'Great sex is rare in a sitcom': Wanamaker on My Family

Zoë Wanamaker tries to convince us that cosy comedy My Family is in fact 'diamond-sharp'. Well, sometimes...

Robert Lindsay interview

My Family is back for a 10th series, with Robert Lindsay as the misanthropic dentist Ben Harper and Zoe Wanamaker as his wife Susan. A decade on, Robert explains how he thinks the series has a new lease of life...

Robert Lindsay is under strict instructions from his six-year-old son Jamie to carry on making comedy series My Family.

"He said to me: 'You've got to keep filming it, Daddy, otherwise we won't be rich anymore,'" says Robert, who's back in a new series of the hit sitcom later this spring.

"He's a genuine fan of the show though. He and his brother Sam like watching it in the car on long journeys."

Are you sure they're not just being polite, Robert? Maybe it's Hobson's choice. Either watch a box set of My Family on the long journey or endure an I Spy marathon...

The jokes are as corny as ever, although Ben gets one nifty Christmas gift in this special - a memory eraser that wipes out the previous 20 seconds. Fans of dark, edgy comedy may wish they had one too.

The good news is that there are laughs aplenty in this hour-long festive edition; the bad is that you'll have to wait at least 10 minutes before they start. That's due to the creaky device of pitching the Harper clan 30 years into the future in order to have flashbacks of their worst (ie most insanely destructive) Christmases past. But the wait is mostly worthwhile as the cast led by Robert Lindsay, Zoë Wanamaker and Nathaniel Parker throw themselves into the fun with abandon.

This year's Christmas special is set in the year 2039. Ben has turned grey. His son Michael has lost his hair, daughter Janey has put on weight and the living head of Roger sits in a glass bowl on the sideboard. Otherwise, it's business as usual, with the family reminiscing about Christmases past and looking back on "injuries, law suits and mental scars that therapy has yet to heal". In an impressively honest interview to mark My Family's 100th episode Zoë Wanamaker talked about the unevenness of the scripts. "You sometimes have to use all of your talent to make something that sticks in your craw sound OK," she said. But despite all their talent, they can't even begin to make this one sound OK.

Nathan Brine in Series Ten

Nathan Brine will join My Family for the
show's tenth series. He plays Scott Marsh,
a friend of Michael's. He will debut in the
episode The Sun'll Come Out, filling the void
left by Alfie Butt's departure. Nathan has made many appearances on stage over the last few years, having starred in The Tempest, Frankenstein, A Month In The Country, The Winter's Tale and Far From The Madding Crowd. Further information can be found at Casting Call Pro and Spotlight.

Robert Lindsay confirms Series 11 to be the last!

Lindsay revealed that the series of BBC sitcom My Family he is currently filming will be the last and that he is taking a break from television when he completes the show in February. He said: "My Family has given me a secure regular job for ten years now, it's meant that I can have time to spend with my family. But I've been on TV since I was 19 or 20 years old and I want to get some anonymity back, disappear into the background."

Robert Lindsay seems to loathe playing Ben Harper

Robert Lindsay muses: "It's strange how the things that I've enjoyed doing least in my career seem to have been the most successful, while the stuff I've really liked doing hasn't done so well."