Rum Punch's Travis Jay: "I've got a right to grab the attention of someone who's like me"

After the success of his pilot episode of Rum Punch last year, comedian Travis Jay is back for a fully fledged series of his radio sitcom – and it's only set to be the start of something greater, should the stars align for Jay who also has dreams for Rum Punch beyond the airwaves.

As we speak before the release of the BBC Radio 4 series and even ahead of the live recording of his second batch of episodes, Jay is admittedly "super excited" for the release of the full season.

"I think the response to the pilot was definitely eye opening. It was a real surprise because it's an audience I'm not familiar with, on a platform I'm also not familiar with. While I listen to podcasts, the idea of being on Radio 4 was just like, 'Okay, everybody speaks so positively about this'. It's just something I still didn't know. So, the response has been far bigger than I imagined," he says.

And a positive reaction was definitely recieved around Rum Punch's initial episode, with the pilot going on to scoop up the award for Best Comedy Sitcom at BBC's 2025 Audio Drama Awards.

Winning that was "something else", Jay beams, with it proving that the positive feedback "is not in my head and it really did connect".

"I genuinely didn't know that we'd be in the running for something like that. When you start writing, it's the furthest thing from my mind. Then it's like – bam, nominations are in," he laughs.

He continues: "It's my first comedy award, and I've been doing this for 16 years. I'm just grateful the people are enjoying the project. I think it's a powerful story to tell and I think the feeling it leaves is the thing I really aim for.

"I'm one of these stand up comics – I do touch on serious things. Previous specials I've done, I've touched on grief, losing my grandfather. It would seem like, how did you make that funny? But I know that there's value in real life and authentic stories.

"The comedy will come, I trust my bones to find comedy. But dealing with real subjects is also quite a powerful thing. The fact that a story like this could connect like that and we go to a full series in an audience I'm not familiar with in that way, it made me feel really, really proud."

Describing Rum Punch as a "multigenerational family sitcom", the series follows Jay in the lead role as Marley, an aspiring boxer who has dreams outside of working in his family's Caribbean restaurant. Set in Lewisham, the family comedy follows the Campbell family as they come together to keep the business afloat but also, pursue their own individual ambitions.

Upon first listening to it, many will likely be warmly reminded of other Black-led sitcoms that have aired alongside many of us growing older. Desmond's, My Wife and Kids and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air were all shows that were staple to Jay's experience growing up, he tells me. "It's a nod to the legacy of Black sitcoms," Jay says, with those shows remaining so iconic all these years on for a variety of reasons.

The studio sitcom format gives viewers "a deeper connection" to many lead characters, Jay says. "The connection runs so deep, it's that real life experience. You're in the room laughing with them and I really wanted to touch on that because it's just things I grew up loving," he says. In reality, the laughter you hear dotted throughout the episodes is all real, recorded live in front of an audience. It's a part of the series that was special to Jay, he admits, but is was always part of the plan when a stand-up comedian is at the helm of the series.

"I think if we're going to call it a comedy, it belongs in front of the audience. I think the fact it's real laughter, it lets you know in the moment whether this worked or it didn't. These are stakes that I like, that I'm used to having."

The embracing of Rum Punch as an outright comedy is something that Jay says he's doing unashamedly. "I think sometimes we take a shot at comedy but we might fall a bit short so we might say, 'Hey, it's a comedy drama'.

"Whereas, I'm like – nah, it's a comedy. We're going to shoot for comedy and if it doesn't hit, that means I didn't do my job. These are the stakes that I think comedy belongs in so I really embrace that challenge." Having gone to one of the live recordings myself, it seemed far from a challenge for Jay to leave the audience in hysterics. Just like the series itself, the audience was made up of all different ages, with jokes landing seamlessly across the auditorium.

Just from the material itself, you wouldn't think that Jay wasn't the biggest consumer of audio dramas or really, a listener of BBC Radio 4 ahead of penning Rum Punch. It's refreshing to hear, I tell the comedian once he admits that, but the lack of a personal connection to the form or the platform was a challenge that Jay wholeheartedly embraced.

"I thought that if I'm not familiar with this platform and consuming this type of content like this, I've got a right to grab the attention of someone who's like me. It was a real good challenge as a writer, to write blind," he says. "There's no visual aid, your script is setting the tone of the imagination that you try to capture."

