The comedian has taken the \u2018if you don\u2019t laugh, you\u2019ll cry\u2019 lens and applied it to the death of his dad Laurie, which happened unexpectedly when he was in the latter half of his teen years, and Laurie was just 56.<\/span><\/p>\n That is<\/span> the jumping-off point for Big Boys<\/a>, a six-part Channel 4<\/a> series adapted from Rooke\u2019s stand-up material, which charts young Jack\u2019s adventures at university.<\/p>\n \u201cI needed it to have that joy,\u201d he told RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201cI couldn\u2019t write a show about grief that was too bogged down in the sadness. <\/span>It\u2019s joy combined with pathos combined with silly jokes about people drinking poppers and getting their hair caught in septum piercings.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the only way I could write this and be able to enjoy it, if it\u2019s a bit bat sh*t mad.\u201d<\/span><\/p> Both of those incidents \u2013 the hair and the poppers \u2013 happen during freshers\u2019 week (talk about a baptism of fire).<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>If anyone has a piercing and I am going anywhere near their face, I will somehow catch my hair on it, whether it\u2019s an eyebrow, septum, ear, whatever,\u201d he said. \u201cMy curls have an intention of their own.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For Rooke, writing and talking about his dad\u2019s death was a means of coming to terms with it in his own head and learning to co-exist with his grief, rather than allowing it to dictate the rest of his life. But telling his story was also an act of service to help those floundering under the weight of their own heartache.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted it to be depicted on-screen that young people who\u2019ve been through those experiences will have <\/span>something<\/span><\/i>,\u201d explained. \u201cIt\u2019s the show I wish I\u2019d had when I was going through that as a kid, of someone going through it and tackling it and still progressing in life and still finding happiness and still finding friends.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen you go through a loss, like losing somebody as a teenager, it can often feel like, \u2018Oh, my life\u2019s f**ked up now. Why has this happened, at this age?\u2019 But actually, there\u2019s so much potential and possibility.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Having cut his teeth in stand-up comedy, Rooke knows a thing or two about jumping in at the deep end, which made adapting his work for the small-screen a less daunting proposition. But this new iteration<\/span> did throw up one particular challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re like, \u2018OK, how do I learn how to write characters that are different to me, that are made up of different genders, different races, different orientations. You feel the pressure all of a sudden. But I feel like as long as you approach all of that with honesty and you\u2019re aware of what you\u2019re doing, and you trust the actors, allow people to put their own stamp on those characters, it\u2019ll work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n His younger self is played beautifully by Dylan Llewellyn \u2013 that\u2019s \u201cthe wee English fella\u201d from Derry Girls<\/a><\/span> \u2013 who wears Rooke\u2019s grief convincingly.<\/p>\n \u201cWe share a lot of experiences that we\u2019ve spoken about privately,\u201d said Rooke of his lead. \u201cAnd I just felt like I could trust him to perform the character. We know he\u2019s a great comedy actor, but what I think he does in Big Boys is he carries a character who is immensely vulnerable, and who is going through a transitional period. And I feel like very few actors could pull that off, where you really believe the vulnerability.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really proud of him as a friend, and he\u2019s also one of the nicest people to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n University offers Jack, who has a poster of Eric Cantona on his bedroom wall despite zero interest in football, a fresh canvas to explore his sexuality. His mum winced when Todd Grimshaw kissed Nick Tilsley in Coronation Street<\/a>, which quickly shut down any desire to confide that part of himself in her, or anyone, for that matter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Because of that, dipping his toe into the multi-faceted and ever-changing gay scene is like something akin to Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, Jack enchanted and anxious in equal measure as he endeavours to figure out where he fits into it all.<\/p>\n Running alongside that is his friendship with roommate Danny (Jon Pointing) who, on the surface, is your typical Jack the lad \u2013 he drinks Red Stripe, listens to Kasabian, only ever wears polo necks and is lazer-focused on \u201cthe pull\u201d. B<\/span>ut he quickly quashes any preconceptions you might have had<\/span> as their bond strengthens.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI love having written something that has a gay-straight friendship at the core of it because I think that\u2019s so reflective of real life,\u201d said Rooke. \u201cThere are way more gay-straight best mates than there are not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Externally, there\u2019s nothing that denotes Jack and Danny would share any common ground and yet, they have that rare alchemy that exists in the most durable of friendships.