They've outstayed their welcome and now, after 11 years, the BBC is finally killing off the Harper family. Before we sound their death knell, though, we have this final series to get through. In tonight's episode Janey (Daniela Denby-Ashe) and Susan (Zoë Wanamaker) get caught up in cousin Kirsty's hen night woes.

Back for an extraordinary (in terms of longevity if nothing else) 11th series, and love is in the air at the Harper household as single mother Janey (Daniela Denby-Ashe) receives not one but two unexpected marriage proposals. Needless to say parents Ben (Robert Lindsay) and Susan (Zoë Wanamaker) have opposing views as to which offer she should accept.

The BBC should have killed off My Family at the end of series five before it went into terminal decline.

Now, 11 years on, the end is finally near as the last series begins.

Tonight Ben and Susan are at war with each other yet again as daughter Janey (Daniela Denby-Ashe) finds herself on the receiving end of three marriage proposals in one night.

Her parents are both very certain which man they'd like as a son-in-law - but will it be ­laid back Australian Craig, or wealthy Mark, who is Kenzo's father?

The acting is as subtle as the Harpers' taste in interior decoration (purple and orange, anyone?) and as uneven as Craig's wobbly Australian accent.

Although there are some surprisingly funny lines buried in here, you might find it hard to spot them after they've been bludgeoned to death by mum and dad Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker's sledgehammer delivery.

It's the final series of My Family, which is being retired by the BBC after 11 years. So perhaps now is not the time to marvel at how this strange, pantomime sitcom has managed to last for so long. The deeply resistible Harper household squirm, mug and double-take their way through an opening episode that sees brat-daughter Janey the subject of three marriage proposals from comedy half-wit men. As the gags fall like dead birds in a nuclear winter, stridently stupid paterfamilias Ben Harper (Robert Lindsay) and his wife, Susan (Zoë Wanamaker), each choose their perfect suitor for Janey. It is a very long half hour.

I'm not a huge fan of TV sitcoms, but I do find the BBC show My Family, starring Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker, stupidly funny.

But despite drawing in nearly five million loyal viewers, the BBC has decided to swing the axe.

As My Family contains no swearing, no violence, no rampant sex and a couple of stars in their sixties, it clearly has no place on the new BBC.

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The 10th series of this surprisingly popular sitcom about an average middle-class family trundles on, with an episode mixing elements of psychological thriller and music-hall farce, as father Ben Harper (Robert Lindsay) discovers that his neighbour Martin (Sam Kelly) has built a creepy shrine to Ben's wife Susan (Zoë Wanamaker). Cue a bungled attempt at breaking into Martin's house, a call from the police and a crisis which only an apology and a sharp pair of scissors can untangle.