| How Not to Live Your Life | |
|---|---|
 Title card from Series 3 | |
| Genre | Sitcom Black comedy |
| Created by | Dan Clark |
| Written by | Dan Clark |
| Directed by | Dan Clark (Series One) |
| Starring | Dan Clark David Armand Leila Hoffman Laura Haddock |
| Opening theme | "How Not To Live Your Life" by Ben Parker |
| Ending theme | "Ending Theme" by Dan Clark |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 20(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producers | Dan Clark Gary Reich |
| Editor | Paul Machliss (series 1) |
| Running time | 35 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC Three andBBC HD |
| Release | 27 September 2007 (2007-09-27) – 22 December 2011 (2011-12-22) |
How Not to Live Your Life (styled in the opening credits as "how NOT to live your life") is aBritish sitcom, written by and starringDan Clark that aired between 27 September 2007 and 22 December 2011 onBBC Three, about apessimistic twenty-nine-year-old man who is trying to navigate his way through life but is not helped by his bad instincts. After apilot, the show debuted in 2008 with moderate ratings but grew over the course of the three series, doubling its ratings each series because of itscult following. The third series got viewing figures of 1.5 million across the week and was the second most watched show onBBC iPlayer.[citation needed] When BBC Three controllerDanny Cohen left the channel, new controllerZai Bennett cancelled several comedies, includingHow Not to Live Your Life.
In 2006, Clark was commissioned to write two short comedies forParamount Comedy 1 –Dan Clark's Guide to Dating andDan Clark's Guide to Working. Clark was the main character in both shows, andIsabel Fay appeared inDan Clark's Guide to Dating, which was shown as ten one-minute clips on the channel, with lists of ten things people shouldn't do on adate, such as "Ten things you shouldn't wear on a date". The clips began to appear on theInternet and theBBC approached him about doing a 30-minute show in the same format. The result was the pilot forHow Not to Live Your Life, using the same style of short clips within a traditional sitcom. The pilot was filmed in a real house in London[1] and first aired onBBC Three on 27 September 2007.[2]
The pilot featured a number of actors who did not appear as regular characters in the series –Sally Bretton,Rich Fulcher,Claire Keelan andBruce Mackinnon. Although,Isabel Fay who also appeared in the pilot was in the final episode of the first series, "The Break Up", as Fiona.[3][4] The BBC then commissioned a full series, which was filmed in a studio inGlasgow.[1] Clark wrote each episode and directed four episodes.[5] The first series started broadcasting onBBC Three on 12 August 2008 with the first episode, "Home Sweet Home",[6] which introduces the four main characters of Don, Abby, Karl and Eddie. BBC Three showed the first series on Tuesday evenings at 10:30pm.
The series often features the character of Don giving anarrative and talking to the camera, as well as cut awaydream sequences where he gives alternative scenarios such asput downs or physical moves he wished he had thought about at the time. For instance, in episode four of series one, "The Young Ones", these include, "Eight Ways Don Shouldn't Dance", "Alternative ways to deal with annoying teenagers" and "What Don wished he had said to his flatmate, Abby, while she was necking with her annoying and square boyfriend Kockface on the sofa".[7]
Don is apessimistic, single twenty-nine-year-old, failing to navigate his way through the very basics of life. His biggest enemy is his overactive mind, which plays out countless scenes of things he shouldn't do or say. When he moves into a house left to him by his recently deceased grandmother, he meets Eddie, her enthusiasticcarer who doesn't want to leave. Don soon realises there are advantages to letting him stay. To help pay off the huge back payments on the house, Don decides to get a lodger. He ends up choosing Abby, the girl he was in love with as a teenager and whom he still fancies. However, Abby isn't single. She has a boyfriend Karl, who Don refers to as 'Kockface'.[8]
In Autumn 2008, BBC Three commissioned a second series ofHow Not to Live Your Life, which was filmed in the Spring of 2009. It started on 15 September 2009. The plotline is somewhat different from the first series. Abby and Karl did not feature in this series, and Mrs. Treacher (Don's neighbor) has become a main character as well as having more lustful humour towards Don, along with a new character named Samantha. The series featuredJulian Barratt as a minor character, Jackson.[9]
On 2 November 2009, BBC Three recommissioned the show for a third series.[citation needed] This was confirmed by Dan Clark on both hisTwitter andFacebook page, and on 29 September 2010, Dan Clark posted on his official Twitter page that the third series was scheduled to be aired in the beginning of November.
