go to the coveted Sylvia Young Theatre School. The prestigious London school has been a hotbed of talent for decades, producing singers including Adele, Dua Lipa, Amy Winehouse, Rita Ora, and Emma Bunton, plus actors Keeley Hawes, Nicholas Hoult and Daniel Kaluuya. Molly previously explained: 'I did Britain's Got Talent in 2012 when I was 11 years old. That definitely changed my life because after getting to the finals, I was sponsored by Sony Music and Simon Cowell to go to the Sylvia Young theatre school. From those auditions throughout school, I got into the CBBC world.' Music mogul Simon agreeing to sponsor her stage-schooling when Molly's family turned down his offer of a record deal, determined their daughter would not become a one-hit wonder. Molly voiced her gratitude to the Daily Mail in 2022, gushing: 'Simon is Mr BGT and he made that happen, I will always be grateful. It meant I could do what I love.'
Scottish Sun
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Huge boost for Netflix's troubled Spice Girls drama as streamer makes major backstage signing
Scroll down to find out why the signing is a 'real coup' for the project SPICE IS RIGHT….ON TRACK Huge boost for Netflix's troubled Spice Girls drama as streamer makes major backstage signing Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) NETFLIX'S drama about the Spice Girls is back on track after the streaming giant signed one of Britain's biggest TV writers to create a pilot. The troubled project has struggled to get off the ground after the bandmates were daggers drawn through much of 2024. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 5 The Spice Girls Netflix drama is back on track after the streamer signed one of Britain's biggest TV writers, Jack Rooke, to create a pilot - pictured here with Mel C Credit: Rex But with the prospect of a multi-million-pound world tour next year, they seemed to have magically smoothed things over. Now I can reveal that Jack Rooke, the comedian and creator of hit Channel 4 comedy Big Boys, is writing the script for the drama which next year will celebrate three decades since the group's debut single, Wannabe. A TV insider said: 'Bagging Jack is a real coup for the project and might be the crucial element that drives the drama forward after its rocky start. 'He already has a relationship with Mel C, who's a huge fan of his comedy Big Boys, and that could be the pivotal connection that takes things on to the next stage. Of course Netflix has yet to confirm it has commissioned the show and there's still a lot to play for. But there now seems to be a genuine will to make things happen. 'No matter what Jack comes up with, it will be a loving and funny look at the band he grew up listening to in the Nineties and Noughties.' Since Big Boys launched three years ago, Jack has been nominated for a string of awards for the show and last year scooped a Bafta. He is now one of Britain's most sought-after writers with industry insiders speculating over what project he would take on since his semi-autobiographical comedy had its third and final outing this year. Last month he confirmed he was working on a pilot for Netflix adding it would have 'some of the hallmarks of Big Boys, while perhaps leaning more on the drama-comedy'. The streamer was contacted for comment. Spice Girls set for 2026 global reunion tour – But will Victoria Beckham join? 5 The troubled project has struggled to get off the ground after the bandmates were daggers drawn through much of 2024 Credit: Rex MOVING STREET LONG-running kids' show Sesame Street is moving to Netflix. The new series will feature 'format changes' and the return of fan-favourite segments, Elmo's World and Cookie Monster's Food Truck. The new episodes, as well as former series, will be available to stream later this year. Comics' coastal caper BABATUNDE Aleshe has returned to Ireland for a new Channel 4 miniseries centring on travel trails – with fellow comedian Finlay Christie. Coast to Coast: The Scenic Route sees Babatunde – who fronted a similar miniseries last year – and Finlay rely on locals' recommendations on a cross-country trip. 5 Babatunde Aleshe has returned to Ireland for a new Channel 4 miniseries centring on travel trails Credit: Getty They showcase the Causeway Coastal Route and County Donegal's Wild Atlantic Way. During their journey the pair go head to head in challenges, including learning how to control sheepdogs and mastering traditional Irish brush dancing. Finlay said: 'One day I was herding lambs, the next I was floating in a seaweed bath like an ancient Celtic king – there were so many laughs.' The show is on C4's YouTube channel now. Sisters' tale hits for six A THREE-part Channel 4 documentary will tell the story of the notorious Mitford sisters, following on from UKTV's new dramatisation about their lives. It will take a close look at the six, whose radical lifestyles saw them mixing with political powers and enjoying ringside seats to divisive events of the mid-20th century. 