Roger & Val Have Just Got In

I first watched this show years ago when it came out, a quiet little nothing comedy. I remember watching and wondering why such a minimalist comedy would be led by actors as great as Dawn French and Alfred Molina, who play the leads Roger and Val. Here I am now, around 5 years later and having given the show a second run through I understand why such a show required the superior acting talents of the two - the show works brilliantly not because it is funny, but because it is real. And French and Molina help push this reality and are truly the reason the show works so well.

I'm a strong believer that subtlety is an effective tool in storytelling and it is used brilliantly throughout the show. In fact, simply put, the best aspect of the show is how it holds back. Throughout the six episodes of season 1 we get the hints of drama in this "real-life comedy-drama", overlayed by excellent comedy that varies from clever wit to believable silliness. It never gives in. There are few heavy-handed expositional segments (although there is a few disappointing bits of dialogue where Roger in particular will state what has already been made clear, just in case some of the audience haven't caught on).

It's a careful balance of feeding the audience small snippets of the deeper issues and keeping them laughing and it works brilliantly until the payoff at the end of episode 5 and 6 where after all their talking, Roger and Val actually get to the heart of their relationship issues. It's a beautiful, delicate and heartbreaking moment for characters we've only been sat with for a few hours.

The biggest issue with the show that I've heard a lot is the pacing. At points it can be slow and there are huge pauses of silence, and although I'm not going to lie and say that every moment of the show is engaging, but these moments are necessary.

As I've said, this show is very much a slice of real life and in real life there is heartbreak but there is laughter, there is silence and then there is nonsense and conversations about nothing in particular. Roger and Val show us their lives of quiet desperation, and in little stories about curtains and emails we get to sit down with two of the better written characters in recent BBC history.

Imagine a series about which the central premise is the death of a child. One that regularly makes you laugh out loud and sob like a baby. This series reaches the heights of comedy, drama, and tragedy like no other.

If you've seen The Vicar of Dibley and Spiderman II you know how utterly cheap Molina and French can be. Here you see two actors at the top of their field. Beyond good and...funny.

If they gave Oscars for foreign television shows this would have won one for each season. I challenge any human to see the finale of season two without crying in joy for a good few minutes. Go ahead, I dare you.

I love Dawn French. She was great in the Vicar of Dibley, Delicious, The Trouble With Maggie Cole, and several other roles she's played over her long, distinguished career. However, Roger & Val Have Just Got In was depressing and sad. I tried several times to watch episodes of this series and had to turn it off because the angst of the main characters was too upsetting. This is seriously the most depressing and sad series I've ever watched. I don't know what went wrong with the writers, but they fell far short of the word, "comedy." How such good actors could have agreed to act in such a seriously miserable series is beyond me.

For me, this is the best British 'sitcom' in years, unusually it's not aimed at 23 year olds refusing to grow up (like almost everything on BBC3) but at people with lives, loves, responsibilities, flaws, histories , dreams etc.

What really stands out is the love between the principal characters. Despite or because of life's challenges, their warmth towards each other is uplifting, and no mean acting feat either!

Alfred Molina is used to delivering in Hollywood these days, but this is the best character he's had for years, the most rounded and grounded. Dawn is as ever, real and sharp, funny and silly by turn. Let's hope there's a Season3.

This is a difficult review to write as I want to give this series glowing praise, and in some ways I can, but something is holding me back. I have a feeling that one day I may see repeats and my appreciation will grow, but for this review I can only say what I feel now. The acting is superb, the dialogue is top notch, and the atmosphere is somehow homely and moody all at the same time. Even the plot content is above average. So what's wrong? It's not the lack of the belly laugh factor, because it's not intended to be that kind of comedy...it's far more of a dry comedy drama. It doesn't even work as cringe TV, because it never reaches the depths of cringe that shows like 'The Office' or 'Extras' reaches, which conversely makes them immensely funny. It's a really weird angle, that somehow works without you realising why. There is most definitely a subtlety that means there is a good chance that a lot of people, especially those with more mainstream tastes in entertainment, will not get. If this were a movie, then I'd expect this to play in the 'Art House' venues more than the local multiplex, but, with the possibility of it gaining word of mouth and becoming a sleeper hit, because audiences just started getting it!

When looking at the characters, I saw much that went on between them, going on in my own relationships. This was both cringing and heart warming. I saw the characters self indulge themselves with a self importance contained within the cocoon of their seemingly solitary existence outside of work, preventing them from getting a balanced prospective on their viewpoints and activities...but then, isn't that the same for all of us, if we're honest? This is what I meant by the cringe factor, as subtle as it is, because I saw things in their relationship, that I've seen in my own...and that makes that cringing feeling, even more uncomfortable. Maybe that's what holds me back from making this extremely well produced work, from being a classic...it's just too real to stomach? One thing for sure...at a time when good, well written sitcom's are almost a thing of the past, it is good to see that the flag of intelligent writing is still being flown, but I hope that while this was an extremely interesting watch, that the effort put into the writing in this series, could be transferred into something more mainstream, entertaining, and, dare I say it, more palatable. I would dearly like to see the Beeb return to the days of 'One Foot In The Grave', 'Men Behaving Badly', 'Waiting For God', 'Vicar Of Dibley' 'Keeping Up Appearances', and even some of the older classics like 'The Good Life' and 'Butterflies'. This series proves that the quality of the writing is out there, but that is needs to be more universally accessible. When will the current powers that be at BBC1 remember that it is the 'situation' in sitcom, and not ironically unfunny one liners that so many of todays's new comedies resort to. When will they realise that a situation is funny because of a combination of good dialogue, good plot, and good acting. There is usually one or more of those things missing in nearly every new comedy that comes along.

As a conclusion I would like to say that I enjoyed 'Roger And Val...' and looked out for it in the following weeks schedules, but probably will not miss it if a follow up series doesn't happen. I do however, have great respect for what they achieved. As a footnote, I am extremely glad to see Dawn French in something that is a huge improvement on the awful 'Psychoville', which to date, is the only box set I have given up on after just 2 or 3 episodes.