Zahra Ahmadi

Count Arthur Strong will make you laugh & make you cry

Looking for something to make your Friday nights funny? The farce is Strong with this one...

Is Count Arthur the comedy the BBC is looking for?

The BBC One sitcom has finally got a prime-time slot - and co-writer Graham Linehan could not be more delighted.

There was a lot going on in A Nice Arrangement, another strong entry in the variable but mostly excellent Love Matters series.

Writer Sanjeev Kohli threw a fake romance, lesbianism, societal expectation and torn loyalties into a plot that, at heart, was a simple love story.

Thanks to engaging performances from Shazad Latif and Zahra Ahmadi as Satpal and Priya, the perfect couple who weren't really a couple, A Nice Arrangement had the light touch of a superior romcom while also exploring the pressure of living up to the expectatiions of those who mean the most to you. What could have played out as a faerce was actually rather endearing.

The ending, or non-ending, was gagging for a follow-up series to be made,. Let's hope they get it, because here was a love triangle that hit all kinds of odd and funny notes.

The last pair of love-centred comedies opens with "A Nice Arrangement", a touching tale of forbidden love. Satpal (Shazad Latif) and Priya (Zahra Ahmadi) would be a match to delight their traditional Sikh families - if only their hearts didn't belong elsewhere.

The final tale, Daran Little's "Kitten Chic", brings the series to a scratchy and vicious close when Kylie Minogue-obsessive Kitten (Poppy Rush) sinks her claws into Jake (Lucien Laviscount) - but doesn't get what she bargained for.