It’s not even Easter yet, but I’d wager that 2024 is already riding high at the top of Jack Robertson’s life league table.
Truth be told, I’ve no idea if he — or anyone else for that matter- has one. But if he did, this year would surely have to be up there for the former Gateshead College drama student.
Here’s an evidential rundown.
Last month, his short film, Where It Ends — which premiered on BBC in May 2023 and follows the fortunes of an aspiring actor who finds himself doing a two-handed off-season pantomime in a care home — got the Best Comedy nod at the North East and Borders annual Royal Television Society awards, while Jack himself was nominated for Best Newcomer.
This month, the 12-minute film found itself on the shortlist for a BAFTA in the Short Form category while Jack found himself workshopping a new piece of work at the National Theatre with his pals from Laurels Theatre at the same time as confirming his sketch troupe would be making their Edinburgh Fringe debut in the summer.
“It does feel like a bit of a fever dream,” says Jack, settling down in front of his mum’s impressive record collection for a Zoom call catch up.
“When I started having more important meetings, I thought this was a better backdrop than my sofa bed,” he explains.
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Best known in the region — and among online comedy audiences and those in Sam Fender’s circle — for his work with the aforementioned Metroland sketch makers (and more recently for a star turn in 2023’s sell-out transfer of Gerry and Sewell from Laurels in Whitley Bay to Live Theatre), it was a BBC comedy networking event, as well as a slice of that all-important commodity they call good fortune (aka car trouble), which got Jack his foot in the door of TV commissioner world.
As a BAFTA-nominated storyteller, I’ll let him take over the tale.
“I met David Simpson from (acclaimed production company) Tiger Aspect and he recognised me from the Metroland stuff. They were looking for people to join a writers’ room for a sitcom and you had to send over a script sample.
“I had the first draft of the script for Where It Ends — about 12 pages — and so I sent that over and said I hoped he might have time to read the full thing.”
As it turned out, David — Tiger Aspect’s freelance head of comedy — had already had a first whiff of the film’s premise, thanks to a chat on the hard shoulder.
“Mark Kenny who is part of Metroland happened to have broken down in a car with David at some point before he’d seen the script,” says Jack. “Mark had mentioned this idea for a film about a pantomime set in a care home… so when David saw what I’d written, it was sort of familiar.”
Fast forward five months and a film crew were setting up inside and outside Langham Tower in Sunderland as well as the city’s Museum Vaults pub.
“With Metroland We’re used to doing things quickly — but that’s just five of us and a camera. To see something on that scale come together at that pace was pretty exciting,” says Jack.
To have someone who has done so much helping you to make your thing as good as it can be is a real gift.
Jack Robertson
Aside from its leading man (Jack) the hand-picked North East cast included Emmerdale star Charlie Hardwick, I Daniel Blake’s Dave Johns and comedians Lauren Pattison and Nicola Mantalios.
“It was brilliant to be involved with the casting process, being able to approach the people I had in mind and knew would be great” says Jack.
“Also, as an actor of more than 10 years, it was good for my sanity to realise that sometimes someone can do a really great audition and they’re just not as right as someone else for the part… I’m definitely taking that with me!”
The film, which is still available to view on BBC iPlayer, is directly informed by Jack’s own experiences in the run up to Christmas 2017.
“I did a two-hander pantomime in dementia-specific care homes in Manchester throughout the whole of that December.
“Things happened that I just felt I had to write down in the same way that you log your dreams, or you just journal stuff that you’ve seen out and about.
“So, when I came to write the script, I had a lot of the ideas there and just had to match tonally how I felt during the job — how sad it felt at times, but also what a surreal and wholesome experience it was.”
Once Tiger Aspect were involved and the BBC comedy shorts commissioners had given Where It Ends the thumbs up, Jack was paired with BAFTA-winning comedy writer, script editor and North Eastern lad, Andy Milligan… who has been writing for Ant and Dec for more than 15 years.
“He just got it. It was a great experience working with him and really, really beneficial,” says Jack. “To have someone who has done so much helping you to make your thing as good as it can be is a real gift.”
Once it was ‘in the can’, as they say, Jack remembers having a bit of a moment while viewing the final edit.
“Watching it back and knowing that it was me at the centre of this thing was almost too big to process — but I knew what I was watching was good,” he says.
“There’s one scene in particular between me and Davy Johns. That was like the beating heart of the film and remained pretty much untouched throughout the whole project.
“Seeing that play out on screen and knowing how much work everyone had put into all of it, I was confident we’d achieved what we set out to do — you can’t really do much more than that. Then you have to see what the world thinks of it.”
If the opinions of judges at the Royal Television Society and the BAFTAs are anything to go by, the world thinks Jack’s screen-writing debut is pretty great.
“I think someone might have mentioned putting it up for awards when we were shooting the film, but it’s the kind of thing you talk about but never think anything will come of it.
“Getting to make the film really felt like a massive win, but winning the RTS award and getting the BAFTA nomination has been incredible.”
Jack will be joining some of the Where It Ends team on the red carpet at the BAFTAs on May 12 at the Royal Festival Hall in London and hopes the recognition will help open more doors to make more work.
“I hope people will continue to take me seriously, even though I do comedy.
“I was an actor to begin with, that was the bread and butter for me, but I’ve seen just how far having a BBC production on your CV goes. And now I can add BAFTA-nominated on all my stuff for the rest of my life — as depressing that might be one day,” he adds with a laugh.
“Basically, I’m going to milk it all for everything it’s worth!”
That will probably include adding the iconic BAFTA mask to the flyers for Metroland’s Edinburgh Fringe debut in August.
Jack and his sketch troupe pals, Mark (Kenny), Caden Elliott, John Dole and Jack Fairley will be entertaining audiences in the iconic Pleasance Courtyard’s Attic space from August 2-26 at 9.45pm.
“It’s the first time I’ll have been up there as a performer. It’s going to be a real test for us as a group — living and performing together for a month but we’re very excited for it,” he says.
Metroland Live: The Box is the live incarnation of the comedy sketches which started online in 2019.
“We did pretty well with the online stuff but found it difficult to build a proper fanbase solely online.
“We developed this live show at Laurels — The Box — where we have this box of Space Raiders propped up on a stool, and we say the comedy is in there. And we’re going to open it at some point in the night, but you’ll never know when,” Jack explains.
“Laurels has been the perfect space for us because it’s a black box theatre. We started with 10 people coming and then it was 50 and then 60 and then 80. Word travels fast when people are having a good time.”
Citing influences from Vic and Bob and The Mighty Boosh to Monty Python and Only Fools and Horses, Metroland took their first steps outside of the North East in February, playing the Leicester Comedy Festival.
“It was amazing and probably one of our most important shows, because that was when we realised that the material definitely translates outside of the North East,” says Jack. “And we’re obviously we see the same thing up in Edinburgh.
“You never go to the Fringe to make money, but we know that we’ve got something that’s worth seeing.
“It feels a bit like a formal introduction to the industry,” he continues.
“Instead of us trying to get people to check out our YouTube videos, we’re saying ‘come and see what we do’.”
And by then, those Fringe audiences could be in the presence of a BAFTA winner.