5 A Channel 4 documentary will tell the story of the notorious Mitford sisters Credit: Bridgeman Images As well as talking to experts, relatives and biographers, it relies on the siblings' many interviews. Meanwhile, U&DRAMA's Outrageous, which sees Bessie Carter and Joanna Vanderham among actors bringing the sisters' stories to life, will air from June 18. Brydon for Donaldson classic ROB Brydon will star in The Gruffalo writer Julia Donaldson's annual animation this Christmas. He will voice Reginald Rake in new adaptation The Scarecrows' Wedding, alongside Jessie Buckley, Domhnall Gleeson and Sophie Okonedo. It will air on BBC One. Power trip for Blair FORMER Prime Minister Tony Blair will be at the centre of a new Channel 4 documentary. The series will dive into his rise, his years at No10, and his post-politics career. 5 Ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair will be at the centre of a new C4 doc Credit: Getty It will feature an in-depth interview with the man himself, while friends, allies, and opponents from Parliament, will also reveal their opinions of his time in power. From the makers of The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson, the show is expected take a more in-depth look at stand-out moments of Sir Tony's ten-year tenure in Downing Street, including his involvement in the Iraq War. It follows the success of last year's two-parter on Mr Johnson, which traced his political career, with interviews of those who worked alongside him in Parliament. Fellow former PM Margaret Thatcher was at the centre of Channel 4 drama series Brian And Maggie, starring Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter, earlier this year.
The Sun
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Huge boost for Netflix's troubled Spice Girls drama as streamer makes major backstage signing
NETFLIX'S drama about the Spice Girls is back on track after the streaming giant signed one of Britain's biggest TV writers to create a pilot. The troubled project has struggled to get off the ground after the bandmates were daggers drawn through much of 2024. But with the prospect of a multi-million-pound world tour next year, they seemed to have magically smoothed things over. Now I can reveal that Jack Rooke, the comedian and creator of hit Channel 4 comedy Big Boys, is writing the script for the drama which next year will celebrate three decades since the group's debut single, Wannabe. A TV insider said: 'Bagging Jack is a real coup for the project and might be the crucial element that drives the drama forward after its rocky start. 'He already has a relationship with Mel C, who's a huge fan of his comedy Big Boys, and that could be the pivotal connection that takes things on to the next stage. Of course Netflix has yet to confirm it has commissioned the show and there's still a lot to play for. But there now seems to be a genuine will to make things happen. 'No matter what Jack comes up with, it will be a loving and funny look at the band he grew up listening to in the Nineties and Noughties.' Since Big Boys launched three years ago, Jack has been nominated for a string of awards for the show and last year scooped a Bafta. He is now one of Britain's most sought-after writers with industry insiders speculating over what project he would take on since his semi-autobiographical comedy had its third and final outing this year. Last month he confirmed he was working on a pilot for Netflix adding it would have 'some of the hallmarks of Big Boys, while perhaps leaning more on the drama-comedy'. The streamer was contacted for comment. Spice Girls set for 2026 global reunion tour – But will Victoria Beckham join? 5 MOVING STREET LONG-running kids' show Sesame Street is moving to Netflix. The new series will feature 'format changes' and the return of fan-favourite segments, Elmo's World and Cookie Monster's Food Truck. The new episodes, as well as former series, will be available to stream later this year. Comics' coastal caper BABATUNDE