How Not to Live Your Life

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How Not To Live Your Life
Format	Situation comedy
Created by	Dan Clark
Starring	Dan Clark Sinead Moynihan Finlay Robertson David Armand
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	7 (as of 16 September 2008)
Production
Producer(s)	Dan Clark, Gary Reich
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC Three
Original airing	27 September, 2007 (pilot) 12 August 2008 (first series)
External links
Official website

How Not To Live Your Life is a British sitcom, written by and starring Dan Clark, about a neurotic twenty-nine year old man trying to navigate his way through life but is not helped by his bad instincts.

Contents 1 Background 2 Plot 3 Episodes 3.1 Series One 3.2 Series Two 4 Characters 5 Broadcast 6 Reception 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Background

In 2006 Clark was commissioned to write two short comedies for Paramount Comedy 1- Dan Clark's Guide to Dating and Dan Clark's Guide to Working both of which he co-wrote with Gary Reich. Clark was the main character in both shows and Isabel Fay appeared in Dan Clark's Guide to Dating which was shown as ten one-minute clips on the channel, with lists of ten things people shouldn't do on a date, such as "Ten things you shouldn't wear on a date". The clips began to appear on the Internet and the BBC approached him about doing a 30 minute show in the same format. The result was the pilot for How Not to Live Your Life, using the same style of short clips within a traditional sitcom. The pilot was filmed in a real house in London^[1] and first aired on BBC Three on 27 September, 2007.^[2][2]

The pilot featured a number of actors who did not appear as regular characters in the series - Sally Bretton, Rich Fulcher, Claire Keelan and Bruce Mackinnon. Although, Isabel Fay who also appeared in the pilot was in the final episode of the first series, The Break Up, as Fiona.^[3][4] The BBC then commissioned a full series, which was filmed in a studio in Glasgow.^[1] Clark wrote each episode and directed four episodes.^[5] The first series started broadcasting on BBC Three on 12 August 2008 with the first episode, Home Sweet Home^[6], which introduces the four main characters of Don, Abby, Karl and Eddie. BBC Three showed the first series on Tuesday evenings at the 10:30pm slot.

The series often features the character of Don giving a narrative and talking to the camera, as well as cut away dream sequences where he gives alternative scenarios such as put downs or physical moves he wished he had thought about at the time. For instance, in episode four of series one, "The Young Ones" these include, "Eight Ways Don Shouldn't Dance", "Alternative ways to deal with annoying teenagers" and "What Don wished he had said to his flatmate, Abby, while she was necking with her annoying and square boyfriend Karl on the sofa".^[7]

[edit] Plot

Don is a neurotic, single Twenty-nine year old, failing to navigate his way through the very basics of life. His biggest enemy is his overactive mind, which plays out countless scenes of things he shouldn't do or say. When he moves into a house left to him by his recently deceased grandmother, he meets Eddie, her over-enthusiastic carer who doesn't want to leave. Don soon realises there are advantages to letting him stay. To help pay off the huge back payments on the house, Don decides to get a lodger. He ends up choosing Abby, the girl he was in love with as a teenager and who he still fancies. However, Abby isn't single. She has a snobby boyfriend, Karl.^[8]

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Series One

#	Title	Original airdate
0	"Pilot"	27 September 2007
Sitcom pilot about Don, a neurotic single twentysomething British male trying and failing to navigate his way through the very basics of life, and whose biggest enemy is his overactive mind which plays out countless scenes of things he shouldn't do or say.
1	"Home Sweet Home"	12 August 2008
A remake of the pilot, with a different supporting cast and set. [9] Don discovers he's been left a house from his recently deceased grandmother, only to find out it has huge back payments and a strange man who won't leave. He decides to get a lodger to help with the rent - the girl he was in love with as a teenager.
2	"The Field Trip"	19 August 2008
Don goes on a field trip with Abby and the kids from her school. This attempt to show her he's a good, decent man goes horribly wrong when he gets the 10-year-olds drunk in a country pub.
3	"Fake Wake"	26 August 2008
Don finds out he's legally obliged to put on a wake for his deceased nan, with an open coffin for her body. The only problem is that he cremated her a few days before, so he and Eddie audition old people at an elderly centre for the role of Don's nan.
4	"The Young Ones"	2 September 2008
Don meets a girl who is nine years younger than him whilst working as a charity street collector. He hangs out with her and her friends, but soon realises he's not the hip young dude he once thought he was.
5	"Like Father Like Don"	9 September 2008
Don gets a new job working at Karl's dad's company. The competition between the two becomes rife, and Don finds the father he never had in Glen.
6	"The Break Up"	16 September 2008
A night out on the pull with Eddie ends in all sorts of drama for Don. Coming back to the house, Don finds out that his true love Abby has just split up with Karl, and Don ends up upsetting the girl he met in the bar.

