How Not to Live Your Life

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Tuesday 10:30 PM on BBC Three
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Show Summary

  • Returning Series
Don is a single twenty something who constantly fails to guide his way through life. His overactive mind doesn't help things as it plays out scenes of what he shouldn't say or do. When he moves into his recently deceased grandmother's house, he meets Eddie: his Gran's care taker who doesn't want to move on. To help pay his rent, he decides to get a roommate in the shape of his teenage sweetheart Abby and hopes to win her back. The only problem is, she comes with a new arrogant boyfriend, Karl.moreless
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Episode Guide

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S 3 :  Ep 7 Aired 12/13/10
S 3 :  Ep 6 Aired 12/6/10
S 3 :  Ep 5 Aired 11/29/10
S 3 :  Ep 4 Aired 11/22/10
S 3 :  Ep 3 Aired 11/15/10

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Fan Reviews (3)

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  • Genius

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By Quenby23, Jan 06, 2011
    A superbly executed show with rich, seedy interwoven sad-man values. Interesting, luridly depicted characters and a genuinely filthy sense of humour help promote this show way up the rankings. Don lives in a dead woman's house and pines for all the things he shouldn't; even the starting place is a hot-bed of zesty problematic scenarios. Extremely well scripted and acted, the timing is by far the sharpest thing on television at the moment and this show deserves all the accolades. I hope Don Danbury lives on for many years and multiple series, because this is one show I look forward to with great anticipation.moreless

  • A gem of a show from writer Dan Clark. Though watched by relatively few, How Not To Live Your Life sucks you into the inner thoughts of inappropriate everyman Don and his quest for something, anything with his new housemate, Abby. Great comedy ensues.moreless

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By CameroAJEh, Dec 01, 2010
    Winterbehaviour's comment that he had overlooked this show on BBC 3 is a point of major irritance to me. Not winterbehaviour missing it per se (indeed, I had to be referred onto it after I'd missed the initial schedule), but the fact that most of the British public (at least, those with the kind of sense of humour that this show portrays) have also missed it. The problem is BBC 3 is a strange channel. It is not mainstream enough, usually, for wide viewing and thus gems of shows such as this one just fly under the radar and out the door before anybody gets their nose in. Miraculously and fortunately, this show has a reprieve in that the BBC saw great sense in picking this show up for a second season after the first was 6 episodes of genius writing and comedy.

    The show works on a number of levels. The first is How Not To Live Your Life's writer and star, Dan Clark. His character, Don Danbury, straddles the line between arrogant, senseless idiot (the aptly named, shall we say, 'willyhead') and sensitive, sweet funny-guy who no matter what he does, you end up rooting for. This is a basis for great comic potential as episode after episode we're pelted with Don's hilarious view of the world. In the course of six episodes we're treated to a moving in gone wrong, a camping trip that goes horribly awry, a fake wake (with a brilliant song), bad job troubles, an in-over-your-head corporate life and finally, a break-up that has 'potential'.

    But, far from just a platform from which to show Don's every-man hilarity, How Not To Live Your Life grounds the character in a love triangle sub-plot, or rather, Don's pining for his newest housemate, Abby (a great turn from Sinead Moynihan). Abby is tied in with Karl, a constantly unlikeable 'upper crust' charicature portrayed to perfection. This was a genius piece of casting, Don and Karl play off each other like chalk and cheese and the relationship is forever interesting.

    And then there's the wild card, Eddie Singh. David Armand is the perfect actor to fill Eddie's shoes, a man who is frightened of relationships with girls, has spent his whole life serving Don's grandmother and is only too happy to move onto Don when he moves in. Singh pops up constantly throughout with hilarious side-comments or misjudged opinions and he rounds out the cast excellently. And it's all supplemented by being a little edgy in show construction. Clark employs a technique where in any given situation, the audience is exposed to Don Danbury's inner monologue that is usually a number of things 'Don Shouldn't Say' or 'Don Would Like To Do'. It's unexpected at first but by the end of the series, you're waiting on these moments for what outrageous thing Don might say or do next.

    If you want to watch (an unfortunately short) comedy, with a lot of heart and humour, pick this one up. It may have flown under the mainstream radar thus far but that's no reason for a show like this to stumble and fall. 'Think with your balls'. It deserves a lot of praise. Brilliant comedy.moreless

  • Persistantly Funny gem.

    7.8
    "Good"
    By winterbehaviour, Sep 05, 2008
    I didn't take any notice when this program first appeared on the BBCs digital channel BBC THREE, hence I completely missed the first episode but like a lot of programs that begin life on BBB THREE this was a decision that I would come to regret as its actually quite brilliant.
    I was doing something on the computer one day, like you do, with this program on in the background when I had to stop what I was doing because it was actually very funny.
    The program is written by and stars Dan Clark in the main role. I had never heard of this guy before but he oozes personality and humour from every pore. As Don he muses about his predicaments to camera, in voice overs and in cut aways and its very effective. He also has something every comic actor would sell his soul for: actually a very funny voice. He sounds like a fellow Londoner, though I don't know I should be so presumptuous. A good example of when he uses this to his advantage is a scene where Don is in bed and he can hear seemingly telling squeaking coming from the room above his which the girl he is in love with,Abby, shares her stuck up boyfriend. " That should be me having sexy intercourse" he says to camera. He also hopes that the noise might not mean what he thinks it means and the scene then cuts away to 6 other possible causes of the noise which includes Abby jumping up and down on the bed and a giant mouse.
    These cut aways form an integral part of the program and the surreal silliness in them allows then viewer to suspend their disbelief and fully immerse themselves in the universe of Don.
    The only bad thing about this program is that like most UK comedies the season is only six episodes long a crying shame but I feel the audience will continue to grow.moreless
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