Perkins’s poignant life story was the stuff of Hollywood
The Sue Perkins episode of Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One), the first of the series’ 19th run, had such a perfect story arc that it felt like a film script. At the beginning, Perkins joked that it would be great if she discovered roots in Lithuania, because that would be a match with her Great British Bake Off partner and best friend, Mel Giedroyc. And guess what?
The show also started with Perkins in the boxing ring – the one activity, she said, that gives her a sense of peace. And at the end of the episode, when she walked into the little Lithuanian church that was the only building from her family’s past that still stands today, she found it had been turned into… a boxing gym. Perkins was amazed: “The universe couldn’t have planned this better. Everything always comes full circle, but not in such a poetic way as this.”
Perkins deserved a joyous ending, because along the way her family story had been tough. An encounter with a genealogist in Bodmin was almost bleakly comic. Perkins discovered that her grandfather lost his mother when he was only six months old, but the records showed his father soon remarried.
Perkins: “Suddenly, everything is a bit rosier!”
Genealogist: “Well…” Perkins: “Oh, no.” Genealogist: “His father died of tuberculosis.”
Perkins: “He’s now in the care of – we hope – his stepmother.”
Genealogist: “Er, can I stop you there…”
Perkins: “Oh, no.” Genealogist: “Unfortunately, the stepmother has already died.”
Perkins: “This is the stuff of Dickens, isn’t it?”
But, despite the tragedy, this was ultimately a story of triumph, of overcoming life’s hurdles and getting on through sheer hard work. Both sides of Perkins’s family had tremendous drive, partly born of a need to keep moving: away from the workhouse, poverty, hostility from their neighbours. Her Germanborn great-grandfather was a tailor in London but during the First World War was interned at Knockaloe on the Isle of Man.
Some Who Do You Think You Are? subjects are more articulate than others. Perkins never stopped talking, and it was clear that she had done a great deal of self-examination long before the show began. Her story also provided food for thought: how much of our personality is shaped by the generations that came before?
If you’re missing the wee English fella from Derry Girls, salvation is at hand. Actor Dylan Llewellyn brings just the same level of sweet-natured, wide-eyed innocence to Big Boys, a new Channel 4 comedy which elevates him to a starring role.
It is an autobiographical coming-ofage tale written by Jack Rooke, a comedian who first explored this subject matter in his stand-up show Good Grief. Llewellyn plays the teenage Jack, who is heartbroken by the death of his father and later leaves home and his loving mum, Peggy, for university.
Jack has to overcome his shyness to make friends. He is gay but has never had a boyfriend, or even a kiss. He is so timid and vulnerable that you want to scoop him up and give him a cuddle. “Everyone said uni would be fun, but the only reason I’m even here is because I can’t just sit on the sofa with my mum anymore,” he cries, yearning for the comforting afternoons they spent together watching terrible TV.
At university, Jack is thrown together with Danny (Jon Pointing), a jack-the-lad who appears to have no problems on the self-confidence front. But late in episode one we see Jack with a packet of tablets. They turn out to be anti-depressants, in a sign that this show isn’t going to be striving for Inbetweeners-style laughs.
Rooke narrates as if looking back at himself with accrued wisdom. “I looked nothing like this at 17,” he says, “but if you can’t cast yourself as better-looking in your own life story, what’s the point?” And it’s littered with well-observed lines: when his dad dies, “neighbours showed they cared by dumping lasagnes on the doorstep like unwanted babies”.
The heartfelt bits are skilfully woven around more standard comedy. Rooke nails the awkwardness of Freshers’ Week, including the girl downplaying her posh credentials. Someone responds by telling her: “You can’t call yourself working class unless you’ve badly burnt the roof of your mouth on a Greggs,” a line that could have come straight from a stand-up routine.
There are plenty of laughs, but at its heart this is the story of a friendship that you dearly hope will work out.
Who Do You Think You Are? ★★★★ Big Boys ★★★★