Roger & Val Have Just Got In

The most common complaint about this gentle, bittersweet comedy about a middle-aged married couple leading a quiet life of domestic dullness is that nothing much happens in it. Curiously, though, that's exactly what its fans consider its chief virtue. Each week writers (and sisters) Beth and Emma Kilcoyne serve up a confection of tragedy-tinged amusements spun entirely from the all-too-recognisable foibles we come to notice over time in ourselves and our partners, the games we play, the delusions we hide behind. That said, by its normal standards, this week's show is packed with incident: an unusually animated Roger (Alfred Molina) arrives home from a long-anticipated employment tribunal, only to have his composure derailed by a doorbell, an email and his subsequent need to make an emotional - and potentially devastating - confession to Val (Dawn French). All this comes against a backdrop of guest lists for imaginary parties, the trials of holidaying in the Scottish Isles, the politics of doodling on tea towels and the sadness that "opening" a new set of cooking pans can induce. Roger and Val may not be to every taste, but for those who love them this is an episode that must not be missed.

A very particular kind of family life is the setting for Roger & Val Have Just Got In. Each week this mould-breaking sitcom covers nothing more than the half hour at the end of each day. They lead a sort of microscopic existence, bickering about whether to order the 'celebration banquet' from the takeaway if they haven't got anything to celebrate. No jokes, no banana skins. Utterly brilliant. Get into it if you haven't already.

Each time Roger and Val opens, you can't quite see how it will pull off the trick again. How will it turn the base metal of daft domestic trivia (a couple chatting, essentially) into lovable TV gold? But each time it does. At some point the tragi-comic inventiveness of writers Beth and Emma Kilcoyne may run dry, but so far so good.

As tonight's instalment opens, it's the eve of Roger's employment tribunal. He has just watched a TV movie that spurs him to practise his speech ("If putting botanical plants before heating and budget costs is a crime, sack me!"). And when Val gets in she has a good luck charm for him: a little wind-up toy of a swimming man, who becomes a brilliant double-edged symbol as the episode goes on. Is he swimming or flailing? Cheery or sinister?

The scene unfolds through one of their absurd, married-couple rambling conversations (Chinese takeaway boxes, evil housekeepers, and so on) and some awkward revelations. Roger is definitely hiding something.

Dawn French and Alfred Molina are so cosy and comfortable in their middle-aged domestic rut that this is the televisual equivalent of a slanket.

But, if you have the energy to split hairs about it, Val has just got in while Roger is pottering about at home, psyching himself up for his employment tribunal the following day - and so can't get in from anywhere.

He shouldn't worry, though - just witness the way he manages to take delivery of a totally free Chinese takeaway tonight.

With a shopping system like that, he need never work again.

But Val's arrival turns out to be a major distraction from Roger's fretting, as you'll be asking yourself, "What the hell has she come as?" Cleverly, her look isn't commented on until later.

There's no need, because Roger and Val are a couple who know each other inside out and they have no secrets from each other.

That's what Val thinks anyway, but she'll soon learn otherwise.

The BBC continues to redefine the word 'gentle' with this vaguely amusing, often underwhelming, Mike Leigh-lite comedy. It's impossible to dislike either Alfred Molina or Dawn French, but also difficult to care too much about their characters either, restricted as they are to a narrow and repetitive round of unconvincing sitcom misunderstandings, petty arguments and inevitable reconciliations. This week, Roger prepares for his forthcoming work tribunal by steeping himself in daytime TV legal dramas, while Val dresses up as Mrs Danvers for World Book Day. The show's occasional lapses into genuinely moving melodrama are absent this evening, leaving little to chew on besides a few witty asides and some predictably high-quality acting.

Writing Roger & Val: Episode Zero and The Mice

Roger and Val Have Just Got In returned to our screens on Wednesday 8th February. Beth Kilcoyne co-wrote the show with her sister Emma, and stopped by to talk to us series two.

Tensions are high in the run-up to Roger's (Alfred Molina) unfair dismissal tribunal. Especially as Val (Dawn French) has had a tough day too, competing in the World Book Day fancy dress party at school. The big question is: has Roger jinxed his luck by ordering the Celebration Banquet from the Chinese takeaway on the eve of his day in court? A delightfully absurd half hour distilled from drab lives and everyday concerns.

Roger & Val Have Just Got In, BBC Two, review

At times the dialogue neatly reveals the stresses and compromises of a marriage, and French and Molina deliver it brilliantly. But the problem is that the scripts, by Emma and Beth Kilcoyne, are so very manipulative.

Roger and Val wrenched laughs from the gut

The rather under-understated dissection of a marriage, Roger And Val Have Just Got In, was pepped up by something genuinely funny happening: Dawn French put a box over her head.

I'm not sure you could kill the jokes in Roger & Val Have Just Got In by explaining them, because there is nothing really to explain except a vague prevailing mood. Beth and Emma Kilcoyne's two-hander returned with Roger fretfully facing an unfair dismissal tribunal and Val excitedly looking forward to an interview for a deputy-headship. As before, they bickered, they procrastinated and, rather sweetly, bucked each other up. And then, right at the end, Roger looked out through the net curtains and saw something that appalled him. Given the way the characters regularly confuse the banal with the earth-shattering it might just be a wilting plant, but it would be worth watching next week either way to find out. It's so low-key it's almost not there, but what is there is great.