Aleshe has returned to Ireland for a new Channel 4 miniseries centring on travel trails – with fellow comedian Finlay Christie. Coast to Coast: The Scenic Route sees Babatunde – who fronted a similar miniseries last year – and Finlay rely on locals' recommendations on a cross-country trip. 5 They showcase the Causeway Coastal Route and County Donegal's Wild Atlantic Way. During their journey the pair go head to head in challenges, including learning how to control sheepdogs and mastering traditional Irish brush dancing. Finlay said: 'One day I was herding lambs, the next I was floating in a seaweed bath like an ancient Celtic king – there were so many laughs.' The show is on C4's YouTube channel now. Sisters' tale hits for six A THREE-part Channel 4 documentary will tell the story of the notorious Mitford sisters, following on from UKTV's new dramatisation about their lives. It will take a close look at the six, whose radical lifestyles saw them mixing with political powers and enjoying ringside seats to divisive events of the mid-20th century. 5 As well as talking to experts, relatives and biographers, it relies on the siblings' many interviews. Meanwhile, U&DRAMA's Outrageous, which sees Bessie Carter and Joanna Vanderham among actors bringing the sisters' stories to life, will air from June 18. Brydon for Donaldson classic ROB Brydon will star in The Gruffalo writer Julia Donaldson's annual animation this Christmas. He will voice Reginald Rake in new adaptation The Scarecrows' Wedding, alongside Jessie Buckley, Domhnall Gleeson and Sophie Okonedo. It will air on BBC One. Power trip for Blair FORMER Prime Minister Tony Blair will be at the centre of a new Channel 4 documentary. The series will dive into his rise, his years at No10, and his post-politics career. 5 It will feature an in-depth interview with the man himself, while friends, allies, and opponents from Parliament, will also reveal their opinions of his time in power. From the makers of The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson, the show is expected take a more in-depth look at stand-out moments of Sir Tony's ten-year tenure in Downing Street, including his involvement in the Iraq War. It follows the success of last year's two-parter on Mr Johnson, which traced his political career, with interviews of those who worked alongside him in Parliament. Fellow former PM Margaret Thatcher was at the centre of Channel 4 drama series Brian And Maggie, starring Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter, earlier this year.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jack Rooke on the devastating Big Boys finale: ‘People told me to bare my soul. And now I regret it'
Jack Rooke has just cycled furiously, in a trenchcoat, to avoid being late for an interview – this interview – to discuss the acclaimed final season of his Channel 4 sitcom, Big Boys. Who would have begrudged him being a little late? After all, this is one of the busiest and happiest weeks of his life. Isn't it? 'The answer is no,' he tells me, cradling an Americano while his PR handler scrolls idly on his phone, just out of earshot. 'I've often felt, this week, a little bit like slamming my head against a wall. A lot of this week has been like: 'I couldn't have worked harder for a show that I'm not sure anybody knows has even come out.'' This disarming candour will be less surprising to those familiar with Big Boys (spoiler alert: this article contains details of the final episode of Big Boys season three). After all, the show has always peered, with infectious affection, into the unexpected recesses of life. Set at the fictional Brent University, it followed a haphazard group of friends through the tribulations of student life. At the heart is Dylan Llewellyn's Jack, a surrogate for Rooke, coming to terms with his sexuality, and his roommate Danny (Jon Pointing), a seemingly confident 'lad' who is struggling with repressed mental health issues. It was an odd-couple dynamic for the 21st century. What began life as a pilot for the BBC – and was developed by E4 as a 'really bad Inbetweeners copycat with poonani jokes' – ended up as one of the most celebrated and affecting shows on TV. But for Rooke, who has graduated from precocious newcomer to coveted showrunner, the fawning 5-star reviews (including in these august pages) mean far less than the sense that people, out there in the real world, are actually watching. 