Kerry Howard

Radio Times review

Kerry Howard is best known as a brilliantly vile bridezilla in BBC Three's superlative black comedy Him & Her. (Trivia alert: she also happens to be the sister of comedian Russell Howard.) Here, her character Marilyn works in promotions, which involves donning tangerine tights and pushing a lurid orange drink called Nectarino ("the taste of sunshine in a bottle!") on resistant shoppers. Ex-EastEnder Tracy-Ann Oberman plays her delightfully un-PC boss, and look out for X Factor finalist Diana Vickers as another of the tangerine mannequins.

Bravo to Comedy Central for putting so many funny women in one sitcom. Sadly, though, the jokes in this first episode are often as weak as Marilyn's work ethic.

Kerry Howard interview

Him & Her alumnus Kerry Howard talks female led comedy, awful jobs and playing weirdos.

Kerry Howard - Give Out Girls interview

Actress Kerry Howard has been making a name for herself as one of the UK's finest comedy actresses.

What would any bride do if she discovered a deal-breaking secret about her bridegroom just before they were about to exchange vows? If you're the borderline psycho Laura (Kerry Howard), you... well, that would be telling. In another terrific slice of cringe-making black comedy starring Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani, the wedding from hell takes yet more twists and turns, with bridesmaid Becky's big secret putting her under her sister's thumb with horribly embarrassing consequences.

The deliciously odious bride prances down the aisle for a ceremony as excruciating as it is funny. She preens on a throne guzzling chocolates, the groom slumps beside her texting his lover and poor old Becky must perform a surprise reading. Sarah Solemani and Russell Tovey are as brilliantly understated as ever as reluctant bridesmaid and best man who spend much of this episode shooting each other rueful looks across the marquee. Yet tonight they're upstaged by Kerry Howard, who plays the bridezilla to perfection. By the end you almost - almost - feel sorry for her.

'Have a cool one', advises Steve (Russell Tovey) breezily as the guests for Paul and Laura's wedding arrive. Just the sort of lame remark that Becky (Sarah Solemani) can't let lie, and also a warning that what follows will be anything but 'cool'.

While Becky, realising too late that chief bridesmaid equals dogsbody, is trapped in a limo with the exquisitely awful Laura (a magnificent Kerry Howard), Steve is firefighting desperately as Paul's doubts multiply. And then there's Becky's ex, Lee, charming everybody while needling the best man.

With this final series, H&H is staking a claim to be the best sitcom BBC Three has ever produced - no mean feat in the wake of Gavin & Stacey, Nighty Night and Pulling. It captures all the social awkwardness and personality clashes of a wedding with none of the actual happiness - so acute and so excruciating that you can't watch, but you can't switch off either.

Him & Her is by the far the best sitcom to have ever landed up on BBC Three, and surely the only one with roots in Harold Pinter. The swansong series, Him & Her: the Wedding, in which Laura and Paul's nuptials unfold over four episodes, is, as it should be, dominated by the bride with Kerry Howard's performance as invincibly monstrous Laura surely heading for a comedy award.

Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani are taking more of a back seat in this series. Becky quite literally as the long-suffering bridesmaids joined Laura for a limo ride from hell.

And if one sequence demonstrated the assurance of Stefan Golaszewski's comedy, it was the one where Laura had her head out of the limo sunroof, abusing passers-by and being ignored by the bridesmaids as they enjoyed a respite from her tyranny by sending text messages.

"Observational comedy" is an over-used term, but this was the real McCoy.

The jewel in BBC3's comedy crown begins its lap of honour with a final series set on a single day. The appalling Laura and the pathetic Paul are tying the knot, Becky is the main bridesmaid, Steve is the best man and chaos is sure to ensue.

We'd wondered if this scenario might be a touch too busy for a show that has often specialised in doing nothing much, very slowly and very charmingly for whole episodes at a time. But on the evidence of this opener, it should work fine: Steve and Becky (further showcasing the remarkable chemistry of Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani) are the still point around which a series of bizarre, hideous and unbelievable events seems likely to swirl - and we're sure they'll take it in their collective stride.

A word too for Kerry Howard, whose Laura is surely one of the most unbearable creations in TV history - she manages to infuse Laura's every moment of screentime with a uniquely noxious mixture of selfishness, neediness and spite. We can only hope her career survives the association...