Robert Popper

ShortList: Final five sitcom writers revealed

Last week, having ploughed through 2,136 scripts for our Sitcom Search competition, we whittled it down to 40. This week, our judging panel - which includes Friday Night Dinner creator Robert Popper - has cut it to five (we know we said it would be four, but the quality meant we added one extra).

Robert Popper's Friday Night Dinner contains moments that are tricky to defend as psychological realism. "He looked like Hitler," said odd neighbour Jim, after meeting the grandmother's monstrous new boyfriend. "It's not Hitler, is it?" But Popper's comedy has an internal consistency that makes it work. Jim is strange enough to say something like that. You feel absolutely confident that none of the other characters would, because they stay true to type. The monstrous boyfriend works too, even though he's a kind of cartoon of belligerent old age, because the forms of his unpleasantness are simultaneously unpredictable and credible. "One rule I have when I'm in a vehicle," he barked when driving the boys out on an errand. "Complete silence! Not a word!" After which, he slowly drove into the wall in front of him. Like a lot of good comedy it's simultaneously over the top and understated.

Back for a second series on Channel 4, Friday Night Dinner has retained the comic spark that it had in the first.

As with the previous helping, the series sees the Jewish Goodman family trying to have a dinner on a Friday night, which - as always - ends up with chaos. Brothers Adam and Jonny (Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal) fight and play pranks, while mother Jackie (Tamsin Greig) tries keep everything in order while cooking the "squirrel" - and father Martin (Paul Ritter) continues with his odd behaviour, refusing to wear a shirt.

In the opening episode, Jackie finds Adam's old diary, which he reveals that he disposed of Jonny's favourite cuddly toy when he was 11. As a result, Jonny tries to capture Adam's beloved "Buggy". In the meantime, Martin is constantly sneezing while trying to fix his lawnmower...

This was a great opening episode, mixing some off-the-wall humour (mainly from Jim, who claims playing the bassoon gave him "reverse hiccups") with some good old fashioned slapstick, which helps to bring around a great ending to the episode itself.

Part of the reason why Friday Night Dinner seems to work is the fact that it's based on something real, namely the actual experiences of such 'Friday night dinners' of the writer Robert Popper. It gives the show an extra footing from which you can get more laughs from, and it does seems to work.

Impish family kibitzing this episode gives way to wall-to-wall haranguing, as grandma brings her new boyfriend to dinner. Flashes of Inbetweeners-style brinkmanship in what's acceptable abound, as the Goodmans are forced to appreciate the presence of an octogenarian fuck-buddy in their matriarch's life. Fans of Mark Heap will be disappointed with minimal creepy-neighbour shtick this time round. But Harry Landis's demonic suitor, Mr Morris, more than makes up for this, stealing the show - and possibly the series - as an archetype of doddering evil. If creator Robert Popper is conducting some sort of twisted experiment to find the most grotesque and misshapen form into which the traditional family sitcom can be contorted, then the final five minutes of this show are probably a bit of a breakthrough. At least a nine point five on the shudderometer.

Channel 4 has made the odd decision to move Friday Night Dinner from Friday nights (um, when all Jewish people have dinner?) to Sunday evenings. Robert Popper's family sitcom is back for another six episodes, which is incredible given how it barely managed to justify six last year. The best sitcoms impose restrictions on the characters, so I'm not against FND's narrow concept in principle (that two brothers return to their eccentric parent's home every Friday for a family meal), but I do have to wonder if the show might have been improved by broadening the idea slightly. There are only so many squabbles, fraternal fights/pranks, and visits from the weird next-door neighbour (Mark Heap) I can take before my brain itches for something more diverse. Similarly to Cuckoo, it's the frothy performances that keep you engaged-particularly Tamsin Greig as bemused mum Jackie - and the premiere at least ended on a brilliant visual involving a beloved stuffed rabbit and a lawn mower. I just wish FND had a concept that suited the dynamism of Popper's imagination, because there's something about it that has me screaming for the self-imposed boundaries to be lifted.

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.

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

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.

Video: Bird, Popper and Rosenthal talk Chickens

Simon Bird, Robert Popper and Tom Rosenthal, makers of Channel 4's Friday Night Dinner talk to The Guardian's John Plunkett about the new series, whether this is a golden age for comedy and their new show for Sky, Chickens.

Robert Popper unsure of US remake

Friday Night Dinner creator Robert Popper has claimed that a US version of the comedy is still in the works.