Gabriel Thomson

My Family's child star unrecognisable two decades on

Former actor Gabriel Thomson now spends much of his free-time doing epic running challenges.

Tonight's episode of this usually lumbering sitcom perks up with a plotline that puts an amusing slant on competitive parenting. When the Harpers' son Michael (Gabriel Thomson) announces he's gay, the focus is less on the shock of his homosexuality than on Susan's (Zoë Wanamaker) fury that the boy chose to come out to his father, Ben (Robert Lindsay) and not her.

Robert Lindsay and Zoe ­Wanamaker are two of the most accomplished actors of their generation, so it's rather baffling to find them still plugging away at this just slightly above average sitcom, now in its 10th season.

This week, son Mikey (Gabriel Thomson) comes out. Shock, horror, he's gay. Once upon a time (or 2010 in EastEnders) a son coming out would have been the subject of serious, soul-searching drama, so it's good to see it has graduated to comedy. Even so, the jokes sit uncomfortably at times.

The twist is that grumpy, reactionary Ben Harper (Lindsay) quickly accepts the news while Susan (Wanamaker) is furious - about her husband's theft of the moral high ground. But Ben isn't smug for long after a chat with a patient reveals a surprising family connection.

Kids have a habit of growing up fast, but I'm sure it was only the other day that Michael Harper (Gabriel Thomson) was a little bespectacled geek with an unnerving interest in military matters and a tendency to stay in his room a lot. Suddenly he's studying at university, is sporting an eyebrow stud and has got his girlfriend pregnant. But then he's not the only one to have grown up. My Family has, too, going from relatively safe childish humour to... well something a bit saucier, with references to bondage and lines such as "Ha! Says my wonderful sister whose legs have two different postcodes!"

Despite these slight changes, the comedic juggernaut that is My Family is still trundling along in the middle of the road attracting viewing figures other comedies can only dream about. And another series is already being filmed.