Ben Harper is a dentist with a cynical outlook on life. He is married to Susan, a control freak who can't cook. They have three children: dosy Nick, shallow Janey and clever Michael.

Also often to be found at the Harper household is the over-enthusiastic Roger Bailey, a dentist who manages innocently infuriate Ben whenever they meet. Nick's scruffy Welsh friend Alfie Butts lives in his room now that he has moved out.

During the nine seasons of this sitcom other characters have come and gone. They include Ben and Susan's niece Abi; Ben's dental assistant Brigitte; and Janey's dumb boyfriend Brian.

Our Review: My Family is without a doubt the best British sitcom that has been launched this decade... that is, if this judgement is based soley on audience figures. Week in, week out My Family crushes all other comedies in the ratings - millions tune in every week to see the family's latest adventure.

My Family certainly has all the right ingredients to be an audience-grabber: strong stereotypical characters that are easy to identify with placed in embarrassing and comical (yet believable and familiar) situations.

This show is regularly criticised by many for being rather 'generic', utalising an unsophisticated strategy to make the audience laugh (simple one-liners are key in this sitcom, rather than clever built-up jokes). Even the cast have said the scripts are sometimes "dross". This doesn't seem to bother a large percentage of the population though - after all, My Family was carefully designed by creator Fred Barron to appeal to the masses.

Whilst comedy snobs and critics continue to look down on the comedy, it bulldozes on... the show has now made it past the amazing 100 episode landmark and looks set to continue for at least another two series.