As the coming-out, coming-of-age hit student sitcom returns for a charged final season, the actor who plays super-straight bestie Danny reveals how his unique brand of blokeyness gets him hugs and thank-yous in gay clubs

On the morning Jon Pointing is due to videocall, I make the mistake of starting to watch the last ever episode of Big Boys. Within seconds I’m in tears, even though the show is a comedy: a coming-of-age story about a guy called Jack, who leaves his working-class family home and starts university. In scenes that verge on slapstick, Jack tries on various identities, attempts to lose his virginity and eventually tells his family he is gay. Yet Jack is also grieving for his father and Big Boys has moments so wrenching that you may find yourself, as I did, suddenly in pieces.

Since 2022, Pointing has been putting the lad into the hit Channel 4 comedy. In a role that has made its way to front and centre, he plays Danny, Jack’s flatmate and best mate, inverting the trope of the gay best friend. At 25, Danny is a mature student: a straight blokey bloke who supports Jack in his coming out and introduces him to life as a fresher, all while struggling with his own mental health problems. When Danny comes off antidepressants in the hope his sexual performance will improve, things don’t go to plan. “Sometimes,” says Pointing, “I’d be like, ‘Does Danny have to be so horny?’” He thought the key to playing the character was to make him “too happy – trying a bit too hard to have a good time”.