Russell Tovey

Amid all the hullabaloo of the Diamond Jubilee this gentle drama takes a more oblique angle on the Queen. Imagining the conversation that took place when an intruder broke into the Queen's bedroom at Buckingham Palace in 1982, the smart script draws out the simple humanity of the woman beneath the crown as she debates love, life and freedom with her unexpected guest.

Emma Thompson is magnificently regal, and the interplay between her and Eddie Marsan's nervy intruder is spellbinding. But sometimes the spell is broken by scenes of Russell Tovey's jocular footman walking the dogs - unnecessary additions to a pitch-perfect two-hander.

New comedy, by and starring David Schneider, set in that crossroad of British experience, the registry office. Schneider plays Malcolm, a Chief Registrar of the old school, stickler for rules and regulations, unmarried. Sent in to work beside him and bring the office up to date is Lorna (Sarah Hadland). She's a divorcee with bright ideas, like how to make weddings make profits. How far she'll get with the workforce, spiky Mary (Sally Bretton), geeky Luke (Russell Tovey) and dizzy but sympathetic Anita (Sandy McDade) is anyone's guess.

This is the third attempt to put JAM on the box, the BBC having done it previously in 1994 and 1999. Parsons and Merton appear in each episode, with guests appearing being Sue Perkins, Gyles Brandreth, Stephen Fry, Liza Tarbuck, Graham Norton, Josie Lawrence and Julian Clary. There are also a fair number of new contestants: Jason Manford, Miles Jupp, Ruth Jones, Phill Jupitus, John Sergeant and Russell Tovey.

The format is the same, but there are some obvious changes; for a start, there's no scorer sitting next to Parsons. Instead he just has the scores on a screen, and the clock is started by a large button next to him. There's also a little bell rang to indicate they are moving into the final round.

Some things do remain the same, though. The studio is designed to look like the art deco BBC Radio Theatre, where the radio series is normally recorded. For some reason, however, the studio lights change from blue to purple when the subjects start. Why they need to do this I have no idea. I find the camerawork even more irritating. There's no need to cut from here to there every three seconds.

However, there's still much to enjoy from this show. I for one enjoy the little amusing asides that go through out each episodes. My personal favourite was in the fourth episode when the panel kept making jokes about Miles Jupp being the supposed love child of Gyles Brandreth. The jokes just kept snowballing throughout.

With regards to the TV adaptation, I know that there will always be people who will insist that it's not as good as the one on radio, but there are always people who complain about TV adaptations of radio shows. If we rejected every TV adaptation of a radio adaptation out of hand we wouldn't have had the TV successes of shows like Whose Line is it Anyway? or Little Britain.

I'd love to see more episodes of the TV version of Just a Minute; but I doubt they'll produce them. Unless they want to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary, that is, and given that Parsons is 88 years old that might be a bit dangerous.

After yet more arguments, mess, and a lot of crisp eating, the second series of BBC3's most successful sitcom comes to a grubby end with Steve (Russell Tovey) called upon to help his ex-girfriend Julie look for her missing brother. In doing so, a perturbed Becky unearths a secret about Steve's past - setting things up splendidly for the just-commissioned third series. Hurrah!

Russell Tovey could play a sack of potatoes and still be entertaining. Even more impressively, Tovey somehow manages to make his character Steve - the anti-hero of this anti-romantic comedy - almost likeable. That's no mean feat as idler Steve and his good-for-nothing girlfriend are even grosser than usual tonight.

All the action happens off screen: Paul is having a bust-up on the street below with a bloke who dared to pinch his fiancée's bottom. (She's really rather flattered.) Steve and Becky stay out of it. Instead they munch and belch their way through the evening, determinedly ignoring the hullabaloo outside. You'll grimace as much as you giggle.

Russell Tovey interview

Former History Boy is also the man who might have been Tintin but what he really wants is 'the career of Julie Walters. As a man'.

Russell Tovey interview

Russell Tovey talks to Metro about his sitcom Him & Her, being part of sci-fi series Being Human and his love for Star Wars.

As love's young sleazers Steve and Becky fill in the spaces between s**gging - mostly with their deranged rhomboid of friends - Him & Her feels more like reality TV than TV comedy.

Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani have the kind of kinky chemistry you can't fake. Things have moved on from the first series and Becky has moved in to Steve's flat but the trickle of slacker erotica - most episodes feature Steve taking a pee without closing the bathroom door - remains undiluted.

In a way, writer Stefan Golaszewski is celebrating old-fashioned romance, in the sense that the central idea of Him & Her is that, somewhere out there, your perfect mate exists.
Steve and Becky, united by dubious hygiene and an inability to get dressed, are made for each other, right down to the tips of toes you know need a good clipping.

If I was to carp, I'd say Him & Her could do with a few more laughs but I'd find it hard to credit that these two aren't living at the end of my street.

It's BBC3's most successful sitcom ever, so of course it's back for series two. Writer Stefan Golaszewski's low-key, handily low-budget visits to the flat inhabited by laid-back Steve (Russell Tovey) have barely changed, with the main development being that Steve's sexy, tolerant girlfriend Becky (Sarah Solemani) has moved in, not that she's got round to unpacking much.

Interrupting their regime of toast, sex and lying about are the friends and family who bring the funnies in from the outside world. They're lazy smiles rather than belly laughs, making this a show that requires your mood to match its own - but Steve's ex Julie (Katie Lyons) dropping in, this series promises a bit of drama, too.