Love Matters

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.

There's a danger in bigging something up before it's had time to find its feet but if Sky is looking for a British answer to Girls - and surely it is - then it should take a good look at Aphrodite Fry.

Him & Her star Sarah Solemani's entry into the entertaining Love Matters (Sky Living) run of comedy shorts is surely worth working up into a full series.

Featuring the romantic misadventures of a Brighton mural artist, clad in trademark orange boiler suit, Aphrodite had echoes of a homegrown Hannah Horvath as she out to strike a blow for feminism after a disturbing sexual encounter. Or, as flatmate Toe put it: 'You're upset that bloke drained his spuds on you.'

That Toe is played by the hugely funny Rosamund Hanson (Smell from This is England) is just one of Aphrodite Fry's attractions. Warm and tough by turns, its take on the minefield of modern romance was blessed with that rare thing, an original voice. Actually forget Girls - Aphrodite is her own woman.

This week, in Sky's showcase for emerging talent, Isy Suttie, AKA Peep Show's Dobby, co-writes and stars in a short, surreal "musical", Miss Wright, about a cafe worker besotted with a railway station employee. The songs don't help. Better is Aphrodite Fry, scripted by seasoned playwright Sarah Solemani of Him & Her, about a Brighton artist disappointed by an extremely short sexual encounter with a local businessman, who hatches a plot to mete out the same treatment to his colleague: to "come and go", so to speak.

Isy Suttie (Peep Show's Dobby) kicks off tonight's brace of romantic comedies as Miss Wright, a café waitress whose amorous fantasies break out into song whenever a certain ticket collector puffs into view. In Aphrodite Fry, Sarah Solemani (Him & Her) stars as a mural artist for whom a brusque one-night stand leads her to contemplate the shortcomings and goings of life. They make a sharp and funny pair, with splendid support turns from Rebekah Staton and Rosamund Hanson.

It's a pleasure to see talented writers and performers given their head in this Sky short film strand. The format offers freedom but demands concision and invention too - tonight's offerings from Isy Suttie and Sarah Solemani exploit the opportunity gleefully.

First up is Suttie, starring as dopey, charming dreamer Bella - working in the café of a tiny train station, challenging the romantic pragmatism of her boss, friend and rival Jenny (Rebekah Staton) and occasionally, bursting into song. As a cheerful musing on small towns and crap jobs, it packs plenty into its 25 minutes.

Then at 9.30pm there's Sarah Solemani's Aphrodite Fry. Stung by the poor sexual etiquette of a one-night stand, Aphrodite sets out to prove that women can 'cum and go' too. For this purpose, she selects an apparently charmless partner (Alex Price's Bobby, a man whose dreams are to 'make lots of money and meet Mike Tindall'). But inevitably, she discovers frailty and humanity within this unpromising raw material.

Both films are slight and not without their flaws and self-indulgences, but they overflow with charm too.

Isy Suttie interview

Comedian, musician, actress and Peep Show star Isy Suttie has co-written and also stars in tonight's new Sky Living Love Matters one-off - the romantic musical comedy Miss Wright.

Sarah Solemani: Funny, frank and doing it for the girls

From Him & Her to Bad Education, Sarah Solemani is a sitcom staple. And now she's finally being allowed to write her own scripts, too, she tells Alice Jones.

Another impressive double-bill of one-off comedies about modern love opens tonight with comedian actress Isy Suttie (Peep Show) starring in Miss Wright, which she co-wrote with Fergus March. Using her signature shtick of comedy, storytelling and song, Sutie plays Bella Wright, a waitress in a train station cafeteria who has a crush on the platform guard, Jim (Alex Carter). Even better is Aphrodite Fry, written by and starring Sarah Solemani. She plays eccentric, boiler-suit-wearing Aphrodite, a Brighton artist who after an unfortunate sexual encounter decides to tackle gender inequality in her own way.

Sarah Solemani on quirky new comedy Aphrodite Fry

This engaging segment of Sky Living's Love Matters season is written by and features Sarah Solemani, the award-winning star of Him & Her and Bad Education.