Mr. Bigstuff

Glen, a meek carpet seller is trying to save money for his wedding to fiancée Kirsty (whom he has told he has no family left), is surprised one day to find his bombastic and polar-opposite estranged brother Lee at his house looking for an old friend.{{cite web|url= https://thenightly.com.au/culture/tv/mr-bigstuff-a-raucous-british-comedy-of-two-estranged-brothers-c-15553240|website=The Nightly|accessdate=12 December 2024|title= Mr Bigstuff: New British comedy a raucous tale of two estranged brothers|first=Wenlei|last=Ma|date=1 August 2024}}

• Danny Dyer as Lee
• Ryan Sampson as Glen
• Harriet Webb as Kirsty
• Victoria Alcock as Sue
• Adrian Scarborough as Ian
• Fatiha El-Ghorri as Aysha
• Ned Dennehy as Bunny
• Geoff Bell as Steve
• Nitin Ganatra as Brian
• Clive Russell as Uncle Ron
• Judi Love as Security Guard
• Mark Hillman as Don

The six-part series is written by Ryan Sampson and was announced by Sky Comedy in February 2023. It is produced by Sky Studios and Water And Power Productions, with executive producers are Anil Gupta, Jon Mountague, Tom Miller and Sam Myer, and with Hayley Sterling as series producer.{{cite web|url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/news/7179/sky-2023-comedy-series-include-danny-dyer-in-mr-bigstuff/ |title=Danny Dyer to star in Mr Bigstuff as part of Sky's 2023 comedy line-up|website=Comedy.co.uk|date=2 February 2023|accessdate=12 December 2024}} Sampson said he drew on his own experiences living near Rotherham, South Yorkshire whilst writing the show and includes characters who resemble "oddball” villagers from his home area of North Anston as well as his experiences with his family after the death of his mother.{{cite web|url=https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/people/mr-bigstuff-how-rotherham-actor-ryan-sampson-drew-on-personal-experience-for-new-sky-tv-show-4707567|website=thestar.co.uk|title= Mr Bigstuff: How Rotherham actor Ryan Sampson drew on personal experience for new Sky TV show|first=Bob|last=Westerdale|accessdate=12 December 2024|date=19 July 2024}}

It was renewed for a second series in September 2024.{{cite web|url= https://filmstories.co.uk/news/mr-bigstuff-ryan-sampson-and-danny-dyer-sitcom-renewed-for-second-series/|website=Film Stories|accessdate=12 December 2024|title= Ryan Sampson and Danny Dyer sitcom renewed for second series

|first= Jake |last=Godfrey |date= September 5, 2024}}

Themes in the show include masculinity, family and brotherhood, and the expectations for men in modern life with Sampson being quoting as saying "we are asking men to be one thing but then also reviling them for being the same. As a result, you feel a bit tapped between feeling like a big, swaggy, alpha male and a nice, tame man" The series has brothers who "are polar opposites and go about being men in opposite ways, and it gets to both of them". He also said that "I’m 5 foot 5 and as gay as the Easter Bunny, I’ve always felt on the outside looking in. I wanted to write about two men who have different ideas about how to be a man: one’s trying to be a nice guy but feels crippled by it; the other thinks it’s all about action, but can’t face up to his demons."{{cite web|website=Cinema Express|accessdate=12 December 2024|url=https://www.cinemaexpress.com/english/interviews/2024/Jul/20/ryan-sampson-we-ask-men-to-be-one-thing-but-also-rival-them-for-being-the-same|title= Ryan Sampson: We ask men to be one thing but also revile them for being the same|date=20 July 2024|first=Sreejith|last=Mullappilly}}{{cite web|website=Radio Times|accessdate=12 December 2024|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/mr-bigstuff-gavin-stacy-ryan-sampson-newsupdate/|title= Mr Bigstuff creator and star likens series to "Gavin & Stacey in hell"|first=Morgan|last=Cormack|date=8 July 2024}}

