ALL IN THE FAMILY (FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER)

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One of the better things to happen during lockdown has been how it has enabled people to catch up on all those series they meant to watch.

In our household, it's been comedies like 'This Country, 'Motherland' and 'Schitt's Creek'.

We've also caught up on 'The Marvelous Ms Maisel' and 'Succession,'.

But one of the shows that we have really enjoyed is Channel 4's 'Friday Night Dinner'.

While we came late to the party, Robert Popper's sitcom about the Friday night ritual of a suburban north London Jewish family rarely delivers a dud episode across it six series run.

The set up is simple.

Simon Bird's advertising jingle composer Adam Goodman and his estate agent brother, Tom Rosenthal's Johnny turn up for dinner every Friday night at their parents home.

Their dad, Paul Ritter's Martin is eccentric, often wandering around the house naked from the waist up, occasionally washing his feet in the downstairs loo and developing weird obsessions with plastic bags in trees or hanging fish to dry under the stairs.

Tamsin Greig's Jackie is fiercely proud of her sons, calling them Bobble and Johnny-Boo.

The dinners are frequently interrupted by the Goodman's innocent, eccentric neighbour Jim and his dog Wilson.

Mark Heap's Jim is obsessed by their Jewish background, proving easy meat for Adam and Johnny's bare faced lying about Jewish customs.

Jackie's best friend, Tracy Ann Oberman's overbearing "Auntie Val" also makes regular appearances.

And there are occasional appearances too from Frances Cuka's Grandma and Martin's mum, Rosalind Knight's Horrible Grandma.

Series six, which aired this year, saw Martin purchase a stinking caravan, obsess about that plastic bag in a tree and Jackie sulk about Adam failing to mention her in a magazine interview while crediting Val for fostering his earliest musical memories.

It saw Jim fall for the boys' former Swiss au pair, Sally Phillips' Gibby, the Goodmans hold a disastrous birthday party for Martin, Val take on the running of the house while Jackie recovered from an operation and the brothers bring their girlfriends - or "females" as Martin calls them - to dinner.

With every episode, Popper delivers well executed farce usually forged around Adam and Johnny engineering embarrassing situations for each other.

But it is Ritter, Greig, Bird and Rosenthal who make the show and it is to their credit that you buy in so quickly to them being a family unit.

Heap also brings plenty to show, with his eccentric behaviour.

But Jim also provides much of the show's heart, with many of its most touching moments involving his character.

Oberman, Cuka and Knight also bring plenty to the show as fringe characters, as does Harry Landis as Grandma's rotten 82 year old boyfriend Mr Morris 

While NBC and CBS have had three attempts at trying to create a US version, the good news is that Popper has signalled he is open to a seventh series of the original.

2020, however, has seen the passing of Cuka and Knight, robbing the series of both Grandmas.

How Popper deals with that will be fascinating but if the six seasons so far are anything to go by, he will find a way to milk affectionate laughter out of it.

'Friday Night Dinner' is essential, laugh out loud viewing and great binge watching for the Covid age.

('Friday Night Dinner' has run on Channel 4 for six series from February 25, 2011-May 1, 2020)



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