Him and Her

Weirdly one of the title suggestions for my script now has a namesake show on BBC3. Hopefully the title is where the similarity ends, as it’s not something I’m really aspiring to. Him and Her, written by Stefan Golaszewski (Cowards, Things Talk) is described as an anti-romantic comedy, but unfortunately for me it was something of an anti-comedy too. Now, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t completely without charm – I can see exactly what Golaszewski was trying to achieve, with a down-beat comedy on an everyday relationship but with sparks of romance. Not the hearts-and-flowers romance, but more the aw-you-look-so-cute-sitting-their-on-the-toilet romance. It is a show trying to capture the glimpses of affection every couple has, and trying to imitate the familial moments in The Simpsons that are touching without being saccharine sweet or, perhaps more pertinently in the case of Him and Her, of the tender scenes in the Royle Family. Perhaps the casting hasn’t helped with this, as the usually fantastically likable Russell Tovey as Steve fails to raise any sort of empathy. Many of the dialogue consists of Everyman lines; they convey little of the characters. It is as though Golaszewski has formed a collection of not only his own relationship one-liners but those of his friends as well, resulting in a lack of tangible character traits.

And for a low-key show there’s too much movement. One of the most beauteous, and in that pre-Office era, strikingly individual things in the Royle Family was its stillness.

There were moments of humour and, perhaps once the show hits its stride and becomes comfortable with what it is, could even be described as funny. There’s a great moment when Steve is being mocked (about his penis size, but more about that later) feels cornered and lets slip that his friend Paul has cheated on Laura:

Laura: His [Paul’s] dick’s so big he can’t even wear shorts.
Steve: Yeah, well that’s funny because Paul can’t keep it in his pants.
Laura: Are you trying to say Paul can’t keep it in his pants?
Steve: (Realisinge he’s made a mistake) Noooooo.

However the vulgarity is another thing that makes the show a little less palatable. I’m not usually the prudish type, but this is the grossest kind of sex. It’s a grubby, leaky, squelchy kind of sex and makes the whole thing very unappealing. The sexual gratuitousness is on a par with Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, but at least that is played out in the glorious technicolour of neon vest tops and garish Ikea sofas. Him and Her is all a bit dim, as the couple fester in their beige-toned bed-sit. I can cope with Steve’s ‘Dick Dance’, but less with the bit of loo roll caught in his foreskin. And when I thought that was low enough he asks Becky to sniff it.

It’s a shame for me that this show hasn’t quite aligned itself with any genre. It isn’t the slap-stick Two Pints, nor the oddly perky film 500 Days of Summer that also deigns itself anti romance, and it hasn’t quite got the fluid realistic dialogue of the Royle Family. Choosing a strength and playing to it would benefit this show no end as Golaszewski is clearly a very talented writer (though not, as I heard him blasphemously described as ‘the Alan Bennett of our generation’ God, I love Alan Bennet). And maybe going light on the unnecessary scatology wouldn’t go amiss either.