The cast is led by Danny Dyer and Ryan Sampson. The pair briefly worked together in 2013 on television series Plebs and Sampson told the Radio Times that "after Danny had a cameo on Plebs, I got it into my head to write something about us as brothers. I thought it was funny: I'm a tiny gay from up north and he's, well, Danny Dyer".{{cite web|website=Radio Times|accessdate=12 December 2024|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/danny-dyer-mr-bigstuff-eastenders-newsupdate/|date=8 July 2024|first=Morgan|last=Cormack|title= Danny Dyer: 'Mr Bigstuff proved I made the right decision leaving EastEnders'}} However, Sampson feared it would not happen due to Dyer's commitments with EastEnders. However, Dyer was announced as leaving the soap-opera shortly after Sampson had finished writing the script.{{cite web|first=Ellie|last=Harrison|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/danny-dyer-interview-bigstuff-ryan-sampson-b2580706.html|website=The Independent|title=Danny Dyer and Ryan Sampson on their riotous new comedy Mr Bigstuff: 'I've never claimed to be a hardman'|date=17 July 2024 |access-date=12 December 2024}} Dyer was impressed by the script telling Sky News it was a "clever piece of work. And I think that ultimately, we're making television, we want to entertain people, and so the hardest discipline is to make people laugh... to make them belly laugh - and I think there's some real belly laugh moments in this".{{cite web|website=Sky News|accessdate=12 December 2024|url= https://news.sky.com/story/danny-dyer-on-his-first-tv-comedy-mr-bigstuff-its-a-lot-better-than-gavin-and-stacey-13176626|title= Danny Dyer on his first TV comedy Mr Bigstuff: 'It's a lot better than Gavin and Stacey'|first=Claire|last=Gregory|date=13 July 2024}}

The cast also includes Harriet Webb, Victoria Alcock, Adrian Scarborough, Fatiha El-Ghorri, Ned Dennehy, Geoff Bell, Nitin Ganatra, Clive Russell and Judi Love.{{cite magazine|url= https://www.entertainmentdaily.com/tv/victoria-alcock-mr-bigstuff-where-are-the-main-cast-of-bad-girls-now-linda-henry-claire-king/?callback=in&code=YMFINJFKYZKTNDY4ZS0ZMWUYLTGXNWQTZDCYNZA4MJUXNJZI&state=3ecffd73d3924f01aad687f3aa71af4d |title= As Victoria Alcock appears in Mr Bigstuff, where are the main cast of Bad Girls now|first=Helen|last=Fear|date=17 July 2024|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|accessdate=12 December 2024}}{{cite magazine|url=https://www.entertainmentdaily.com/tv/mr-bigstuff-star-judi-love-son-hospitalised-over-damp-social-housing-caring-mum-mystery-surrounding-father-children-loose-women/|first=Helen|last=Fear|date=17 July 2024|title=Mr Bigstuff star Judi Love: Son hospitalised, mystery surrounding father of her children, and Graziano Di Prima comments

|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|accessdate=12 December 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://www.virginmedia.com/virgin-tv-edit/tv/danny-dyer-in-comedy-mr-bigstuff-on-sky-max|first=Chris|last=Miller|access-date=12 December 2024|title= Brotherly love in Sky Max's Mr Bigstuff|website=virgin media|date=12 August 2024}}

