“I binged watched both seasons in one go,” I tell Jon Pointing as the connection of our Zoom calls strengthens. On the other side of the screen, he’s experiencing the aftermath breather of a big project that finally comes to fruition, as days before our chat the second season of Jack Rooke’s BAFTA-nominated sitcom Big Boys was aired on Channel 4. “The response has been amazing,” he tells me. “Obviously, there’s always a little bit of trepidation with the second series. You don’t want to disappoint people, and it was such a good response the first time around. But, yeah, you want to deliver again, and I think we have.” And so do we.

Big Boys is one of those shows that feels like a treat to the soul, inviting you to a whirlwind of nurturing nostalgia, a heart-warming, laughter-guaranteed experience. The time on screen seems to fly, episode after episode. Rooke’s script is a refreshing take on the traditional and long-explored coming-of-age uni days, gay-straight alliance, beautifully navigating the layers of the power of male friendships, performative gender roles, grief, and mental health struggles.

Side by side to off-set friends and colleagues, Dyllan Llewellyn and Izuka Hoyle, Pointing steps into the shoes of Danny, the straight best friend, the laddest of the lads, ready to make out of these Red Stripe and one-night stands drenched uni days the best of his life. On top of that, he finds in his shy and fresh-out-of-the-closet roommate, Jack (Llewellyn), a best friend, a relationship that we watch develop into a tale of brotherhood, intimacy and chosen family in season two.

“[In season two], we sort of dive into the whole world a little bit more, you know? There are flashbacks in Danny’s life to when he was a kid. So, I had a kind of young me being played and we sort of see a bit of context to his upbringing, his background, sort of part of the reason why he is where he is,” he reflects. “I mean, the great thing about uni is it’s this three-year structure, you know? First year, everyone is, has to meet each other, and you know, are kind of thrown together. So, we get to play out with the reality of the first year, then second year, we kind of know each other a bit better, a bit more comfortable. We’re sort of closer, and that’s basically what the series feels like, I hope.”

Big Boys has the uncommon power these days to make you belly laugh. You press play for the cheekiness overload, involving characters and relatable screw-ups of our early twenties. But you’re taken by Jack Rooke’s brilliance, shining through a script that explores the not-so-giddy side of growing up, diving deep on his own memories of grief after an early loss of his father. I wonder, then, how much of himself Pointing saw in Danny while playing the role. “I mean, you always end up putting yourself into the role, so it’s more that way around, I suppose. But of course, I think there’s things I can definitely relate to him,” he says. “I think especially this image of masculinity that a lot of us grow up with, and our relationship with that. You know, I have a sort of mixed relationship with it. There’s parts of that world that I’m really fond of and that I’ve grown up with, very familiar with, and there’s bits of it that I know are kind of the root of a lot of problems in my life.”

“And I think that’s sort of what people are coming to understand now that everyone’s talking a lot about male mental health, and I don’t know if people have quite yet made the connection with, um, patriarchy?” he laughs.

Despite the excitement of the project release, there’s an underlying holiday blues-like aftertaste in Pointing’s reflection when I ask about wrapping up the chapter. “This bit is always funny,” he says. “I saw Jack [Rooke] last night; we went for some dinner. And there’s a little bit of a strange dip for us, actually, when it comes out, you know? When you’re making something, that’s really the peak, that’s the high for you because you’re creating it. It’s exciting, the idea of people getting to see it, and that whole process is the bit that, well, that’s our job, that’s what we like. And the bit at the end is as nice as it is, and I’m so grateful that the response has been good. But it’s always a slightly strange sort of feeling because it’s kind of, oh, that’s it, it’s over, it’s done.”

Pointing speaks so highly of the family they’ve built on set, confirming an assumption I had while watching the show: they have so much fun together. “We’re so lucky, you know? And I’m aware of how special that is because not all jobs are like that. But yeah, it’s the real deal, this one. It’s really, really sweet,” he says. “We’re all collaborating and we’re all having fun. I want to do that forever. Obviously I know that this isn’t going to last forever, but not all jobs are as fun as that, but that’s all I really want to do.”

Such a strong bond also means a very intense relationship with his character, Danny, one that he’s been watching grow almost like an older sibling. I wonder, then, what his expectations are for his future, and where he would like to take him on a potential season 3, a topic he, unfortunately for a fan like myself, can’t talk much about yet. “It’s difficult because the more you do a project, the more you sort of get involved with it, you know? I feel very attached to this and I feel attached to everyone involved,” he says. “But I also need to stop myself. I basically need to pull away from that because the whole thing’s got to be a collaboration. And I think if you get too hung up on this idea of what you want it to be, you come to the script and it just doesn’t work.”

Born and raised in South London, Danny’s tongue-in-cheek personality feels almost tailored for an actor like Jon. His passion for comedy came before finding himself in the craft of acting, on the stage of a last-minute stand-up gig in Edinburgh’s arts festival. “I kind of wanted to be an actor and sort of had various failed attempts and projects for years. And I think I always wanted to do comedy, but I was sort of, I always talked myself out of giving it a go. It’s so scary. The idea of being like, ‘I’m going to go out and try and make people laugh,’ because that’s such a big fall if it goes wrong. And I basically, I, I mean, I don’t think I really ever had the guts to give it a proper go until I met my wife, really.”

He tells me that they used to share a bar counter in a pub in Dalston, and when he heard that she was planning to go to Edinburgh with a theater company, he decided to join the adventure. “And around the same time, my sister was like, ‘Oh, our friend Kat Bond, who was a comedian, is going up to Edinburgh and she only wants to do half an hour. So you have an hour slot’. She was like, ‘I think you should do it’. And I was like, ‘Well, there’s this girl who’s getting out there…’”, he remembers with a cheeky smile.

As one of the most renowned art festivals in Europe, I applaud the confidence of facing such a high-expectations crowd from the get-go. “Do you know what? The first time I did it, I just didn’t care,” he says. “I was just like, I’m just here. I’m happy to be here. I was so, um, I think I was sort of more interested in hanging out with my, well, my now wife, but I was just happy that some people were there. And do you know what? I went and I could tell that I wasn’t deluded. I think the first year I did it, there were a couple of comedians that I didn’t know personally, but I knew of who came to see the show. And I was like, oh, okay, maybe there’s something in this.”

And surely there was. A few years later, with a handful of shows under his belt and a full diary of promising connections, it’s easy to say that Jon Pointing is solidifying himself as a big name in the new generation of British talents ready to crack you up. Now, he’s enjoying the much-needed break that follows working on such an intense project — or projects, in fact, as he also wrapped up Sky Comedy’s romcom Smothered and the BBC’s Agatha Christie adaptation Murder Is Easy at the end of 2023. “I’m also trying to write at the moment. So that is kind of in the back of my head,” he tells me.

“It’s an interesting process, and sometimes it’s really fun, you know, when you feel like you’re really getting into it and you sort of find a bit of flow and you feel like ‘this is great’. But sometimes, the feeling of getting stuff done, you then become quite protective of that because it felt good to do, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it was good to read.” He laughs. “So, yeah, it’s difficult. I had a busy year last year, so I’m hoping that at the beginning of this year, I’ve got a bit of time to crack it.” And so do we, Jon!