[edit] Series Two

In Autumn 2008, BBC Three commissioned a second series of How Not to Live Your Life, which was filmed in the Spring of 2009. After a successful shoot, the show has been edited and is due for broadcast in September 2009. It is again being written by Dan Clark and produced by Brown Eyed Boy Ltd.^[10]

[edit] Characters

• Donald 'Don' Danbury aka The Double D (Dan Clark) Don is the main character. Often acting in a socially inappropriate and impolite manner, he received the house, in which the story centres, after his grandmother died. He shows jealousy towards Karl, Abby's boyfriend.
• Abby Jones (Sinead Moynihan) Abby used to go to the same secondary school as Don, and now stays with Don in his house after applying for a room to rent. A primary school teacher, she is currently dating Karl. She is usually extremely tolerant of Don's inappropriate behaviour.
• Karl Menford (Finlay Robertson) Karl is Abby's boyfriend. He earns the nickname "cockface" from Don, and the two show visible signs of dislike towards each other. However, Abby often attempts to get Karl to be nicer to Don, and tries to ease hostility between the two.
• Eddie Singh (David Armand) Eddie was Don's grandmother's carer, however even after her death, he inexplicably continues to work for Don, caring for him in much the same way he'd care for an elderly client - doing housework, preparing meals, and even offering Don sponge baths in bed.
• Mr Bitchman (Frank Gallagher) The solicitor of Don's dead grandmother, he is constantly on Don's case making sure all of his grandmother's requests are carried out, otherwise he will evict Don from his house.
• Mrs Treacher (Leila Hoffman) Don's nosey next-door neighbour who refers to him as "dickhead".

[edit] Broadcast

Currently, the only broadcasters of How Not To Live Your Life are the BBC in the UK and Comedy Central in the Netherlands. ^[11]

Region	Channel
United Kingdom	BBC Three, BBC HD
Netherlands	Comedy Central

[edit] Reception

The series received mixed reviews. The British Comedy Guide said of the show, "The 2007 pilot of this sitcom was average at best, lacking both focus and reason. We really enjoyed the full series though - the stronger premise (Don living in his deceased gran's house and plotting to dispense of Karl and win-over attractive Abby) and the new character of Eddie (David Armand in his best role yet) made all the difference."^[8] However, Deborah Orr in The Independent newspaper said in a review of the first episode, "It's a dead cert that How Not to Live Your Life will attract no prizes at all. A great deal of humour can be squeezed from observing the lives of stupid men. But Don Danbury is no David Brent and this new sitcom offers nothing except sound evidence that the BBC has now got more airtime than it can fill. This show is an insult to the intelligence of stupid men everywhere."^[12] While Harry Venning in The Stage said, "Pity poor Sinead Moynihan. Okay, don't pity her too much, because she's drop dead gorgeous and clearly in demand as an actor. But it must have been galling to get the second lead in sitcom How Not to Live Your Life, only to discover that the full extent of your contribution would be to look pretty and provide a sensible foil to the show's writer/star Dan Clark. Would it have killed Clark to throw the show's only female character the occasional funny line to deliver? This grump notwithstanding, I rather like How Not to Live Your Life. Clark's unorthodox delivery, combined with Dan's almost wilful unloveability, takes some getting used to, but this is consistently amusing, frequently hilarious and totally addictive."^[13]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• How Not to Live Your Life at BBC Online
• How Not to Live Your Life at the Internet Movie Database
• British Comedy Guide