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'How Not To Live Your Life' In The Press...An interview with How Not To Live Your Life star Dan Clark. ChannelBee, 29th September 2009 Men don't emerge very well from How Not to Live Your Life either, though the specimens on show in BBC3's sitcom are too timid and childish to represent a threat to anybody but themselves. I have a faint memory that I gave a charitable review to Dan Clark's series on an earlier occasion, for which I can offer my apologies, because whatever virtues I detected in it then have entirely evaporated. The gimmick is an occasional break for an animated Letterman list gag - "Five Things You Shouldn't Do in the Theatre", for example - with the narrative action pausing as Clark acts out the alternatives. There are moments when the lips twitch fitfully during these sequences, but they're restored to default mode (frozen into a kind of appalled wince) by the startling charmlessness of the central character in all the other bits. Oddly, my technology continues to try and tell me things. The DVD player stalled at one point and flashed up a message: "There was an error reading from disc. It might be scratched or dirty". Dirty, I think, given that our hero had just extricated himself from an awkward relationship by pretending to be a gerontophile: "You don't need someone to wipe your bum after you've been to the toilet," he explained apologetically, "...and that's the kind of thing that gets me going." "Are you sure you want to quit?" the DVD software asked me as I finished watching and closed it down. There are days when it crosses my mind, I thought. An immature 20-something blunders through life, narrating his every impolite thought - remind you of anything? This is a Peep Show rip-off with a gimmick: our protagonist likes to stop the action and fantasise about different ways of misbehaving - as if he isn't rude enough in real life. Yes, it's puerile; but there's something fun about watching the irredeemable Don misinterpret the world around him. He began this series heartbroken after his beloved (understandably) fled the country and in this episode seduces an older woman...with a little too much success. Claire Webb, The Radio Times, 22nd September 2009 I didn't see any of the first series of How Not To Live Your Life, but given that this is the second series, it doesn't have any of the confidence of Home Time. Watching it you can imagine the original pitch: it's The Young Ones meets Rising Damp, and Dan Clark's character is indeed a mixture of Rik and Neil from The Young Ones - sometimes good looking, often nerdy and constantly depressed. While there are good performances and some funny moments, it seems too unbelievable to be really funny - however low the rent, I can't imagine why a gorgeous single girl would move into this house. Meanwhile, How Not To Live Your Life is back for a second series. Dan Clark stars as 'pathetic character' Don. What I truly enjoyed about HNTLYL is Don's neurotic mix of colossal wanker and schoolboy charm. If you don't enjoy films such as The Hangover, Superbad or Knocked-Up, this is not for you. I love it. Don's ridiculous lists, dream sequences and narcissistic behaviour are hilarious, and despite being one of the world's biggest prats, he always gets the girl. Priceless. Series two of writer/star Dan Clark's comedy project How Not To Live Your Life kicked off with half the cast from series one gone but the premise was the same. Last time, Don lusted after his housemate Abby, now he lusts after new housemate Samantha. And the 'gimmick' remains - at various points we're presented with several things Don shouldn't do in a situation, such as the opening scene of things not to do when eating alone in a restaurant. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but it's the only thing that separates this show from the glut of other dismal sitcoms around right now. Keith Watson, Metro, 16th September 2009 Poor old Auntie Beeb, she's for ever under fire. Still, credit where credit is due, HNTLYL is a decent comedy and they're giving it another series. It's the same as last series: the same dressing gown, the same Family Guy cutaways and the same awkward laughs. There is another lovely lady, the comedically named Laura Haddock, though, this time. Oh, and there's a cameo from Limahl, which will delight BBC3's target demographic. Not everyone has suffered since the economy hit the rocks - Dan Clark has thrived in How Not To Live Your Life... Written by Stuart McGurk. The London Paper, 1st September 2009 How Not to Live Your Life leapt from YouTube to the BBC. The Times ask if its star, Dan Clark, is the new Rik Mayall. Written by Caitlin Moran. The Times, 29th July 2009 Dan Clark, who writes and stars in this, seems to have sprung from nowhere. The occasional bit-part role French And Saunders and The Mighty Boosh make up his entire CV. And yet, despite that and the fact it was on BBC3, his sitcom HNTLYL is extremely accomplished. He plays the ridiculous Dan, left a house by his Grandma, who invites the girl he fancied at school, Abby (the girl from Drop Dead Gorgeous) to be his lodger. It's a smart, quick-witted show full of cutaways, sight gags and rundowns of mistakes you shouldn't make. It also includes the sentence: "I don't believe in sheaths". Who says you need experience, eh? A terrestrial airing for Dan Clarke's BBC Three comedy about neurotic singleton Don, whose bad instincts are holding him back. Unfortunately Clarke omitted to make the self-centred Don in any way appealing, so the sympathetic laughs come few and far between. How Not to Live Your Life DVD review In parts, How Not to Live Your Life is quite amusing. It didn't have me laughing myself off my sofa, but there were times when I did titter. Written by Dave Adamson. Den Of Geek, 7th July 2009 I can see why people are watching and enjoying How Not To Live Your Life - it doesn't offer anything particularly new and groundbreaking, but there's some juvenile humour (hurrah!) and plenty of nice observations, and in Dan Clark BBC Three have a bit of a new poster boy. Don't even get me started on Sinead Moynihan. 