On 21 October 2010, Brown Eyed Boy Productions issued a press release on their website stating that series three would begin with a double-bill of Episodes 1 and 2 on 8 November 2010 at 22:30 on BBC Three.[citation needed]
Laura Haddock returned to play Samantha. Other actors includedNoel Fielding as Marcus andRupert Vansittart as a "Posh girl's father".[10]
On 27 May 2011 it was revealed by BBC Three's Controller Zai Bennett that the show would return for a Christmas Special, however he also revealed that this would be the last as the show had been axed. The Christmas Special was aired on BBC Three at 9pm on 22 December 2011.
Several months after Series 3, there have been some changes in Don's life. The art gallery has closed and he is working in a shoe shop while Jason is managing an upmarket supermarket. Still coping with his romantic feelings for Samantha, Don receives a letter from his solicitors informing him that he may sell the house if he so wishes. He decides to sell it to a property developer for a large sum of money who plans to demolish it. As Mrs Treacher is becoming increasingly difficult to look after, Don and Eddie decide to put her in a nursing home, a decision that is made unavoidable by Don selling the house. After a lot of awkward situations, and Samantha believing that Don and Abby are a couple after Abby returns to the house, Don finally tells Samantha how he feels and the two become an item. Also, Don decides against selling the house and things return to normal. A "5 Things That Happened Next" segment reveals the futures of the main characters. Don and Samantha married on New Year's Day 2012 and eventually had nine children, all of them male. Eddie fled the country after the Police discovered he was a serial killer who grooms men for three years before killing them with kitchen utensils. Mrs Treacher became a popular session drummer under the name "D-Tree". Don published his memoirs entitledHow Not To Live Your Life. They were later made into aBBC1 sitcom starringJames Corden.
On 27 May 2011 it was revealed by BBC Three's Controller Zai Bennett, that the show had been cancelled along with fellow BBC Three ComediesComing of Age andLunch Monkeys. He explained that "They were good to the channel, but have had their time,". According to that statement the Christmas Special of How Not to Live Your Life was the final episode.
The first series received mixed reviews. TheBritish Comedy Guide said of the show, "The 2007 pilot of this sitcom was average at best, lacking both focus and reason. We really enjoyed the full series though - the stronger premise (Don living in his deceased gran's house and plotting to dispense of Karl and win-over attractive Abby) and the new character of Eddie (David Armand in his best role yet) made all the difference."[8]
However, Deborah Orr inThe Independent newspaper said in a review of the first episode, "It's a dead cert thatHow 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 noDavid 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."[11]
Harry Venning inThe Stage said, "Pity poor Sinéad 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? This grump notwithstanding, I rather like How Not to Live Your Life. Clark's unorthodox delivery, combined with Don's almost wilful unloveability, takes some getting used to, but this is consistently amusing, frequently hilarious and totally addictive."[12]
| DVD Title | # of Disc(s) | Year | # of Episodes | DVD release | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||||
| Complete Series One | 2 | 2008 | 6 | - | 20 July 2009[13] | 7 January 2010[14] |
| Complete Series Two | 2 | 2009 | 6 | - | 19 October 2009[15] | 1 September 2011[16] |
| Complete Series Three | 2 | 2010 | 7 | - | 18 July 2011[17] | 1 September 2011[18] |
| Complete Series One - Three & Christmas Special | 7 | 2011 | 20 | - | 1 October 2012[19] | - |