'It only takes like three people, unconnected to the show, to say they didn't know it was out before you're like, 'what was the f***ing point of working my arse off for two years?'' He looks apologetic after this last judgement. 'I'm probably being a bit miserable about it,' he confesses, 'because that's my current feeling at 8am in the morning.' (It's almost 10am, but one must make allowances for the writerly temperament). Big Boys' final season – its third – has rounded out a story that began a decade ago. Despite living between Watford and Rickmansworth (a deeply unsexy corridor of this island nation), Rooke blagged his way into student accommodation at the University of Westminster's Harrow campus (the proto-Brent Uni). It was a move that – in ways both linear and not – would eventually lead to Big Boys. After completing a journalism degree, he spent time as a teaching assistant and worked as a runner for live events, before winding up at Radio 1, manning the phones for their call-in service, The Surgery. At the BBC, he began to flirt with documentary filmmaking. But the real source of professional inspiration was found away from New Broadcasting House. 'I'd started doing quite naff comedy poems above pubs,' he recalls. 'I think almost as an exercise in trying to gain confidence.' This hustle is immortalised in the final season of Big Boys, where the on-screen Jack bombs with a performance poem about Madeleine McCann. 'I think that's the scene my friends have been most triggered by. None of the suicide s***. It's me trying to be a poet.' The 'suicide s***' to which Rooke alludes, is a spectre that has hung over Big Boys from the off and was at the heart of the material Rooke developed for the Edinburgh Fringe. The character of Danny is a hybrid of friends that Rooke made at university and in his early twenties, one of whom died by suicide. 'I would say the character of Danny is based on three or four of my friends,' he says. 'Three are still here and one is not. And it's a direct letter to the one who's not, in a really earnest, emotional, autobiographical way.' Indeed, the show has always been addressed by Rooke – who serves as the narrator – to you. 'You' being Danny, 'you' being lost loved ones. The final two episodes of Big Boys are the culmination, comedically and emotionally, of this story Rooke has been working on for a decade. A final sequence, in which Rooke (the man, not the character) enters the narrative, to speak to Danny on a bench overlooking the sea in Margate, is a moment that will stand alongside those rare instances when comedy transcends its genre constraints. Radar O'Reilly interrupting the 4077th M*A*S*H to announce that Henry Blake's plane has been shot down, BoJack calling to Sarah Lynn at the planetarium, Fleabag, alone, at the bus stop. Add to that, now, a rumination on meal deal inflation. 'Jack always had that scene in his head from day one,' Big Boys's director Jim Archer tells me via email. 'What was tricky to get right was the balance of truth and story,' he says. 'That's the genius of Jack's writing in that scene. To balance truth and story and create a finale that satisfies both endings is an amazing tightrope to walk.' For the scene – one of the televisual moments of the year already – Rooke and Archer changed the aspect ratio to create a visual separation from the show's widescreen, sitcom aesthetic and allowed the conversation to run for over seven minutes. The camera lingers plaintively on the Kentish coast, and Antony Gormley's half-submerged statue, 'Another Time', stares back at Jack and Danny from the sunlit waves. 'The day we shot it was lovely. Beautiful weather. I know it's a sad scene, but we had a lovely day!' 'I felt quite protective of Jack in those moments doing those scenes,' Pointing tells me. 'I tried, always, to be really calm and be just sort of there and make him feel comfortable.' Theirs is a friendship that goes back to their days as writers and performers at the Fringe, long before Big Boys was a reality. It was there, back in the early 2010s, that Rooke knew he'd found his Danny. 'We were in a kebab shop at 3am,' Rooke recalls. 'And I just whispered in his ear – in this Danny Dyer comedy voice – 'I dare you to get a pizza.' And we laughed so much. In that moment, I was like: 'You're Danny.'' 'Obviously it really made me laugh because it was silly,' Pointing recalls. 