Robert Lindsay

Why the writing was already on the wall for My Family

The BBC's decision to can the Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker sitcom after a decade has not come before time.

Robert Lindsay gets raunchy as he returns to the stage

As the star of popular sitcom My Family, Robert Lindsay is famous as long-suffering patriarch Ben Harper. But as the award-winning actor returns to the London stage again, younger fans may be in for a bit of shock at his latest role.

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.

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.

Much derided by the critics, this gentle sitcom is nothing if not resilient. Tonight marks the beginning of its 10th series, a feat which seems all the more remarkable when you consider the fact that there is no longer a family to speak of, the kids having grown up and left home years ago. There are still some decent lines - "putting sealant round the bath does not qualify as a present!" - but it's hard to shake the feeling that, after a decade on air, Zoë Wanamaker (as mother Susan Harper) and Robert Lindsay (as her husband Ben) are largely going through the motions.

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.

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...