Daniela Denby-Ashe

My Family, your family, our family

After 114 episodes, My Family takes its final bow tonight. The popular BBC One sitcom stars Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker as parents Ben and Susan Harper alongside a brood of children, cousins and uninvited house guests, played over the years by Kris Marshall, Daniela Denby-Ashe, Gabriel Thompson, Siobhan Hayes, Keiron Self, Rhodri Meilir and Tayler Marshall.

It's lasted 11 long years, 120 episodes and withstood widespread sneering. Now the Harper family bid farewell with the last ever episode of the sitcom that viewers loved but critics loathed. Susan (Zoë Wanamaker) and Janey (Daniela Denby-Ashe) attend an eventful hen party, while disgruntled dentist Ben (Robert Lindsay) is babysitting at home - as ever, with supposedly hilarious consequences. It's time for the curtain to fall: the show's always been impeccably performed, but the writing deteriorated in recent years and ratings have fallen from a peak of 11m to around 4m.

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.

Never let it be said that My Family avoids meaty issues. Series 10 opens with a searing indictment of benefit fraud. Or rather, it stars Robert Lindsay as Ben, who hams it up in a wheelchair when he mysteriously receives cheques he's not entitled to for disability allowance.

Some might say the wheels came off My Family years ago but still it bowls along unstoppably while Daniela Denby-Ashe and Zoe Wanamaker get blonder, curlier and ever more theatrical.

Right now, Janey's nine-year-old son Kenzo is acting all the grown-ups off screen simply by doing not very much, while Wanamaker's Susan comes on like Lady Macbeth: The Panto Years.

Criticising the quality of the scripts recently, she said: "You sometimes have to use all of your talent to make it sound OK." Perhaps she could try using a little less of her talent.