'But in my head, I was transported back to being 17. We've gone out, we've got drunk, we've ended up at a kebab shop, and someone's trying to inject some fun into the evening.' This reverence for life's beautiful banalities runs through Rooke's work. He might lament the fact that 'there's a ceiling to any project that talks about Gamu from X Factor' but there are few shows that better understand quotidian profundities, like the rise of sweet chilli or the angelic aura of Alison Hammond. In the show's final episode, Pointing's Danny and Jules – an over-eager student counsellor played by comedy stalwart Katy Wix – find themselves on a 'cheeky 37-minute detour' to Fleet Services. It is the backdrop, of course, for another emotional rug pull. You work your arse off to almost try and impress yourself. I've done that and I'm really proud of it. But I'm really excited to write something that's not autobiographical in any way 'There's this sense of responsibility,' Wix tells me. 'It's got to be right, this big ending, it's got to be the right tone.' Wix has been part of the ensemble since its early days as a half-baked pilot, and has herself written a book, Delicacy, that deals, in wryly comic fashion, with the subject of grief. 'Because it's a subject that I have a personal connection with,' she says. 'Everyone got upset at different times, for different reasons. You have to be boundaried about it but also let the subject in enough that you're moved in the moment.' Viewers will make their own minds up about the show's finale, but Rooke has known how the saga would finish since first pitching it. The material formed the foundations of his Edinburgh shows Good Grief and Happy Hour. That festival has proved fertile ground, in recent years, for television adaptations of darkly comic British tales like Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag, which was first performed there in 2013, and Richard Gadd's Baby Reindeer, which was adapted last year by Netflix and became a global smash hit. 'Richard [Gadd] dramaturged my Edinburgh shows,' Rooke explained. 'He kind of explained the Fringe to me.' And Rooke was with Gadd in a pub in Kentish Town when, some years later, he heard the news that his friend (one of Danny's forebears) had died. 'It's weird. It's the 10-year anniversary of my friend's passing in like two weeks. It's the week after the show comes out, which feels quite odd but also quite a nice way of wrapping up.' Which brings us back to where we started, with the inevitable depression of being an artist putting your work out into an uncaring world. 'You work your arse off to almost try and impress yourself,' he admits. 'I've done that and I'm really proud of it. But I'm really excited to write something that's not autobiographical in any way.' That is the next challenge. He demurs when I throw ideas at him. Will he follow Gadd onto Netflix? No comment. Is he working from some existing IP? Hmm. Is he going to be the next James Bond? Slight eyebrow twitch. 'Bloody hell, mate,' Pointing exclaims, in true Danny fashion, when I ask him to assess how Rooke has developed as a writer. 'There's a part of Jack that's this supernova – very intelligent, very engaged, with this massive library to draw from. I watched him on this job, over the years, learn a different part of his craft. He's always been a good writer, now he's learnt how to make a TV show.' 'I think he'll be fine now,' is Wix's judgment. 'He's proved himself enough to have the choice to do things he wants to do.' For Archer, meanwhile, Big Boys is a hard act to follow. 'Jack is such an amazing writer that it has now really raised the standard by how I judge a script. I've become very picky!' At just 31, staring at the dregs of cold coffee, Rooke might have shaken off the 'wunderkind' tag but there is still much to look ahead to. 'In my early twenties, performance artists and comedians in their thirties and forties were telling me to bare my soul," he recounts, with the gentle cynicism of a world-weary raconteur. "And now I f***ing regret it. I did it really carelessly.' And yet 'careless' isn't really the word you'd use for Big Boys, a show crafted with such care, such intentionality. Start to finish, it has been Rooke's vision. 'I was really lucky,' he admits, finally. 'Sometimes I speak to friends of mine who slogged their twenties trying to have any kind of creative job, but I came out of uni, had maybe 18 months of working odd jobs, and then it just landed.' Big Boys landed, and now Rooke – without recourse to cheap bird puns – is about to take off. If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@ or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to to find a helpline near you.