Series one was filmed near Dagenham from October 2023.{{cite web|url= https://www.sky.com/watch/mr-bigstuff/danny-dyer-interview |website=Sky.com|accessdate=12 December 2024|title= Danny Dyer on playing the bolshy, loud-mouthed brother, Lee in Mr Bigstuff}}{{cite web|url=https://thecinemaholic.com/skys-mr-bigstuff-gears-up-for-filming-in-london-this-month/|website=The Cinemaholic|access-date=12 December 2024|title= Sky's Mr Bigstuff Gears Up for Filming in London This Month

|first= Sumith|last=Prasad|date=October 6, 2023}} Filming also took place in Hatfield, Hertfordshire in November 2023.{{cite web|url=https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/leisure/24766347.eight-times-filming-spotted-hertfordshire-year/|website=Watford Observer|accessdate=1 January 2025|title= Eight times filming was spotted in Hertfordshire this year|date=1 January 2025}} First look images from filming were released in February 2024.{{cite web|website=Digital Spy|accessdate=12 December 2024|url= https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a46852030/mr-bigstuff-danny-dyer-first-look/|title= Danny Dyer in first look at new Sky series|first=Joe|last=Anderton|date=19 February 2024}}

The series premiered in the United Kingdom on Sky Max on 17 July 2024.{{cite web|website=The Guardian|accessdate=12 December 2024|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jul/17/tv-tonight-mr-bigstuff-danny-dyer-back-on-form-as-lovably-daft-geezer|title= TV tonight: Danny Dyer is back on top geezer form in a new comedy|first=Hollie|last=Richardson|date=17 July 2024}}

Sampson and Dyer won the Best Comedy Partnership Award at the I Talk Telly Awards in December 2024.{{cite web|website=Rotherham Advertiser|accessdate=12 December 2024|date=10 December 2024|title= Top showbiz award for comedian Ryan Sampson|first=Bob|last=Westerdale|url=https://www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/news/people/top-showbiz-award-for-comedian-ryan-sampson-4903389}} In March 2025, Dyer was nominated in the Male Performance in a Comedy Programme category at the 2025 British Academy Television Awards.{{cite web|url= https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/mar/27/bafta-tv-awards-2025-nominations |website=The Guardian|accessdate=27 March 2025|title= Bafta TV awards 2025 nominations: full list

|date=27 March 2025}}

He went on to win the award at the ceremony in London on May 11.

Lucy Mangan in The Guardian described the show as demonstrating Dyer's "charisma and comedy chops” and the series as "an amiable enough series of half hours to spend in his company."{{cite web|first=Lucy|last=Mangan|website=The Guardian|url= https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jul/17/mr-bigstuff-review-danny-dyer-does-the-business|accessdate=12 December 2024|title= Mr Bigstuff review – Danny Dyer does the business|date=17 July 2024}}

Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph said the "premise is fun" and the "supporting players are solid comedy performers" but felt that Danny Dyer's role was too prescribed to "amuse the kind of “lager, lager, lager” lads who would cheer every time he addressed someone, as he often does here, as a “c---”".{{cite web|first=Anita|title= Mr Bigstuff, review: it's amusing, but Danny Dyer needs to move on from the 'Danny Dyer' act|date=17 July 2024|last=Singh|website=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2024/07/17/mr-bigstuff-sky-max-review-danny-dyer/|accessdate=12 December 2024}}

Emily Watkins in i (newspaper) described it as "loud and silly with a surprisingly soft heart" and that "charisma rolls off Dyer”.{{cite web|website=inews|accessdate=12 December 2024|url= https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/mr-bigstuff-review-danny-dyer-sitcom-3174729|title= Danny Dyer was made for a pukka sitcom like Mr Bigstuff|date=17 July 2024}}

Abha Shah in The Evening Standard gave the show two stars and said it was "slow and lacklustre, it leans heavily on Dyer’s real-life character with turns from former on-screen colleagues with no drive of its own".{{cite web|first=Abha|last=Shah|website=Evening Standard|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/mr-bigstuff-review-sky-max-danny-dyer-b1169528.html|accessdate=12 December 2024|title= Mr Bigstuff on Sky Max review: even for Danny Dyer fans, this is tedious stuff|date=9 July 2024}}

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Category:2024 British television series debuts

Category:2020s British comedy television series

Category:British English-language television shows

Category:2020s British sitcoms

Category:Sky UK sitcoms

Category:Television shows set in Essex

Category:Television shows filmed in England