Written by Jack Rooke
Directed by Jim Archer
Danny (to Jack): "Everything's coming to an end."
It does seem to be a thing with a lot of UK comedies, that there's a sense of knowing where to end a show. Three series does seem to be that magic number and it's a perfect place to end this particular show.
In the first two series we had the friendship between gay guy Jack (Dylan Llewellyn) and his straight best mate, Danny (Jon Pointing) as the two of them navigated university life, coming out, mental health issues, family and relationships. Their friendship undoubtedly has been the very glue to this show.
For the last series, both Jack and Danny have slightly drifted apart with their lives pulling them in different directions. For Jack, that's included a brief pretentious poetry phase, hooks up ahoy, including with Yemi (Olisa Odele) and his Big D dissertation that made up some of the series. There's also meeting a certain idol of his and getting an answer to a question that's bothered him since the first series.
For Danny, he's had a relationship with Corinne (Izuka Hoyle) that devolved, a dissertation on the death of the lads magazine as well as the deaths of two family members and near downward spiral until Jules (Katy Wix) stepped in at the very minute. All series long, I did think the show was going to kill Danny off and the finale certainly led into that as well. When the show didn't, I was genuinely relieved.
Now what about everyone else? Well, thanks to Shannon (Harriet Webb), the first episode took everyone to Greece and then back there for the last episode. Shannon also had two kids, got engaged to the rather nice Tariq (Shane Zaza) as well as a terrible reunion with her horrible mother but came out of the show in a much better place than before.
With Peggy (Camille Coduri) and Nanny Bingo (Annette Badland), they've had slightly less to do but their screen time certainly didn't feel wasted. Nanny in particular had some genuinely brilliant moments, including a nice reveal about a past love that sadly we didn't get to see. I do wish we had also seen more of Yemi as he was written out halfway in this final series.
- Episode titles were My Big Fat Gay Greek Holiday, Happy Anniversary You Silly Billy!, Thin Lips, Fat Lines & a Poem on Princess Di, Eurovision, Brexit & Shloer, Goodbye U-N-I and The Sea.
- Jack Rooke gave himself a proper acting role in the first scene of the last episode and it's a lovely moment between him and Jon Pointing.
- Jack's idol, the much mentioned Alison Hammond popped up in the final episode and I howled when Jack, Danny and Corinne were watching that moment from Celebrity Big Brother.
- I knew Tim (Robert Gilbert) was gay and the penultimate episode confirmed he was on Grindr. Jules can also speak Mandarin.
- Corinne had a story about her Scottish Independence dissertation and we met her family in the last episode. Her younger brother's named Brilliant.
- Chronology: September 2015 to September 2016 for this final series. Danny had taken over from Jules at the university.
This final series of Big Boys came and went too quickly for my liking (it was burned off in double bills like the first series) but what an incredible bunch of episodes. This show just snuck up on all of us and ended up being one of the best sitcoms of 2020s. Whatever Jack Rooke does next, I'll certainly watch it.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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