Mr. Bigstuff

Mr. Bigstuff is a 2024 British comedy series written by Ryan Sampson and starring Sampson, Harriet Webb and Danny Dyer. It premiered on Sky Max in July 2024. It was renewed for a second series in September 2024.

Glen, a meek carpet seller is trying to save money for his wedding to fiancé Kirsty who he has told he has no family left is suprised one day to find his bombastic and polar-opposite estranged brother Lee at his house looking for an old friend.^[1]

• 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

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.^[2] 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.^[3][4]

It was renewed for a second series in September 2024.^[5]

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."^[6][4]

The cast is led by Danny Dyer and Ryan Sampson. The pair briefly worked together in 2013 on television series Plebs ans 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".^[7] 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.^[8] 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".^[9]

The cast also includes Harriet Webb, Victoria Alcock, Adrian Scarborough, Fatiha El Ghorri, Ned Dennehy, Geoff Bell, Nitin Ganatra, Clive Russell and Judi Love.^[10][11][12]

Series one was filmed near Dagenham from October 2023.^[13][14] First look images from filming were released in February 2024.^[15]

The series premiered in the United Kingdom on Sky Max on 17 July 2024.^[16]

Sampson and Dyer won the Best Comedy Partnership Award at the I Talk Telly Awards in December 2024.^[17]

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."^[18]

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---”".^[19]

Emily Watkins in i (newspaper) described it as "loud and silly with a surprisingly soft heart" and that "charisma rolls off Dyer”.^[20]

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".^[21]

• Mr. Bigstuff at IMDb