Dan Clark

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.

To distract myself from this excuse for a sitcom in which Cark, who looks 30, behaves like a charm-free hormonally rampant teenager, I tried to work out who he looked like. Finally, I cracked it - Jason Merrells from Cutting It. You're really in trouble when even your lookalike isn't interesting.

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.

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.

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.

The USP for this series are the narrative pauses in which Don offers instructions on what not to do in the given situation. This device creates some absurd situations that generate the odd laugh, but the whole thing is really a bit of a rip-off of Peep Show, but not as good. The character of Don looks like a drug-free Super Hans, with a personality modelled on Jeremy. But where Peep Show succeeded by making you love flawed characters doing horrible things, Don Danbury is just a git.

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.

And if he offered to buy you a drink down the pub you'd probably mumble some excuse about having to rush home because you've left the iron on.

Even so, after a weak opening, things look up a bit after his equally charmless character Donald loses his job, inherits his nan's big house and advertises for a sexy lodger.

Awash with fantasy sequences - a favourite gimmick of comedy writers - the ones here come in handy list-form offering tips on such topics as Things Not To Do When You're Fired and Things Not To Say After A One-Night Stand.

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.

BBC Interview

The BBC News website interviews Dan Clark about his new sitcom.

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.

Time Out Interview

Dan Clark tells Time Out how not to make a bad sitcom.

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.