Sarah Solemani

Radio Times review

The ubiquitous Jack Whitehall wrote and stars in this school-based comedy, back for a badly behaved Christmas special. Fed up with the nativity, his hapless history teacher invents a new festive story, a cross between Robocop and Nutcracker: Robocracker.

Sitcom staple Sarah Solemani plays the altruistic art teacher, while Mathew Horne sports an elf costume as the immature headmaster fond of tragic puns ("Snow-k?" "Yes sir, yours-elf?") Look out for Greg McHugh, Whitehall's co-star in Fresh Meat, as an expletive-spewing tramp.

The Nutcracker is a delightful festive tale, but wouldn't it be better if it were more like Robocop? Mat Horne's deranged wordplay-loving headmaster certainly thinks so, and it's up to Jack Whitehall's bumbling educator Alfie Wickers to make his vision a reality.

While bonkers school play Robocracker is the focus of the Bad Education Christmas special, there's plenty more going on in the halls of Abbey Grove, as Mitchell (Charlie Wernham) attempts to get Alfie's estranged mother back from Spain for the holidays and Miss Gulliver (Sarah Solemani) encourages her class to volunteer at a soup kitchen, making way for a guest appearance by Whitehall's Fresh Meat co-star Greg McHugh as a foul-mouthed hobo.

Oh, you again, Sarah Solemani! If it feels like the actress is everywhere at the moment, it's because she is! The good news for the crazy few that haven't bought into her cute charm is that soon she'll be on one less show, as Him & Her airs its final ever episode this week.

For the rest of us, this is a time to mourn the loss of a great, yet grotty comedy that found strength in its simplicity, not to mention the brilliant pairing of Solemani and Russell Tovey as lazy lovers Becky and Steve. Him & Her resists the temptation to go big for its grand finale, with most of the action taking place in a cramped toilet as Paul and Laura's nightmarish wedding rumbles on. Claustrophobic and cringe-worthy, just how we like it, it's a lovely exit for this BBC Three gem.

Sarah Solemani: what I learned from Him & Her

As BBC Three's popular sitcom comes to an end, its lead actor reflects on four series of eating chips in bed.

Sarah Solemani: what I learned from Him & Her

As BBC3's popular sitcom comes to an end, its lead actor reflects on four series of eating chips in bed.

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.

We've rarely seen her out of T-shirts, vests and knickers but now Becky (Sarah Solemani) is strapped into a gaudy blue bridesmaid's dress and gritting her teeth for all they're worth as sister Laura's wedding turns out to be even more of a nightmare than she'd imagined it would be. Knots will be tied in Stefan Golaszewski's sharply observed black comedy but they're more likely to be round the bride's neck than anywhere else...

'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.