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? Written by and starring Dan Clark as Don, this was a real hit and miss effort - with laugh out loud lines interspersed with behaviour by Don that left you wishing someone would give him a bloody good hammering. We'll probably give it a second chance. Don Danbury drinks and cusses his way through the second episode of this buffoonery celebratus new sitcom. For those new to the drill, the show features a refreshingly unique format whereby scenes cut to a list of alternative life lessons, courtesy of Don's imagination. Waddling along with decent jokes in tow, Danbury offers entertainment and a character worthy of our hate-to-love affection. There's definitely room to grow, so let's see where he takes it next. Time Out, 14th August 2008 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. August is when TV companies bury the shows they have no faith in. Which is the only possible explanation for BBC3 to try to slip the excruciating How Not To Live Your Life past us. It's a showcase for the comedy talents of writer/star Dan Clark. Which would be fine if he had any. Metro, 13th August 2008 Hurrah - yet another comedy series gets a chance to stretch its legs on BBC Three. This offering, penned by star Dan Clark, follows the fortunes of Don. He's your average neurotic singleton who spends his days trying to make a sense of ordinary life. The London Paper, 12th August 2008 Dan Clark tells Time Out how not to make a bad sitcom. Written by Tim Arthur. Time Out, 12th August 2008 First based on a series of shorts made for Paramount Comedy, 10 months have been spent perfecting How Not To Live Your Life following the pilot's first broadcast last year. While it's not a laugh-a-minute, it is worth watching for the many fantasy sequences that are simply too debauched for us to put into print. Sky Magazine, 12th August 2008 The BBC News website interviews Dan Clark about his new sitcom. Written by Kevin Young. BBC News, 12th August 2008 There are an absolute maximum of three laugh-out-loud moments in this self-conscious and crass studenty sitcom, which co-stars Sinead Moynihan, slumming it here after her stint in BBC3's criminally underrated Drop Dead Gorgeous. So if you're content with a hit-rate of one laugh every 10 minutes, tune in to Dan Clark's comedy about an idiotic, priapic bloke who is left a house by his foul-mouthed nan. If, however, you fancy more charm, hunt down early 1990s US sitcom Dream On on DVD. Dan Clark - who writes and stars in this new sitcom - isn't one of those comedians you instantly warm to. He comes across as a bit of a prat to be honest. The Mirror, 12th August 2008 After a pilot last year, BBC Three has commissioned a series of the sitcom created by Dan Clark, who plays Don Danbury, a morally vacant cretin who inherits his Nana's house on the same day he is fired from his job. New sketch comedy series written by and starring Dan Clark. Luck never seems to smile on Don although fantasy sequences show that in his mind life would be very different. In the opener he finds he's been left a house by his recently deceased grandmother but it comes with a mountain of back payments. When he decides to get a lodger, a girl he was in love with as a teenager replies. Rarely more than mildly amusing. BBC3 hasn't exactly got a great pedigree when it comes to home-grown comedy but this new sitcom, written by up-and-coming star Dan Clark, is worth a look. Following the hapless 20-something who is left a house in his grandmonther's will, it blends farce, gags and nice characterisation with some sublimely silly fantasy sequences. Metro, 12th August 2008 Donald, the star of this new sitcom, is not a well-liked chap. Not even by his grandma, who has left him an indebted house in her will as proof. The ensuing farce isn't exactly laugh-a-minute, but comes with handy lists such as: Things You Shouldn't Do When Fired. Claire Webb, Radio Times, 12th August 2008 Following a successful pilot last year, this comedy of errors returns for a full squirm-inducing series. The multi-talented Dan Clark writes the series and also stars as the hapless Don, whose imagination tends to run away with him - giving us the chance to see the things he really wishes he'd said or done in certain situations. Inside Soap, 9th August 2008 You might know him as Johnny Two Hats in The Mighty Boosh, but now comedian, actor and writer Dan Clark stars in his own sitcom. He plays Don, a twentysomething man with bad luck like you'd never believe - and even worse instincts. If you've ever dreamt of telling your boss exactly what you think of them, or wish you could say what you really thought after a one-night stand, this comedy will satisfy your itch as Don's overactive imagination conjures up all the things he wishes he'd said. Reveal, 9th August 2008 |
