Review: More hit and miss humour in its second series

The second series of Channel 4 hit Friday Night Dinner kicked off with an episode which was long on mayhem and short on subtlety - and only sporadically hit the mark.

TV review: Friday Night Dinner is a winner

Friday Night Dinner is a slightly more slapstick experience than Grandma's House - the other comedy about the everyday goings-on of a Jewish household. But despite accusations that nothing actually happens this return comes to a satisfying climax.

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.

Tamsin Greig on Friday Night Dinner and going grey

"Maybe this whole obsession with colouring our hair is about our inability to grow up..."

Simon Bird on Friday Night Dinner

Simon Bird doesn't particularly like being interviewed. If he hadn't already told me this, I'd know by his body language.

It's not on Friday night anymore. But otherwise, it's business as usual for Robert Popper's relentlessly watchable family sitcom. No real complexity here: tonight, Adam and Jonny declare open war on each other after the chilling discovery of a secret concerning a disappeared childhood cuddly toy. Jonny is prepared to go nuclear, but can Adam avert disaster and save the life of his beloved rabbit Buggy? Happily, the plot facilitates a slightly-larger-than-usual role for the brilliant Mark Heap's creepy, needy neighbour Jim - hopefully this is the shape of things to come. Elsewhere, Martin is still hapless and half naked, and Jackie remains mildly exasperated and sneakily mischievous. A welcome return - Friday Night Dinner is cannily written, nicely performed and very much the kind of show that sneaks up on you

Friday Night Dinner served up more hit and miss humour

The second series of Channel 4 hit Friday Night Dinner kicked off with an episode which was long on mayhem and short on subtlety - and only sporadically hit the mark.

Friday Night Dinner - Series 2, Episode 1 review

Turning a Jewish tradition into a sitcom was perhaps never an easy task but Friday Night Dinner has managed to do just that in spectacular fashion.

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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.