Joe Wilkinson

Him & Her live chat

We have asked the very lovely Kerry Howard (Laura), Ricky Champ (Paul) and Joe Wilkinson (Dan) to pop into BBC Three central to chat with you about life in Him & Her...

TV preview: Him & Her

Joe Wilkinson, a newcomer to the top ten weirdest, and funniest, neighbours in domestic sitcoms, reckons that the comedy business hates Him & Her, which makes a welcome return this week. "Other writers go: 'But you guys never move out of the front room! Now every show is going to have to be like this and never go to nightclubs or anywhere! You've spoiled it for us all!'"

A very funny and understated comedy show starring Diane Morgan and Joe Wilkinson, the kind you don't expect on Radio 2 but all the more welcome for it. I reviewed its first show (glowingly) three weeks ago. This is its last. It richly deserves to come back. The only question is where? Radio 2 is losing lumps from its comedy budget and on Radio 4 they mostly go for comedy that SHOUTS at you. Fingers crossed.

Budget-related cuts are squeezing comedy on Radio 2. The plan is to "move away from built comedy slots" to "ad hoc" series across the year, including decommissioning The Comedy Hour on Saturday evenings. Last Saturday evening's slot contained Two Episodes of Mash, an offbeat, surreal and occasionally hilarious sketch show from Diane Morgan, a kind of depressive female Larry David with a deadpan Lancashire accent, and Joe Wilkinson. It's the prerogative of sketch shows to be inconsistently funny, and having laughed out throughout the second episode, the third was a little downbeat, but given that downbeat is the signature mood of the show, it seems wrong to complain. The pleasure of the series is the way sketches merge seamlessly into each other, so one moment it's a pair of lobsters in a restaurant tank, "I feel trapped, I'm hyperventilating. Why she's pointing at me?" and then it's a tarot reader with football cards. "The John Fashanu card means at some point you will become invisible. Gordon Strachan - your hair's prone to matting and you may become dormant." A striking thing about this show, and so unusual for topical comedy, is that the sketches are entirely detached from the news agenda and none the worse for it.

The overall impression is shambolic, but don't let that fool you: the moments of silence, lapses in concentration and misplaced judgements of taste are cleverly scripted comedic tools that give this highly professional duo - Diane Morgan and Joe Wilkinson - the air of amateurs. Bored, fed-up and rather grumpy amateurs at that.

Once more, the sketches where they pretend to be animals are the funniest but there are also glimpses of surreal genius - blowing the programme budget on an ice sculpture of Tim Henman, for example - that make this worth a try.

Ken Bruce is the overlord of Radio 2 and he's been running a tight ship. So, when young comedians Diane Morgan and Joe Wilkinson asked his permission to broadcast their sketch series he laid down some strict conditions. Hear the wrath of Bruce here as the duo fail to provide him with the introductory theme tune he's demanded. Around this frankly strange set-up, comes a string of equally surreal sketches, the best of which involves two spiders discussing what it's like to be caught under a glass.

After a successful pilot episode last year, the kooky sketch show Two Episodes of Mash (Radio 2, 10.00pm) returns for a four-part series. Starring Diane Morgan and Joe Wilkinson, it begins by wondering what Rapunzel would have done with an intercom, and what spiders think about when they're trapped under a glass.

Quietly making waves: an interview with Joe Wilkinson

Having stolen the show in BBC3 sitcom Him and Her as oddball neighbour Dan, and introducing his first solo hour of stand-up this year, Joe Wilkinson is fast becoming one to watch in comedy land. Emma McAlpine finds out more...

Him and Her was originally given the frankly awful title of Young, Unemployed & Lazy. It's great that they changed it, as it could have fatally altered perceptions of this witty, touching show. Written by Stefan Golaszewski, it's is the story of a twentysomething couple, Steve and Becky (Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani) loafing around a one-bed flat hoping the rest of the world leaves them alone. Set in real time, it has the feel of a series of short plays and, like Golaszewski's other work, balances pathos and dry wit beautifully. There's great support from Ricky Champ, Kerry Howard and Joe Wilkinson, too.

Two Episodes Of Mash interview

A chat with Joe Wilkinson (one half of comedy double-act Two Episodes Of Mash)...