How Not to Live Your Life

Background

In 2006, Clark was commissioned to write two short comedies for Paramount Comedy 1 – Dan Clark's Guide to Dating and Dan Clark's Guide to Working, both of which he co-wrote with Gary Reich. Clark was the main character in both shows, and Isabel Fay appeared in Dan 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 a date, such as "Ten things you shouldn't wear on a date". The clips began to appear on the Internet and the BBC approached him about doing a 30-minute show in the same format. The result was the pilot for How 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 and first aired on BBC Three on 27 September 2007.

The pilot featured a number of actors who did not appear as regular characters in the series – Sally Bretton, Rich Fulcher, Claire Keelan and Bruce Mackinnon. Although, Isabel Fay who also appeared in the pilot was in the final episode of the first series, "The Break Up", as Fiona. The BBC then commissioned a full series, which was filmed in a studio in Glasgow. Clark wrote each episode and directed four episodes. The first series started broadcasting on BBC Three on 12 August 2008 with the first episode, "Home Sweet Home", 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 a narrative and talking to the camera, as well as cut away dream sequences where he gives alternative scenarios such as put 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".

Series 1

Don is a pessimistic, 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 over-enthusiastic carer 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'.

Series 2

In Autumn 2009, BBC Three commissioned a second series of How 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 neighbour) has become a main character as well as having more amorous humour towards Don, along with a new character named Samantha. The series featured Julian Barratt as a minor character, Jackson.

Series 3

On 2 November 2009, BBC Three recommissioned the show for a third series. This was confirmed by Dan Clark on both his Twitter and Facebook 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.

Laura Haddock returned to play Samantha. Other actors included Noel Fielding as Marcus and Rupert Vansittart as a "Posh girl's father".

Christmas Special: It's a Don-derful Life

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 unexpressed 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 retirement home, a decision that is made unavoidable by Don selling the house. After a lot of mishaps, 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 entitled How Not To Live Your Life. They were later made into a BBC1 sitcom starring James Corden.

Cancellation

Dan Clark has been heard saying to fans after his recent live shows that they are unsure as to whether there will be a fourth series. 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 Comedies Coming of Age and Lunch 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.

Characters

Reception

The first series received mixed reviews. The British 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."

However, Deborah Orr in The Independent newspaper said in a review of the first episode, "It's a dead cert that How 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 no David 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."

Harry Venning in The 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."