When Jack (known IRL as actor Leo Woodall) first swaggered onto my screen during the second season of White Lotus, I immediately recognised his energy. An Essex boy to the bone, he arrived in a tornado of chirpsing, cheeky chappy vigour (“alright geez?”), and debatable West Ham tattoos – not to mention that silver chain, an accessory that hasn’t looked this good since (the equally fit) Connell from Normal People made it a thing. Jack felt like a breath of fresh southeastern air sweeping across a Sicilian beach filled with rich American tourists.
Immediately taken with her cocksure new acquaintance, Portia (who plays Jennifer Coolidge’s long-suffering personal assistant), quickly forgoes the guy she feels she should be dating – a woke, super sensitive Stanford grad named Albie – in favour of Essex boy Jack. Jack is the guy who guarantees a good time – if not for the long run, then at least in the here and now. As holiday flings go, it’s a no-brainer.
With his baseball cap perched on his head and those hypnotic crystal-clear blue eyes, he is undoubtedly the hottie of the season. He’s coy, he’s naughty and flirting is his mother tongue. He knows how to get away with being a little bit outrageous, and he can swear all he likes and somehow it doesn’t sound abrasive. Maybe that confidence verges on arrogance, but somehow it never crosses the line into obnoxious. Confusingly, this man is irresistibly attractive.
Ah, ’tis the Essex Boy charm. Having shacked up with my own Essex boy (Sam) a few years ago, seeing Jack on screen felt like a home run for the species. Finally, they’re getting the attention and appreciation they deserve, I thought, keeping the observation to myself rather than sharing it with Sam, as any self-respecting partner of an Essex boy knows to do. These are not men who need anyone’s approval, or indeed, any encouragement at all.
Woodall recently revealed that he prepped for the role by watching videos of Joey Essex, but I think his fictional character has far more in common with the Essex boys we know and love than (ironically) the real men of TOWIE do. Sam doesn’t have a mouthful of veneers and he hasn’t installed a sun lounger in our flat, but he does, like Jack, have the gift of the gab, charm in spades, and a fondness for a good shorts and socks combo.
The beauty of the Essex boy is that – unlike their finance bro or hipster counterparts – they don’t (really) care what other people think. They can talk to anyone and everyone and be themselves. And while I’m at pains to say that my own Essex boy doesn’t adhere to the stereotypical aesthetic – there is no fake tan or neck tattoos – it’s the boyish demeanour and devil-may-care attitude to life that really distinguishes them from other men.
Often hard to handle (if you’re up to date on the show you’ll know that Jack is yet to tell Portia the truth about exactly how he’s funding his time in Sicily…), but notoriously fun, a true Essex boy can’t be tamed. But life is all the more exciting for it.