Sarah Solemani interview

Bad Education star Sarah Solemani tells Metro why Stacey Dooley's hair is an added bonus to her documentaries and the lengths she would go to secure a new series of dark comedy drama Psychoville.

More school-based humour as comedian Jack Whitehall stars as a hapless teacher straight out of training college in this infectious new comedy. Alfie (Whitehall) seems to have more in common with his pupils - who treat him with both affection and derision - than his fellow teachers. With a fierce deputy headmistress (Michelle Gomez) forever looking for an excuse to fire Alfie, it's just as well that the bonkers headmaster (Mathew Horne) is more tolerant. Alfie's chief quest, however, is to go on a date with the biology teacher (Sarah Solemani).

A gangly fellow slouches into the playground. "Every morning - off!" barks teacher Michelle Gomez, yanking at his hoodie. But this is a teacher too: Jack Whitehall, so funny in Fresh Meat, who's written this school-set comedy, which will hopefully be his own star vehicle. Good to see Gomez back and also Sarah Solemani from Him & Her, who plays another teacher.

As love's young sleazers Steve and Becky fill in the spaces between s**gging - mostly with their deranged rhomboid of friends - Him & Her feels more like reality TV than TV comedy.

Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani have the kind of kinky chemistry you can't fake. Things have moved on from the first series and Becky has moved in to Steve's flat but the trickle of slacker erotica - most episodes feature Steve taking a pee without closing the bathroom door - remains undiluted.

In a way, writer Stefan Golaszewski is celebrating old-fashioned romance, in the sense that the central idea of Him & Her is that, somewhere out there, your perfect mate exists.
Steve and Becky, united by dubious hygiene and an inability to get dressed, are made for each other, right down to the tips of toes you know need a good clipping.

If I was to carp, I'd say Him & Her could do with a few more laughs but I'd find it hard to credit that these two aren't living at the end of my street.

Series Two of the bedsitcom opens with Becky moving in with boyfriend Steve.

And I know the perfect house-warming gift for her: a massive Do Not Disturb sign to stop any more unwelcome interruptions from the endless stream of ­visitors who keep ­dropping in on the pair of them.

Tonight, they're politely humouring Becky's borderline fascist sister Laura and her sociopathic fiance Paul, who demands Steve be his best man and lay on some violence and lap-dancing in Newcastle.

Despite sounding like X Factor rejects from the groups section, Him & Her (beautifully played by Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani) are a real rarity - a couple who love each other in identical amounts.

Their lifestyle may be reduced almost to the level of basic bodily functions, but they're so content in their togetherness they make staying in and doing nothing look positively aspirational.

Gay Tovey loves screen sex with Solemani

Him & Her actor Russell Tovey loves filming his sex scenes with co-star Sarah Solemani - even though he's gay.

It's BBC3's most successful sitcom ever, so of course it's back for series two. Writer Stefan Golaszewski's low-key, handily low-budget visits to the flat inhabited by laid-back Steve (Russell Tovey) have barely changed, with the main development being that Steve's sexy, tolerant girlfriend Becky (Sarah Solemani) has moved in, not that she's got round to unpacking much.

Interrupting their regime of toast, sex and lying about are the friends and family who bring the funnies in from the outside world. They're lazy smiles rather than belly laughs, making this a show that requires your mood to match its own - but Steve's ex Julie (Katie Lyons) dropping in, this series promises a bit of drama, too.

Sarah Solemani on Him & Her

In the audition for Him & Her I had to snog about six blokes. That's because they picked the first scene of Episode 1 where Steve compliments Becky about being good at oral sex.

The anti-romantic comedy Him & Her returns for a second series, once again focusing on the lives of feckless, unemployed twentysomethings Steve (Russell Tovey) and Becky (Sarah Solemani). BBC Three's most successful sitcom, its crude, one-track simplicity can wear thin quickly.

The second in the series of Comedy Showcase pilots, Coma Girl isn't the strongest of shows - and I can't see it getting a full series.

The girl in question, Lucy (Anna Crilly, who starred in last week's Comedy Lab pilot Anna & Katy), is trapped in a coma full of surreal moments - like seemingly being at a party and a pier, which made very little sense.

The main goings on was with the people who were coming to see her, especially three school friends: Siobhan (Sarah Solemani), a TV presenter who has recently got fired from her job, Pip (Katherine Parkinson), a bohemian woman, and Sarah (Katy Wix from Anna & Katy), a mother of three. There is also Lucy's mother Mrs. Kay (Julia Deakin) who is constantly taking photos in the hope of building up evidence so she can sue someone on her daughter's behalf.

For me the show was slow going. There was the odd good moment (Pip giving the comatose Lucy a copy of last week's Heat magazine to read), but I think the problem is that this show would probably work better as a comedy drama rather than a sitcom. The idea of a comedy about someone in a coma isn't a new idea (see the radio sitcom Vent) so it can work, but it wasn't presented too well in this format.

There's another issue I have with the show...the theme tune. If you have a show about a woman in a coma, surely "Girlfriend in a Coma" by The Smiths would be the ideal tune to play?