Jay describes himself as a "very competitive guy", saying that once he sets a goal then he becomes "laser-focused" on it, which is something that the wider Rum Punch team fully supported him in. When it came to sitting down to writing Rum Punch's full series, Jay said one thing was at the forefront of his mind: "Alright, I've got to write for someone like me."

He adds: "Because if we're going to drag these new ears to this space, we've got to do it with a big bang. That's why with the pilot, we went full-fledged into it. It was a nice challenge, I'm glad that the response is positive."

Riding that high of positive feedback going into the full series must be a lovely feeling for any writer, with Jay saying that many remarked that listening to the pilot felt like watching a TV show due to the excellent visual storytelling at the heart of it. "A lot of people were just like, 'We need this on TV' or 'I haven't seen a family like this in so long'. So, I'm really grateful for that," Jay smiles.

Part of the family appeal of the show comes down to the family at the heart of Rum Punch, a cast that Jay couldn't be more proud to work alongside. As well as his own mother, comedian Angie Le Mar, starring as his mother in Rum Punch, the cast also includes The Real McCoy legend Eddie Nestor, Jay's real-life best friend Kevin 'KG' Harry (Ted Lasso), comedian Kyrah Gray, 3 Non-Blondes star Ninia Benjamin and more.

Describing them as "a cast of dreams", Jay says that transferring his stand-up comedy writing skills to Rum Punch really underlined the importance of teamwork, both in the realms of crafting narratives for a group of people and not himself, but also ensuring that every cast member felt supported and as though they can shine on stage.

Although his mother couldn't make the pilot, she's now in the series and it's a role that Jay had written for her, describing working with her as a "phenomenal experience". "There's a lifetime of memories with this person and they're side by side with you," he says.

He recalls one thing his comedian mother had taught him over the years and that's that if you have to explain the joke, it simply isn't funny. "The rules of comedy have been embedded in me from early," he smiles.

When it came to crafting the story at the heart of Rum Punch, Jay also credits another anecdote from his mother, who told him to write what he knows. Simply put, the show is the life that I've lived, Jay remarks. "This is the community that I'm from. So, I know the textures and the nuances like the back of my hand."

Jay says that most people can likely think of a cultural community hub, like the restaurant in Rum Punch. While he wanted to touch on those elements of relatability, Jay couldn't shy away from the fact that more serious topics do crop up. "Black sitcom has always been impactful," he says. "There's something that it does that just leaves people with a feeling. I think today, there is a little bit of a gap in terms of where we might see that on TV."

When it comes to resonating with so many people, Jay also highlights the important of sticking true to the story you want to tell. "I always like to be in that pocket of authenticity all the time. That's why I'm quite stubborn, I'm quite a difficult person to work with because if I feel like we're straying away from authenticity, I'll dig my heels in," he admits.

It's an admirable quality to have for any writer, I tell Jay, with the Rum Punch creator saying: "A lot of time we do focus on – especially when shows come out and it's created by a Black person – it's about, 'Okay, explain the Black experience'. Well no, it doesn't need to be explained actually because if I explain myself, it suggests that I have to explain myself.

"With this show, it's not a case of anybody explaining why or how they are. Everybody's just living their lives. That's what I really wanted to capture."

When it comes to the future of Rum Punch, Jay – as previously mentioned – is thinking big and would love to take the idea for the show to the screen. "I'm incredibly grateful for the radio opportunity we have, because what it's done for my pen has just been ... writing without visual has made my pen a lot stronger. So I think, if TV was available, I'd be ready for it," he says.

No stranger to the screen himself with a recent notable role in Netflix's Supacell, Jay says that starring in such a hit Netflix series and working with Rapman opened up his eyes to how much he "really fought for the authentic capture of South London within a superhero show". It was inspiring to witness and was something that Jay took into Rum Punch, further proving that authenticity really can achieve what people think it does.

In terms of what he hopes listeners get from Rum Punch, Jay says first and foremost that he wants people to laugh – it is a comedy, after all. "Outside of that, I hope that you see a family that you can connect with. I would love for somebody in the show to almost speak to your experience in some kind of way."

He adds: "It's always nice when you've got somebody fighting for your perspective in a conversation. So, I hope that somebody feels represented in the show. We all come from different families, have different networks. That's really what I hope for – that connection is what comes when you listen to Rum Punch."

Rum Punch airs on Thursday 27th November at 6:30pm on Radio 4, and is also available to listen to on BBC Sounds.

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