<\/p>\n They both also know a thing or two about emotional turbulence \u2013 Jack is taking medication for depression \u2013 which draws them together as they become one another\u2019s support network.<\/p>\n \u201cAny good character is going to subvert your opinion of them,\u201d said Rooke. \u201cWith a<\/span> lot of men I know, like him, there\u2019s the front and the bravado, and then there\u2019s the reality.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>And I\u2019ve really enjoyed writing it, even though at times the reality of the experience has been quite painful.<\/span> It\u2019s been quite painful to have friends go through depression and through other mental illnesses that really affected them and their self belief.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve also written the show for people who have been the friend of someone going through it. There are some points in the series when Jack doesn\u2019t know what to do and doesn\u2019t know whether to hug, and that\u2019s a valid struggle too, that people don\u2019t always know how to help.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI hope that it\u2019s a testament to the power of friendship and the power of helping one another through those things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Big Boys was initially snapped up by the BBC but the broadcaster took the decision not to press ahead, allowing Channel 4 to swoop in. Looking back, Rooke believes it all worked out as it was supposed to.<\/p>\n \u201cEven when it was in development people at the BBC would say, \u2018This is a Channel 4 show.\u2019 And it feels like it\u2019s found its right home because Channel 4 has a proven history of shows that combine all of the elements that Big Boys has. <\/span>It\u2019s a working class, warm story about a goofy teen; we\u2019re just outside of London; it\u2019s about an LGBTQ+ experience; it\u2019s about a straight person\u2019s experience, about mental health and loss. And I think Channel 4 has the best history of shows that have that breadth.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just a gay show. It\u2019s not just a grief show. And I feel like that\u2019s where it\u2019s managed to find its home so well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The distinctly British humour that\u2019s threaded throughout Big Boys also ties into that, a feature of the show that Rooke is especially fond of.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the pop culture references in there are so British and proper working class, Love of Huns, Saturday night watching The X Factor vibe, which I don\u2019t see in any other TV shows. And I feel like that\u2019s what kind of sets it apart from some of those other programmes. It feels quite specific to a time and an era, and the class perspective on that experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But while Big Boys isn\u2019t just \u201ca gay show\u201d, as Rooke notes, that is a key narrative strand. Thinking about the current phase of queer storytelling, which has delivered It\u2019s A Sin<\/a>\u00a0and Heartstopper<\/a>, both of which have been met with a tidal wave of love and praise, how does Rooke feel about the future?<\/p>\n \u201cI really do [have hope],\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s so cool that we\u2019ve got this widened scope now. But <\/span>I\u2019m going to be honest, I still think there\u2019s more work to be done. I still think there\u2019s more diversity to be shown, more size diversity in particular. My dream is to write something that is about a fat, gay lead because it\u2019s different being a bigger gay person in a lot of those spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to work more with Olisa [Odele], who plays Yemi in delving into the experience of being a Black gay man in London and everything that comes with that. So for me, Big Boys is just the start of a whole lot of queer storytelling that I\u2019d want to write or be involved in.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really encouraged by the success of It\u2019s A Sin and Heartstopper. I think it\u2019s amazing. But it\u2019s all a starting point. It\u2019s a new starting point for us to develop even more stories.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Big Boys premieres on Thursday 26th May at 9pm on Channel 4 and All 4<\/a>. Check out more of our Comedy<\/a> coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a> to see what else is on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0and get the next 12 issues for only \u00a31. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a> with Jane Garvey.<\/b><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Abby Robinson Published: Thursday, 26 May 2022 at 12:00 am Despite sitting at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, grief and humour are natural bedfellows, something\u00a0 Jack Rooke is well-versed in.\u00a0 The comedian has taken the \u2018if you don\u2019t laugh, you\u2019ll cry\u2019 lens and applied it to the death of his dad Laurie, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Abby Robinson Published: Thursday, 26 May 2022 at 12:00 am Despite sitting at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, grief and humour are natural bedfellows, something\u00a0 Jack Rooke is well-versed in.\u00a0 The comedian has taken the \u2018if you don\u2019t laugh, you\u2019ll cry\u2019 lens and applied it to the death of his dad Laurie, which…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/16066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/05\/701981S1Ep1Big-Boys-Series-1-Ep1-14-7b0822c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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