Hello bambinos! The most underrated show on TV and also quite probably the funniest. Great performances all round, but (topless) Paul Ritter and Mark Heap steal the show every week.

Back for a second series on Channel 4, Friday Night Dinner has retained the comic spark that it had in the first.

As with the previous helping, the series sees the Jewish Goodman family trying to have a dinner on a Friday night, which - as always - ends up with chaos. Brothers Adam and Jonny (Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal) fight and play pranks, while mother Jackie (Tamsin Greig) tries keep everything in order while cooking the "squirrel" - and father Martin (Paul Ritter) continues with his odd behaviour, refusing to wear a shirt.

In the opening episode, Jackie finds Adam's old diary, which he reveals that he disposed of Jonny's favourite cuddly toy when he was 11. As a result, Jonny tries to capture Adam's beloved "Buggy". In the meantime, Martin is constantly sneezing while trying to fix his lawnmower...

This was a great opening episode, mixing some off-the-wall humour (mainly from Jim, who claims playing the bassoon gave him "reverse hiccups") with some good old fashioned slapstick, which helps to bring around a great ending to the episode itself.

Part of the reason why Friday Night Dinner seems to work is the fact that it's based on something real, namely the actual experiences of such 'Friday night dinners' of the writer Robert Popper. It gives the show an extra footing from which you can get more laughs from, and it does seems to work.

We sit down at the dinner table with the chaotic Goodman family as Robert Popper's genial autobiographical comedy returns for a second series. Dad, the fantastically lugubrious Paul Ritter, is once again embarrassingly shirtless ("I'm bloody boiling" is his constant lament) as warring siblings Adam and Jonny (Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal) start brawling like toddlers the minute they set foot in their childhood home. Mum Jackie (Tamsin Greig) can do little except look pained while shouting for order above the mayhem.

Mark Heap as weirdly obtuse neighbour Jim lifts us out of broad farce when he becomes obsessed by Adam's childhood fluffy bunny.

Robert Popper's comedy hit some terrific comic highs on its debut last year, and it returns in even finer fettle for a second series. This is sitcom pared to the bare bones - two grown-up brothers return to the parental home every Friday for dinner, and promptly revert to bickering, antagonistic children. A simple formula that, with crackling scripts and perfect casting - Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal as siblings; Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter as Mum and Dad - works like a dream.

Video: Exclusive behind the scenes Friday Night Dinner

Behind the scenes on Channel 4's Friday Night Dinner we run into on-screen brothers Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal, discuss making the show and get a sneak preview of the upcoming series. (As well as laughing at Simon Bird's inability to park a car, and dad Paul Ritter's amazing food spitting talents).

Robert Popper's vaguely autobiographical sitcom isn't black-hearted, cruel, vituperative or blushingly filthy, yet on C4 earlier this year it still secured a devoted following of viewers who liked its inherent good-heartedness and lack of guile. Certainly this E4 rerun is very welcome and might help to keep fans going until the arrival of series two. Popper has adapted his own early family life to bring us the Goodmans: Mum, Dad and two grown-up kids, who gather round the dinner table every Friday. Mum (splendid Tamsin Greig) is daffy and obsessed by MasterChef, while Dad (Paul Ritter) is a bit bonkers, and has a bizarre obsession with his yellowing collection of ancient New Scientist magazines. It's all a bit Mike Leigh, only funnier.

Adam arrives for dinner at mum and dad's, but things seem a little off-kilter. Dad Martin (Paul Ritter, who should be crowned a comedy king in a special ceremony) is dressed in a suit, the table is laid with flowers and "mum's posh bowls" - and there's an extra place set for dinner. Of course, it's a trap, one that Adam (Simon Bird) walks straight into when mum (super Tamsin Greig) announces that Tanya Green will be joining the Goodman family for their end-of-the-week get-together. Poor unsuspecting Adam has been set up on a date by his infuriatingly well-meaning mother and what follows is excruciating: an acutely painful succession of burps and nosebleeds from dad and inappropriateness from mum ("Give her a kiss hello, Adam"). But even these levels of raw embarrassment count for nothing when weird neighbour Jim (Mark Heap) arrives with Winston, his lugubrious dog. Winston has swallowed Jim's keys, which is the cue for a toe-curling sequence with man, beast, a newspaper and a twig. It's the last episode of Robert Popper's cheerfully silly comedy. Oh, how I will miss it. There'd better be a second series, Channel 4.

Last in the run of the sitcom about a Jewish suburban family. It's been low-key but likeable, each episode squirming with minor social embarrassments. Tonight, Mum (Tamsin Greig) invites a girl called Tanya over, in the hope she'll take a shine to Adam (Simon Bird), the elder of her sons. As always, the best lines come at the expense of Dad (Paul Ritter). Mum: "Jonny, don't leave your dad on his own with Tanya. He'll only start talking about Isaac Newton or somebody." Cut to Dad: "He also invented the first practical reflecting telescope..."

Tonight's Friday Night Dinner, chez the Goodmans, is cooked by hopeless dad (Paul Ritter) as mum (Tamsin Greig) is immobile after spraining an ankle. Of course, it's a disaster as the meat is rigid with overcooking and makes terrible noises when dad tries to carve. "Should meat squeak?" the family wonders aloud. Poor Adam - this is supposed to be his birthday treat, along with a coffee table book on "heroes of the SS", a thoughtful gift for a young Jewish boy from his dad. It's another gloriously silly episode of Robert Popper's utterly endearing sitcom, which strays into Curb Your Enthusiasm comedy of embarrassment territory when dad bumps into an old girlfriend, the brassy Sheila Bloom (Frances Barber). Or Bitchface, as she is ungallantly known. Sheila is obsessed with her Mercedes to the delight of her tormentors, who find new and inventive ways of sniggering at her - not behind her back, but right in front of her face. It's packed with minor pleasures, including mad neighbour Jim and his supernaturally calm dog, and a piece of farce involving grandma in unsuitable clothing.

Robert Popper's soft-centred but sharply observed sitcom about a suburban Jewish family continues. Tonight it's hapless elder son Adam's (Simon Bird) birthday. Barmy Martin (Paul Ritter), his father, makes a disastrous attempt at a celebration roast. "Is it clay?" asks Grandma. The family decamp to the local Chinese where they run into blousy, Mercedes-obsessed neighbour Shelia Bloom (a sparkling Frances Barber). Popper's deft plotting and a top-notch cast make this a small-scale gem.