Inoffensive is the kind of word that gets attached to Life Of Riley (BBC1), the kind of sitcom that thinks it's still the 1980s and that jokes about harassed suburban parents being given the runaround by their cheeky/geeky/knowing children are absolutely hilarious.

But offensive is exactly what it is. At least the ruinously overrated Outnumbered (returning soon, you have been warned) boasts the odd surreal moment.

But Life Of Riley not only destroys any shred of fondness you might have nurtured for The Lightning Seeds - truly this is an abuse of a theme tune - it's so lazy it feels like you're watching an extended cornflakes advert.

Keith Watson, Metro, 18th March 2010

Was Life of Riley made to test varying levels of Alzheimer's? Beginning its second run, the "jokes" fitted distinct categories: things that were topical/funny two years ago (self-service checkouts); ten years ago (self-help books); only to dimwits (falling over during a trust exercise); or never (Caroline Quentin's mumsy character - woops! - making a chocolate cast of her hubby's hairy bum). Its laughter track should have said "Gah!" and "Eeeg!" - but instead rollicked along and even seemed to positively discriminate, the higher hilarity-count for Nana's gags about boiled eggs and tea only explainable by a BBC effort to counteract recent allegations of ageism. Big Top, The Persuasionists, now this: anyone with their BBC comedy glass understandably more than half empty had better go to Dave at 10.20pm tonight for emergency care - the excellent Psychoville is rerunning and proves that somewhere Aunty still has a live and kicking funnybone.

Alex Hardy, The Times, 18th March 2010

Life of Riley: why are most family sitcoms so unfunny?

You would have to be mean, small-minded and probably a bit snobby to attack the second series of BBC1's innocuous Life of Riley, the Caroline Quentin sitcom, back on air. So let's go for it...

Written by Viv Groskop. The Guardian, 17th March 2010

A somewhat surprising second series for the Caroline Quentin vehicle that isn't the one where she solves murders or works in a travel agent.

This is the one where she's married to Neil Dudgeon and they have kids from their previous marriages as well as a baby between them. The step-parent aspect doesn't generate much mileage - it just means the two older kids call her Maddy instead of mum.

Their neighbours, straight out of sitcom central, are still in residence and tonight when the kids from next-door show no inclination to go home, you might think you're just watching a remake of My Family.

Tonight, Maddy and her husband attempt to put the sparkle back in their marriage by going on a date.

Last series they were newlyweds and the spark had gone already. It's not a great sign either that the babysitter gets the best scenes.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 17th March 2010

Eight- to 12-year-olds will love this inoffensive family sitcom, which returns for a second series starring Caroline Quentin and Neil Dudgeon as a chaotic married couple attempting to corral their picturesquely badly behaved kids. Life of Riley can't possibly be aimed at grown-ups, what with its broad jokes about bottoms and the perils of incorrectly loading the dishwasher. The adults behave like kids, which is probably why young 'uns will enjoy it, and the kids are knowing, cheeky and annoying. It also features the world's oldest sight gag about that falling over backwards trust exercise, which even a late-developing toddler will see coming.

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 17th March 2010

Caroline Quentin returns for a second series of this dismal sitcom, which is aimed at viewers who worry that one day My Family will disappear from the schedules and there will nothing to replace it. It's the same-old format that passed its sell-by date sometime in the early 1980s, in which an ordinary family muddles along doing the best they can and being oh-so-funny. In this opening episode the husband and wife have bought a book on keeping alive the romance in marriage. They decide to spend an evening of quality time together - with entirely predictable results. Without wishing to sound negative, it is lazy, mindless, patronising, cowardly and desperately unfunny drivel. What is so frightening is that no one at the BBC thought to say: "Hang on, we ought to be aiming a bit higher than this."

David Chater, The Times, 17th March 2010

For those who find Green Green Grass too edgy, this inoffensive sitcom is back for a second series. Caroline Quentin plays Maddy, a hassled mother who lives with her second husband Jim and their respective children. Jim is played by Neil Dudgeon, who will be taking over the lead role in Midsomer Murders next year when John Nettles leaves. He'll find the killing fields of Midsomer positively soporific next to the frantic pace of the Riley household, where gags come thick and fast on the minutiae of family life.

Vicky Power, Daily Telegraph, 17th March 2010

Caroline Quentin interview: Young at heart

Caroline Quentin talks to Daphen Lockyer about her return to television, her family and why she's a fan of teenagers.

Written by Daphen Lockyer. Sunday Telegraph, 14th March 2010

Life of Riley: the return of the family sitcom

The writer of the BBC's latest family-orientated sitcom reveals if this often-used formula is back in fashion again.

Written by Georgia Pritchett. Daily Telegraph, 12th March 2010

Caroline Quentin: 'I'm canny, but not very bright'

Caroline Quentin doesn't often get recognised these days. Occasionally, a cab driver might ask, "where have I seen you before?".

Written by Fiona Sturges. The Independent, 12th March 2010

TV Review: Life Of Riley

Well, shock horror. Even allowing for the fact that my expectations could not have been any lower, Life Of Riley turned out to be surprisingly good.

Written by Harry Venning. The Stage, 27th January 2009

Family comedy starring Caroline Quentin and Neil Dudgeon as Maddy and Jim, a recently married couple adjusting to a life together with each other's children. Unfortunately the success of snappy sitcom Outnumbered makes these humdrum shenanigans look as outdated as they are unfunny.

Abi Grant, The Telegraph, 15th January 2009

More a case of Load of Rubbish than Life of Riley. This is the latest dismal family sitcom from BBC1 - even worse than the recently axed After You've Gone or the bewilderingly successful Green Green Grass, which was broadcast afterwards and seemed like a masterpiece in comparison.

