Jack Rooke on growing with grief, using real life for art and being braver

Changes with Annie Macmanus

Jack Rooke is the recent BAFTA winning comic genius behind the incredible multi award winning sitcom Big Boys.

Jack won his BAFTA for Best Comedy Writer after using his own life experience of losing his Dad, when Jack was 15, to write and narrate Big Boys. The show follows Jack leaving his mum to go to University where he navigates making new friends and exploring being gay, something he hasn’t told his mum yet.

Big Boys was adapted from Jack’s debut show Good Grief and his second show Happy Hour which was commissioned by Soho Theatre. Both received critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He’s also had a documentary on BBC 3 called Happy Man exploring alternatives to the male mental health crisis and published a memoir called Cheer the F**k Up. His work is both hilarious and sad with smart, spit your drink out laughing moments. This conversation is no exception.

Now 30, Jack talks about success in your 20s, what losing a parent so young does to someone, how his grief has changed, why humour is so important to him and, in his opinion, in all life situations, Big Boys being seen as radical and new tattoos.

You can watch both series of Big Boys on Channel 4 https://www.channel4.com/programmes/big-boys.

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Changes is a deaf friendly podcast, transcripts can be accessed here: https://www.anniemacmanus.com/changes

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