Friday Night Dinner: Sitcom Review

Friday Night Dinner is the first significant solo writing piece from the much travelled Robert Popper who is one of the men behind such hits as The Inbetweners, Spaced and Peep Show. The show which consists of the strong cast including Simon Bird and Tamsin Greig is set in the family home with the Jewish family meeting up for Friday Night Dinner which is very similar to a traditional English Sunday roast in terms of the occasion.

The opening episode of a sitcom is always tricky, but Friday Night Dinner is particularly underwhelming so far, like a less interesting version of Simon Amstell's Grandma's House.

Dad gets the wrong end of the stick, mum's weird, the neighbour's weirder, the sons revert to childish behaviour when they return home, the sofa man comes on the wrong day, the sofa gets stuck on the stairs. Perhaps this is part of a new trend for gentleness someone was telling me about. I think it's taking it too far though; it's not funny enough.

But the cast is good: The Inbetweeners' Simon Bird, Green Wing's Mark Heap, and everything's Tamsin Greig. Writer Robert Popper has an impressive CV: Look Around You, Peep Show, South Park. Maybe we'll give it one more go. The sit's established, now let's have the com.

Friday Night Dinner - Channel 4, 10pm

Robert Popper - the writer of this new sitcom - is a comedy giant who can walk down the street without fear of being recognised. He's produced Peep Show, written for South Park and co-created and starred in Look Around You - the comedy science show. His TV and film credits are endless, but you might know him as Robin Cooper - pen-name for his ­best-selling The Timewaster Letters.

Surprisingly traditional family sitcom from Look Around You's estimable Robert Popper. Green Wing's Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, Simon Bird from The Inbetweeners and Brass Eye's Mark Heap star as the Goodman family and their odd neighbour respectively. It will draw comparisons with Grandma's House in that it's about a Jewish family, but the trad exterior slowly begins to yield Popper's distinctive comic voice as this first episode warms up. Superb stuff.

Interview: Friday Night Dinner creator Robert Popper

Robert Popper, creator of Channel 4's new sitcom Friday Night Dinner, talks about how he drew on his own family'eccentricities.

Comedy writer Robert Popper on Tangerine gate

Award-winning comedy producer, writer and actor Robert Popper has helped create some of the most popular British shows on TV in recent years.

What a rarity: a sitcom that isn't black-hearted, cruel, vituperative, mean-spirited or blushingly filthy. Friday Night Comedy is rather sweet, which might sound like the kiss of death for a comedy, but luckily it's funny, too. Not gut-bustingly funny, but enough to make you want to return. Writer Robert Popper (he also acts, produces and is a prank phone-caller of considerable renown) has adapted his own early family life to bring us the Goodmans; mum, dad and two grown-up kids, who all gather round the dinner table every Friday night. Mum (splendid Tamsin Greig) is sweetly 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.

As it is Friday, we're going to go easy on Robert Popper's new sitcom. It's charming, promising and features some good performances from the least funny Inbetweener and the most annoying thing about Episodes (not that Tamsin Greig was bad, it's just that her character made no sense - surely she'd work out what LA was going to do to her comedy? Anyhow, different preview).

Here Tamsin plays a Masterchef-obsessed (old format, obviously) mum to two kids who return home for Friday night dinner to be fed. They're embarrassed by their ketchup-supping dad and risqué nan. Does that sound dated and, well, sitcommy? That's because it is a bit. Like Grandma's House without any introspection.

Interview: Robert Popper

The writer of a sitcom explains why he left the prayers out.

Last year the BBC aired Grandma's House, Simon Amstell's acerbic sitcom about a dysfunctional Jewish family. The very mixed notices it received have clearly not deterred Channel 4, who keep the middle-class Jewish mayhem coming with this new series from writer Robert Popper. Each episode centres on Friday night dinner with the Goodman family. Bickering brothers Adam (Simon Bird, star of The Inbetweeners) and Jonny (newcomer Tom Rosenthal, son of sports broadcaster Jim) are reluctant attendees, while their mother Jackie (Tamsin Greig, fresh from appearing alongside Matt LeBlanc and Stephen Mangan in Episodes) and father Martin (Pulling's Paul Ritter) try to uphold some family values. In tonight's opening episode, Jackie is intent on getting the boys to watch the MasterChef final, while Martin is preoccupied with rescuing old copies of New Scientist from the dump. Things are further complicated by the continual interruptions from weird neighbour Jim (Mark Heap), who claims to have broken his loo. As a comedy, it's not mean-spirited and cynical, but actually rather sweet. Of course, It's too early to say if it'll be a hit - in particular it is unclear whether Bird has acting gears other than his sarcastic, awkward Inbetweeners persona - but there's certainly enough here to keep you watching.