The Custard TV, 11th January 2009

Life of Riley is devoid of charm, character, performance, deftness, warmth, fun, the feeling of spontaniety... all the ingredients of a good sitcom. In fact, this show is devoid of the ingredients required to make a passable CBBC show. This is a sub-standard attempt at light-entertainment.

mofgimmers, TV Scoop, 9th January 2009

Review in The Independent

There's nothing overtly horrible going on here. It's just all rather dull and rather samey, and something of a waste of talent.

Written by Robert Hanks. The Independent, 9th January 2009

BBC1's new domestic sitcom Life of Riley has the bad luck to begin when the triumphant second series of Outnumbered is still fresh in our minds. By noticing the fairly obvious fact that family life is funny just the way it is, Outnumbered has demonstrated that the layers of sitcom contrivance in other shows are both tired and unnecessary, and actually smother the comedy.

Here, Caroline Quentin plays Maddy Riley, whose family consists of a nine-year-old child from her previous marriage, her new husband and his two teenagers, and a baby. Maggie last night found a pregnancy-testing kit - which, despite being unopened, instantly convinced her young Katie (Lucinda Dryzek) must be pregnant. Next, husband Jim (Neil Dudgeon) found the same kit and decided Maddy must be pregnant. And so on.

Needless to say, it's much easier to sneer at a determinedly mainstream sitcom than to write one. It's also true that Life of Riley does have some nice lines, especially when simply observing family life. The trouble last night was that with all that wildly implausible plotting to be done, there just wasn't room for enough of them. Instead, we ended up spending another half-hour firmly on Planet Sitcom: that strange world where people behave not like anybody in real life, but merely like people in other sitcoms.

James Walton, The Telegraph, 9th January 2009

It's decades in the past: an old-school Radio 2 request show is spinning a dead crooner on the radiogram and the smell of Brussels sprouts being boiled into oblivion for Sunday lunch is wafting through the kitchen. That's what Life Of Riley reminded me of: stale; safe; comforting in a lobotomised kind of way. The scary thing being that it's set (I think) in the present day.

A vehicle for Caroline Quentin's mumsy charms (Quentin being the acting equivalent of a Fiat Panda), Life Of Riley is aimed firmly at a fantasy version of suburban middle England where divorce, second marriage and the welding together of rival siblings is the cue for cutesy domestic strife rather than drug addiction and years in therapy. Which wouldn't matter if the jokes were funny - but I've had more fun scraping bubble and squeak off the frying pan.

Keith Watson, Metro, 9th January 2009

The bbc seems to love its family based sitcoms. But for every My Family, which regularly pulls in the viewers, there is a Mad About Alice, the laugh-free show with Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston that was put out of its misery after just one series.

This new offering, with Caroline Quentin and Neil Dudgeon, sits somewhere in between. There are some witty moments but these are drowned out by more regular unfunny happenings, so unimaginative and staid it's embarrassing.

Actors of Quentin and Dudgeon's calibre deserve much better scripts. They play Maddy and Jim, divorced parents who have recently married and are adapting to life as one giant family.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 8th January 2009

Life Of Riley is a new sitcom starring Caroline Quentin as a recently remarried woman struggling to cope with her extended family.

Ever had the feeling that someone, somewhere, is sitting thinking of ways to use popular sayings or common phrases as telly show titles? No? Oh. Anyhow, Caroline Quentin plays the eponymous Mrs Riley, whose second marriage has spawned a terribly complicated web of step-kids, ex-partners and in-laws. A spin-off, Bob's Your Uncle, can't be far away.

What's On TV, 8th January 2009

Caroline Quentin, plays a harassed mother very well - she was one in Blue Murder as a copper with a young family. This is a comedy, though, so prepare yourself for lots of misunderstanding and smart back-chatting youths as she plays a mum who also has step-children to contend with.

The Sun, 8th January 2009

Life of Riley is aimed fairly and squarely at viewers who wish the old-fashioned sitcom would make a comeback. This one has all the old favourite ingredients - inept parents, sophisticated teenagers, misunderstandings, silly walks and a touch of farce. You can hear the gags coming long before they appear, and when they do, they are greeted by shrieks of canned laughter. If you don't mind all that and you have a soft spot for Caroline Quentin, well . . . over to you. And as if to prove the old-fashioned sitcom is alive and kicking, it is followed by a brand new series of The Green Green Grass.

David Chater, The Times, 8th January 2009

The premise of this new comedy series starring Caroline Quentin as Maddy Riley, a recently married woman trying to foster a relationship with her stepchildren, is so tired it's practically slipping on its bedsocks. The funniest cast member in this opening episode is Maddy's young son Ted (Patrick Nolan), who's trying to impress a girl he likes by stealing leg wax and denture paste for her. Is the girl in question his schoolfriend Ella? "Ella's eight, I'm nine," Ted tells his mother. "We have nothing in common."

Robert Collins, The Telegraph, 8th January 2009

Outnumbered is the great, definitive family sitcom, so I have no idea why anybody would bother with Life of Riley, which, apart from its nods to modern family life, could have been made 40 years ago with Wendy Craig in the Caroline Quentin role. Quentin is Maddy Riley (her name is Riley and the title of the series is Life of Riley - do you get it?), a mother who marries and finds herself head of a new brood - her husband's (Neil Dudgeon) children, her own son and a new baby. It's very broad and pantomime-y, with everyone mugging, shrugging and sighing, and it's packed with 'comic' misunderstandings and farce - Quentin even hides under a bed at one point. Life of Riley is innocuous, inoffensive and is just the kind of sitcom that will appeal to ten-year-olds who'll probably enjoy the way the family's knowing kids always get the better of their hapless parents.

Alison Graham, The Radio Times, 8th January 2009