I do think it’s important we address these things and try to open up as much as we can and try to help each other.” I know what Jack has gone through… He finds humour in those tough subjects like grief. “It’s very close to my heart to be a part of a project like this. “I had a family member pass as well,” says Llewellyn. At its centre is a boy who’s struggling without his dad, and both Jack and Danny suffer from depression and anxiety. Underneath all the jokes, the show, which is based on Rooke’s memoir Cheer the F**k Up, weaves a thread of sorrow. I need a wingman!” The unlikely duo soon become inseparable. Come on, you can’t expect me to go out there, bareback, on my tod. To Jack’s horror, Danny says things like: “Mate, it’s freshers night, there are fit birds to meet. “But it’s s*** when they’re 56 and your dad and the only one who knew the Sky Movies pin.” Jack is a lovely, blushing, mild-mannered, fleece-wearing ITV addict – a stark contrast to his laddy new roommate Danny (played hilariously and with relish by Jon Pointing), whose presence is a satisfying reversal of the gay best friend trope. “Statistics show that one in every one people will eventually die,” Rooke says in the voiceover. Llewellyn stars as Jack (based on the show’s writer, Jack Rooke), a fresher starting at Brent University who’s coming to terms with the fact he is gay, while grieving the death of his father.
The dark side will have to wait, though, because he’s currently back on TV screens as another total sweetheart in the new Channel 4 comedy, Big Boys.
In fact, Llewellyn hears this nickname no matter where he goes. “But the fan was like, ‘I recognised your accent and your curls.’” “I was trying to be undercover,” the Derry Girls star tells me. But still, a fan clocked him: here was that “wee English fella” off the telly. He was recently in Belfast, perusing the shelves and minding his own business, Covid mask and all. Dylan Llewellyn’s trips to Tesco are a bit different these days.