# How Not to Live Your Life (2008)

> A bad-luck 20-something flatshare sitcom in which Don's runaway imagination plays out his fantasy versions of every awkward situation.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/7214

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 19
- Episode runtime: 30 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy
- Network: BBC Three
- Cast: Dan Clark, Laura Haddock, David Armand, Leila Hoffman, Sinead Moynihan, Silas Carson, Daniel Lawrence Taylor, Finlay Robertson
- TMDB rating: 8.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270367/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: dry, deadpan, cringe, wry, absurd, breezy

## What critics say

Viewers broadly acclaim the show as a sharp, absurd comedy carried by its lead's self-deluded misadventures and fantasy sequences.

## Synopsis

How Not to Live Your Life (2008-2010) is a British sitcom created for BBC Three, a short-run comedy of three seasons and nineteen half-hour episodes. Dan Clark plays Don Danbury, a pessimistic 20-something with bad luck and worse instincts, and he is surrounded by his flatmates, including David Armand as Eddie Singh and Laura Haddock as Samantha, whose romantic entanglements keep pushing him into trouble. The engine of the show is Don's overactive imagination: whenever a situation turns awkward, the episode cuts into quick-fire fantasy sequences in which he rehearses what he would really like to say and do, before reality snaps back and exposes his blundering. Each episode is a self-contained run of romantic misadventures and social embarrassments, with the same dysfunctional household recurring across the series. The tone is dry, deadpan and cringe-tinged, yet the lead is pathetic and endearing enough that viewers root for him despite himself. Fans of Spaced, The Inbetweeners and Peep Show will find resonance in its mix of flatshare chaos, self-deluding protagonists and sharp British awkwardness.

## Shows like How Not to Live Your Life

- [Spaced (1999)](https://ember.film/tv/706)
- [Dead Pixels (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/74730)
- [Crashing (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/57663)
- [Still Up (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/134353)
- [Such Brave Girls (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/156242)
- [Chewing Gum (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/56941)
- [Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (2001)](https://ember.film/tv/564)
- [Adults (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/174758)
- [Man Down (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/46811)
- [Fresh Meat (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/37252)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt