A graduate of the University of Winchester’s drama programme has been nominated for a TV BAFTA and he’s up against some tough competition, including Harry Potter himself.
Jon Pointing star of Channel 4’s Big Boys is up for the Best Male Comedy Performance and his fellow nominees include the screen’s most famous boy wizard Daniel Radcliffe.
Winchester alumni Jon plays laddish loudmouth Danny opposite Dylan Llewellyn’s dweeby Jack in the odd couple sitcom set in a university. The pair are pictured above in a scene from the show.
A few years older than his fellow freshers, Danny is trying to live out a lost adolescence whilst confronting the demons of his own mental health.
Other nominees in the male comedy category include Daniel Radcliffe for his performance in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Stephen Merchant for The Outlaws and Matt Berry for What We Do in the Shadows.
Jon graduated from Winchester in 2008 and since then has appeared in a number of short films and TV shows. His biggest role to date was in ITV2’s Ancient Rome comedy Plebs alongside Friday Night Dinner’s Tom Rosenthal.
Dr Helen Grime, Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University, said: “Jonathan was an extraordinarily gifted actor.
“He performed as Goldberg in a production of The Birthday Party directed by a former colleague. I was in the play with him as Meg and found him to be brilliant and convincing in a role he was around 30 years too young to play.”
Asked if his role in Big Boys brought back memories of university, Jon agreed: “Because for those three years, that's your world. Like, it's everything. You're in this bubble, where the results and the parties and the relationships and all the stuff that's going on is so important. I always look back on those times with misty eyes.”
The BAFTA Television Awards, hosted by Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan, will take place on Sunday 14 May.
Pictures from Bog Boys courtesy of Channel 4
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