How Not To Live Your Life

Meanwhile, How Not To Live Your Life is back for a second series. Dan Clark stars as 'pathetic character' Don. What I truly enjoyed about HNTLYL is Don's neurotic mix of colossal wanker and schoolboy charm. If you don't enjoy films such as The Hangover, Superbad or Knocked-Up, this is not for you. I love it. Don's ridiculous lists, dream sequences and narcissistic behaviour are hilarious, and despite being one of the world's biggest prats, he always gets the girl. Priceless.

I didn't see any of the first series of How Not To Live Your Life, but given that this is the second series, it doesn't have any of the confidence of Home Time. Watching it you can imagine the original pitch: it's The Young Ones meets Rising Damp, and Dan Clark's character is indeed a mixture of Rik and Neil from The Young Ones - sometimes good looking, often nerdy and constantly depressed. While there are good performances and some funny moments, it seems too unbelievable to be really funny - however low the rent, I can't imagine why a gorgeous single girl would move into this house.

Series two of writer/star Dan Clark's comedy project How Not To Live Your Life kicked off with half the cast from series one gone but the premise was the same. Last time, Don lusted after his housemate Abby, now he lusts after new housemate Samantha. And the 'gimmick' remains - at various points we're presented with several things Don shouldn't do in a situation, such as the opening scene of things not to do when eating alone in a restaurant. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but it's the only thing that separates this show from the glut of other dismal sitcoms around right now.

The only actual amusement in last night's series opener came when the characters were served by a Michael Jackson impersonator at a 1980s-themed restaurant. It was a case of spot the joins as the dialogue was hastily dubbed over with lines such as 'but you're dead!' - a bit slapdash but it provided a chuckle even if the script didn't.

The problems with this show are that it isn't funny and the lead character is immensely unlikeable. It's all very well having an anti-hero as the lead but repeating unfunny lines in that annoying 'ironic' Hoxton-t*** intonation so beloved of rubbish sitcoms doesn't make the material any funnier, just much more irritating.

Poor old Auntie Beeb, she's for ever under fire. Still, credit where credit is due, HNTLYL is a decent comedy and they're giving it another series. It's the same as last series: the same dressing gown, the same Family Guy cutaways and the same awkward laughs. There is another lovely lady, the comedically named Laura Haddock, though, this time. Oh, and there's a cameo from Limahl, which will delight BBC3's target demographic.

Interview with Dan Clark

Not everyone has suffered since the economy hit the rocks - Dan Clark has thrived in How Not To Live Your Life...

Dan Clark: a likeable type

How Not to Live Your Life leapt from YouTube to the BBC. The Times ask if its star, Dan Clark, is the new Rik Mayall.

A terrestrial airing for Dan Clarke's BBC Three comedy about neurotic singleton Don, whose bad instincts are holding him back. Unfortunately Clarke omitted to make the self-centred Don in any way appealing, so the sympathetic laughs come few and far between.

Dan Clark, who writes and stars in this, seems to have sprung from nowhere. The occasional bit-part role French And Saunders and The Mighty Boosh make up his entire CV. And yet, despite that and the fact it was on BBC3, his sitcom HNTLYL is extremely accomplished. He plays the ridiculous Dan, left a house by his Grandma, who invites the girl he fancied at school, Abby (the girl from Drop Dead Gorgeous) to be his lodger. It's a smart, quick-witted show full of cutaways, sight gags and rundowns of mistakes you shouldn't make. It also includes the sentence: "I don't believe in sheaths". Who says you need experience, eh?

How Not to Live Your Life DVD review

In parts, How Not to Live Your Life is quite amusing. It didn't have me laughing myself off my sofa, but there were times when I did titter.

I can see why people are watching and enjoying How Not To Live Your Life - it doesn't offer anything particularly new and groundbreaking, but there's some juvenile humour (hurrah!) and plenty of nice observations, and in Dan Clark BBC Three have a bit of a new poster boy. Don't even get me started on Sinead Moynihan.