Roger and Val Have Just Got In news

Roger and Val are in again

Dawn French as Val Stevenson

Dawn French’s sitcom Roger and Val Have Just Got In is back for a new run. Once again we join the couple for the half-hour after they return home, she from her teaching job, he from his work as a botanist.

Since the last series Roger (Alfred Molina) is facing a sexual harassment charge at work and Val is aspiring to make Deputy Head at her school. But a bizarre revelation is set to change everything in their safe, domestic world.

Roger and Val Have Just Got In Wednesday 8 February 2012, 10pm-10.30pm

Roger and Val Have Just Got In

Dawn French as Val Stevenson

Dawn French’s new sitcom, Roger and Val Have Just Got In, starts in August.

The series explores the everyday of Roger and Val Stevenson (Alfred Molina and French), a middle-aged couple returning home from work, at which point we see each episode begin.

Although the idea for Roger and Val Have Just Got In was Dawn’s, she decided against writing the series herself, instead inviting twin sisters Emma and Beth Kilcoyne to do the honours. “I have a lot of respect for their work,” says Dawn. “They’re better writers than me and I felt this had a kind of drama tone with which I’m not familiar. We got together a few years ago, had lots of meetings and it grew organically from there.”

What follows is the half-hour where the couple recount their day to each other as well as an exploration of the chat and minutiae of a settled couple’s evening routine.

For her, it may involve her energetic day teaching at the local comprehensive. For him, his devoted work as a botanist at the Winter Gardens.

“Val is a food technology teacher,” Dawn says of her character. “She’s a ferocious advocate of it and gets furious when it’s sidelined in the school curriculum. She’s a bit of a control freak, a bit pedantic and wants to win every moment. Roger understands that about her and allows it - one of the things I love about it is there’s lots of dovetailing.”

The daily ritual is examined over six episodes starting Friday 6th August, BBC Two (see all).