Him & Her: Episodes 4-6 review

I stopped reviewing BBC3's Him & Her after the third episode, but kept watching and promised some kind of summarising review after this week's finale... I think Him & Her showed real potential in its first two episodes, but then it began to fall apart for me; mainly because, once everything had been setup, the storylines and jokes didn't take things a step further...

The best British comedy right now is Him & Her, which couldn't be more different from US sitcom Modern Family. You imagine the latter being devised in the classic American way, with a team of crack writers being locked in a room, fed pizzas pushed under the door and only let out once they'd delivered scripts as tight as Gloria the Colombian trophy-wife's dresses.

Him & Her, on the other hand, looks like it's come out of the BBC3 glooper which produces programmes for feckless twentysomethings who don't actually watch TV. But while its central characters are two feckless twentysomethings who for five episodes now have not left their mingin' cowp of a flat (tomorrow's the last one and I don't expect the situation to change), Stefan Golaszewski's romcom is, in these surroundings, a jam and fluff-covered gem featuring charming performances from Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani as Steve and Becky.

Despite their differences, Him & Her and Modern Family had things in common last week beyond their quality. In both, a character brought a girl home, prompting consternation. Parents fussed over daughters and Steve proved just as useless as Mitchell with a hammer in his hand. He was meeting Becky's parents for the first time. "I'm a people person," he said afterwards. "No you're not," said Becks, shutting the door on the world again.

Steve and Becky have had a tiff and are being grown-up about it, but before long their mates turn up drunk, so the lovebirds resort to whispered set-tos in the kitchen. Masterfully scripted and short on laughs, this is more Beckett play than the zany fare you might expect from a BBC3 sitcom. Sensitive viewers should steer clear, though. Like the couple's dingy flat, this terrific final episode is as filthy as ever with the verbal sparring punctuated by farts, profanities, lewd gags and more farts.

Much of Britain's best comedy has come from the bleakest of domestic conditions, from Steptoe to The Young Ones to Ideal. More recent antiheroes Steve and Becky continue to follow in those footsteps as this latest episode blesses the viewer with yet another insight into their fruitless lives. This week's intrusion from the outside world comes courtesy of Becky's mum and dad, whose discomfort in the flat is inevitably confounded by Steve's inability to not be an idiot: "Are you sure you don't want a yoghurt? Surey sure?" he wibbles, desperately trying to fill dead air.

While most of the noise has been about a patchy series of The Inbetweeners, Him & Her has wormed its way into tvBite's heart. The two leads, Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani are absolutely superb. Genuinely excellent, well worth catching on iPlayer while you can.

Q&A: Russell Tovey

A brief interview with Russell Tovey.

Have you been watching ... Him & Her?

Billed as an 'anti-romantic comedy', this bedsit-set sitcom seems to be blooming - or is it just a succession of crude sex jokes?

Him & Her 1.3 review

I get the impression I've been enjoying this sitcom more than most, but even I had a tough time appreciating this third episode.

Not many shows could get us to sympathise with a couple who don't want to go to a party for a little boy who's just left hospital after having leukaemia. Steve doesn't want to go because it's fancy dress. All the pair have got to do is get dressed and warm up some supermarket sausage rolls. Unsurprisingly, even that's beyond them. A great, well-observed sitcom.