The Independent
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Jack Rooke on the devastating Big Boys finale: ‘People told me to bare my soul. And now I regret it'
Jack Rooke has just cycled furiously, in a trenchcoat, to avoid being late for an interview – this interview – to discuss the acclaimed final season of his Channel 4 sitcom, Big Boys. Who would have begrudged him being a little late? After all, this is one of the busiest and happiest weeks of his life. Isn't it? 'The answer is no,' he tells me, cradling an Americano while his PR handler scrolls idly on his phone, just out of earshot. 'I've often felt, this week, a little bit like slamming my head against a wall. A lot of this week has been like: 'I couldn't have worked harder for a show that I'm not sure anybody knows has even come out.'' This disarming candour will be less surprising to those familiar with Big Boys (spoiler alert: this article contains details of the final episode of Big Boys season three). After all, the show has always peered, with infectious affection, into the unexpected recesses of life. Set at the fictional Brent University, it followed a haphazard group of friends through the tribulations of student life. At the heart is Dylan Llewellyn 's Jack, a surrogate for Rooke, coming to terms with his sexuality, and his roommate Danny (Jon Pointing), a seemingly confident 'lad' who is struggling with repressed mental health issues. It was an odd-couple dynamic for the 21st century. What began life as a pilot for the BBC – and was developed by E4 as a 'really bad Inbetweeners copycat with poonani jokes' – ended up as one of the most celebrated and affecting shows on TV. But for Rooke, who has graduated from precocious newcomer to coveted showrunner, the fawning 5-star reviews (including in these august pages) mean far less than the sense that people, out there in the real world, are actually watching. 'It only takes like three people, unconnected to the show, to say they didn't know it was out before you're like, 'what was the f***ing point of working my arse off for two years?'' He looks apologetic after this last judgement. 'I'm probably being a bit miserable about it,' he confesses, 'because that's my current feeling at 8am in the morning.' (It's almost 10am, but one must make allowances for the writerly temperament). Big Boys ' final season – its third – has rounded out a story that began a decade ago. Despite living between Watford and Rickmansworth (a deeply unsexy corridor of this island nation), Rooke blagged his way into student accommodation at the University of Westminster's Harrow campus (the proto-Brent Uni). It was a move that – in ways both linear and not – would eventually lead to Big Boys. After completing a journalism degree, he spent time as a teaching assistant and worked as a runner for live events, before winding up at Radio 1, manning the phones for their call-in service, The Surgery. At the BBC, he began to flirt with documentary filmmaking. But the real source of professional inspiration was found away from New Broadcasting House. 'I'd started doing quite naff comedy poems above pubs,' he recalls. 'I think almost as an exercise in trying to gain confidence.' This hustle is immortalised in the final season of Big Boys, where the on-screen Jack bombs with a performance poem about Madeleine McCann. 'I think that's the scene my friends have been most triggered by. None of the suicide s***. It's me trying to be a poet.' The 'suicide s***' to which Rooke alludes, is a spectre that has hung over Big Boys from the off and was at the heart of the material Rooke developed for the Edinburgh Fringe. The character of Danny is a hybrid of friends that Rooke made at university and in his early twenties, one of whom died by suicide. 'I would say the character of Danny is based on three or four of my friends,' he says. 'Three are still here and one is not. And it's a direct letter to the one who's not, in a really earnest, emotional, autobiographical way.' Indeed, the show has always been addressed by Rooke – who serves as the narrator – to you. 'You' being Danny, 'you' being lost loved ones. The final two episodes of Big Boys are the culmination, comedically and emotionally, of this story Rooke has been working on for a decade. A final sequence, in which Rooke (the man, not the character) enters the narrative, to speak to Danny on a bench overlooking the sea in Margate, is a moment that will stand alongside those rare instances when comedy transcends its genre constraints. Radar O'Reilly interrupting the 4077th M*A*S*H to announce that Henry Blake's plane has been shot down, BoJack calling to Sarah Lynn at the planetarium, Fleabag, alone, at the bus stop. Add to that, now, a rumination on meal deal inflation. 'Jack always had that scene in his head from day one,' Big Boys 's director Jim Archer tells me via email. 'What was tricky to get right was the balance of truth and story,' he says. 'That's the genius of Jack's writing in that scene. To balance truth and story and create a finale that satisfies both endings is an amazing tightrope to walk.' For the scene – one of the televisual moments of the year already – Rooke and Archer changed the aspect ratio to create a visual separation from the show's widescreen, sitcom aesthetic and allowed the conversation to run for over seven minutes. The camera lingers plaintively on the Kentish coast, and Antony Gormley's half-submerged statue, 'Another Time', stares back at Jack and Danny from the sunlit waves. 