Him & Her - End of Series Review

Friday 28th December 2012

I have something shameful to admit. I had never watched Him & Her before this series. I know – I’m embarrassed to even say it. I feel like everyone must have been pointing and giving me odd looks as I missed the first two series, like the time I walked all the way back from the library oblivious to the fact I was having a massive nosebleed.

When I did stumble across the first episode of series three, tucked away on BBC Three Sunday evenings in the shadow of Peep Show on the other side, I was absolutely hooked. Him & Her is without a doubt one of the best comedies on television right now, and I’m a little bit ashamed I wasn’t aware of it before.

If you’re unfamiliar with the show, it generally goes like this – we never leave the grotty flat of Becky and Steve, the couple played with complete believability and naturalism by Sarah Solemani and Russell Tovey. As they lounge round their flat they are interrupted each week without fail by the supporting cast, from odd neighbour Dan (Joe Wilkinson) to Becky’s sister Laura (Kerry Howard), probably the most brilliantly horrendous character on television. Often crude but always somehow lovely and charming, you’d think being stuck in the same flat with the same group each week would become repetitive, but rather each episode forms a beautifully crafted, perfectly observed half hour of comedy, usually with an undertone of some delicately touching drama, and carried off by superb performances from every single cast member.

The main plots that gently rumbled along through this series were Steve building up to proposing to Becky (done with the help of homemade Deal or No Deal boxes), a blossoming relationship between Dan and Shelley, and the unhappy union of the nightmarish Laura and her possibly gay fiancé Paul. Sunday night marked the end of the current series with a Christmas special, an occasion which doesn’t seem the most obvious to spend with the lazy couple, and indeed the episode opened with them in bed dipping turkey into mugs of gravy. Soon the guests descended, including Steve’s often absent dad, leading to a quietly heartfelt subplot playing out alongside the comedy provided by Laura arriving with a karaoke machine and a whistle, gifting everyone with Mothercare vouchers and reacting with barely concealed disdain when Shelley splashed out on an antique necklace for her.

It was another warm and at times surprisingly touching episode, just what I had come to expect - I may have only watched one series, but I already feel at home in Steve and Becky’s flat. Not that I’d be welcome there, of course; I’d get in the way of them watching TV.

Put simply, I can’t believe what I’ve been missing out on. If you made the same mistake as I did, it’s not too late to redeem yourself. Just quietly treat yourself to the DVD boxset, and we need never speak of this oversight again.