Robert Popper

Final episode in Robert Popper's superb sitcom. Mum invites Tanya Green round so she can pair her off with Adam. Johnny couldn't be happier to witness his death by a thousand humiliations. Meanwhile Jim is poised by his dog's backside, waiting for him poo out his front door key. He chats to Adam while he waits: "I knew this woman once. We met in a cave." For this line and many others FND takes its place alongside Peep Show and The IT Crowd as a sitcom C4 would do well to hang on to.

Tonight's Friday Night Dinner, chez the Goodmans, is cooked by hopeless dad (Paul Ritter) as mum (Tamsin Greig) is immobile after spraining an ankle. Of course, it's a disaster as the meat is rigid with overcooking and makes terrible noises when dad tries to carve. "Should meat squeak?" the family wonders aloud. Poor Adam - this is supposed to be his birthday treat, along with a coffee table book on "heroes of the SS", a thoughtful gift for a young Jewish boy from his dad. It's another gloriously silly episode of Robert Popper's utterly endearing sitcom, which strays into Curb Your Enthusiasm comedy of embarrassment territory when dad bumps into an old girlfriend, the brassy Sheila Bloom (Frances Barber). Or Bitchface, as she is ungallantly known. Sheila is obsessed with her Mercedes to the delight of her tormentors, who find new and inventive ways of sniggering at her - not behind her back, but right in front of her face. It's packed with minor pleasures, including mad neighbour Jim and his supernaturally calm dog, and a piece of farce involving grandma in unsuitable clothing.

Robert Popper's soft-centred but sharply observed sitcom about a suburban Jewish family continues. Tonight it's hapless elder son Adam's (Simon Bird) birthday. Barmy Martin (Paul Ritter), his father, makes a disastrous attempt at a celebration roast. "Is it clay?" asks Grandma. The family decamp to the local Chinese where they run into blousy, Mercedes-obsessed neighbour Shelia Bloom (a sparkling Frances Barber). Popper's deft plotting and a top-notch cast make this a small-scale gem.

Interview: Mark Heap ('Friday Night Dinner')

If you haven't got around to watching Channel 4's Friday Night Dinner yet, then you have been missing out. The Robert Popper-penned sitcom is deliciously funny and, thanks to the legendary Mark Heap, who plays oddball neighbour Jim, it has a lovely dark and surreal edge. We caught up with Heap, whose credits include Brass Eye, Green Wing and Spaced, to chat about the show.

Grandma's hair is stuck in the car door and dad still isn't wearing a top (he's baking) as Robert Popper's sublime fam-com continues. Tonight's spiral of doom is triggered by the curtains and only exacerbated by a casserole mishap. Meanwhile, the boys continue to spike each other's water glasses: "Don't waste gin. It's your mother's for when she's depressed." The scene with the neighbour's dog and an oblivious grandma is an excruciating comedy classic - but it's not the set-pieces this show relies on, it's the beautifully crafted script.

The boys arrive home to find Dad still naked from the belt upwards. But that's the least of their worries when they spy him behaving very oddly through the window. Paul Ritter, as dad Goodman, continues to be a comic revelation. How is this his first leading role in a sitcom? Writer Robert Popper's now-established comic rhythm is pacy and fresh in a way you wouldn't expect of a family sitcom. And this episode concludes with a last line that wraps it up so perfectly, you'll want to wind back and watch it again.

Friday Night Dinner Episode 2 Review: Getting Better?

Many of us at OTB (and you out there on the interweb) were underwhelmed by last week's debut of Friday Night Dinner, but will the second episode be where Robert Popper's new comedy starts to shine? Well... not quite.

Friday Night Dinner is turning into a tiny treasure. It's not an eventful sitcom but my, it's a funny one, with streams of uncomplicated laughs. There's a scene in a car with a VERY LOUD stereo that left me helpless; I watched it three times before I had to be dragged away and sedated. Writer Robert Popper has nailed the in-jokes, the petty embarrassments and routine bits of silliness that make family life fun, and not in a broad, pantomime-hapless My Family kind of way. Friday Night Dinner is full of surprises and the cast work together seamlessly; Tamsin Greig as a good-hearted, slightly ditzy mum, Paul Ritter as a well-meaning, barmy dad and Simon Bird (yes, Will from The Inbetweeners) and Tom Rosenthal as their grown-up but daft sons. It's endearing, too; everyone loves each other, which is why they are so comfortable with embarrassments. Well, most embarrassments. Adam (Bird) isn't too keen on being quizzed in the downstairs loo by his dad about "females" (ie girlfriends). "Do you have to call them females? You're not a policeman."

James Cary reviews Friday Night Dinner

Let us begin with a few caveats. The first is that Sitcom Geek is in awe of Robert Popper, the writer of Friday Night Dinner.