Here We Go again...it’s Valentine’s Day!

He not only created Here We Go, which is now three episodes in to its second run, he also plays the downtrodden Robin.

The actor says: “Writing a character like Robin is almost a way for me to create the kind of character that I really want to play that no one ever casts me as.

“In other people’s stuff, I’m generally quite sort of straight and I guess kind of a low status every man is what I often am. And what I really like doing… is playing quite ridiculous people and just enjoying the absurdity of normal people a bit more.

For newcomers, the sitcom started life as a one-off in 2020 called Pandemonium, which followed the Jessop family as they attempted to go on holiday despite having their plans derailed by Covid. It was topical, but clearly the BBC thought the premise had potential even after the restrictions had eased – it probably didn’t hurt that it had a cast full of comedy ringers, including Alison Steadman (Gavin and Stacey), Jim Howick (Ghosts) and Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd).

So, it returned as Here We Go in 2022, and proved so popular, the BBC commissioned two more series.

The temptation might have been to go a bit broader with the new run, but instead Basden has tried to keep it ‘simple and true’, while also taking the characters out of their comfort zone.

He says: “I never really wanted there to be any high concept thing – like a kidnap or winning the lottery or anything like that – I always wanted to make sure it was very much about people’s lives and people watching it would recognise their own lives and their own family.”

He adds: “The cast are just such brilliant people to write for. And the real benefit of the second series is that the characters are bedded in now, both for me from a writing point of view and for the cast from a performing point of view, so you can really dovetail what you’re doing to the individual strengths of the actors.”

In tonight’s timely episode, it’s Valentine’s Day and Amy (Freya Parks) has received a huge bunch of flowers. She’s not the only member of the Jessop clan with an admirer though, as Rachel (Katherine Parkinson) is worried that Paul (Jim Howick) has also caught someone’s eye.

Trainee police officer Paul (Jim Howick) is less concerned with matters of heart than he is with his career as he tries to ingratiate himself with the lads from the CID. Pretending to like football could be the way to befriend them, but will he get caught out?

Meanwhile, it seems like the perfect time for Robin (Tom Basden) to propose to Cherry (Tori Allen-Martin), but can he come up with a suitably romantic proposal that she’ll struggle to say no to?