'The day we shot it was lovely. Beautiful weather. I know it's a sad scene, but we had a lovely day!' 'I felt quite protective of Jack in those moments doing those scenes,' Pointing tells me. 'I tried, always, to be really calm and be just sort of there and make him feel comfortable.' Theirs is a friendship that goes back to their days as writers and performers at the Fringe, long before Big Boys was a reality. It was there, back in the early 2010s, that Rooke knew he'd found his Danny. 'We were in a kebab shop at 3am,' Rooke recalls. 'And I just whispered in his ear – in this Danny Dyer comedy voice – 'I dare you to get a pizza.' And we laughed so much. In that moment, I was like: 'You're Danny.'' 'Obviously it really made me laugh because it was silly,' Pointing recalls. 'But in my head, I was transported back to being 17. We've gone out, we've got drunk, we've ended up at a kebab shop, and someone's trying to inject some fun into the evening.' This reverence for life's beautiful banalities runs through Rooke's work. He might lament the fact that 'there's a ceiling to any project that talks about Gamu from X Factor ' but there are few shows that better understand quotidian profundities, like the rise of sweet chilli or the angelic aura of Alison Hammond. In the show's final episode, Pointing's Danny and Jules – an over-eager student counsellor played by comedy stalwart Katy Wix – find themselves on a 'cheeky 37-minute detour' to Fleet Services. It is the backdrop, of course, for another emotional rug pull. 'There's this sense of responsibility,' Wix tells me. 'It's got to be right, this big ending, it's got to be the right tone.' Wix has been part of the ensemble since its early days as a half-baked pilot, and has herself written a book, Delicacy, that deals, in wryly comic fashion, with the subject of grief. 'Because it's a subject that I have a personal connection with,' she says. 'Everyone got upset at different times, for different reasons. You have to be boundaried about it but also let the subject in enough that you're moved in the moment.' Viewers will make their own minds up about the show's finale, but Rooke has known how the saga would finish since first pitching it. The material formed the foundations of his Edinburgh shows Good Grief and Happy Hour. That festival has proved fertile ground, in recent years, for television adaptations of darkly comic British tales like Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag, which was first performed there in 2013, and Richard Gadd's Baby Reindeer, which was adapted last year by Netflix and became a global smash hit. 'Richard [Gadd] dramaturged my Edinburgh shows,' Rooke explained. 'He kind of explained the Fringe to me.' And Rooke was with Gadd in a pub in Kentish Town when, some years later, he heard the news that his friend (one of Danny's forebears) had died. 'It's weird. It's the 10-year anniversary of my friend's passing in like two weeks. It's the week after the show comes out, which feels quite odd but also quite a nice way of wrapping up.' Which brings us back to where we started, with the inevitable depression of being an artist putting your work out into an uncaring world. 'You work your arse off to almost try and impress yourself,' he admits. 'I've done that and I'm really proud of it. But I'm really excited to write something that's not autobiographical in any way.' That is the next challenge. He demurs when I throw ideas at him. Will he follow Gadd onto Netflix? No comment. Is he working from some existing IP? Hmm. Is he going to be the next James Bond? Slight eyebrow twitch. 'Bloody hell, mate,' Pointing exclaims, in true Danny fashion, when I ask him to assess how Rooke has developed as a writer. 'There's a part of Jack that's this supernova – very intelligent, very engaged, with this massive library to draw from. I watched him on this job, over the years, learn a different part of his craft. He's always been a good writer, now he's learnt how to make a TV show.' 'I think he'll be fine now,' is Wix's judgment. 'He's proved himself enough to have the choice to do things he wants to do.' For Archer, meanwhile, Big Boys is a hard act to follow. 'Jack is such an amazing writer that it has now really raised the standard by how I judge a script. I've become very picky!' At just 31, staring at the dregs of cold coffee, Rooke might have shaken off the 'wunderkind' tag but there is still much to look ahead to. 'In my early twenties, performance artists and comedians in their thirties and forties were telling me to bare my soul," he recounts, with the gentle cynicism of a world-weary raconteur. "And now I f***ing regret it. I did it really carelessly.' And yet 'careless' isn't really the word you'd use for Big Boys, a show crafted with such care, such intentionality. Start to finish, it has been Rooke's vision. 'I was really lucky,' he admits, finally. 'Sometimes I speak to friends of mine who slogged their twenties trying to have any kind of creative job, but I came out of uni, had maybe 18 months of working odd jobs, and then it just landed.' Big Boys landed, and now Rooke – without recourse to cheap bird puns – is about to take off. If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@ or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
