Tamsin Greig

Tamsin Greig & Miranda Hart want to be Miss Marple

After the fuss about Jennifer Garner playing Miss Marple, Tamsin Greig and Miranda Hart say they want to have a go, too.

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.

Meanwhile on BBC One another family based sitcom had just begun, and while this series should be a hit, for some reason it feels a little... drab.

Me and Mrs Jones revolves around divorced mother of three Gemma Jones (Sarah Alexander), who is trying to raise two daughters, while her son has just returned from China to 'find himself'. Gemma not only work and family issues, but also has to deal with her ex-husband Jason (Neil Morrissey), who's now going out with a younger Swedish lady.

In terms of the cast, it looks great. The writers, Oriane Messina and Fay Rusling, worked with Alexander on Smack the Pony and later on one of my favourite shows, Green Wing. And Alexander as well as Morrissey are both established sitcom actors. But I just didn't find this show very funny.

Don't get me wrong, there are some laughs, such as the scene when Morrissey is at a children's football match and celebrates one of his daughters scoring a goal - unaware his face is covered in lipstick. However, most of it felt flat.

It could the fact that I'm familiar with their past work; I was expecting something more surreal and unusual from the writers. Not only was this not surreal enough, it wasn't as grounded in reality as either Friday Night Dinner, which also features a Green Wing actress in the form of Tamsin Greig, or the forthcoming Hebburn.

The show also featured the two daughters vomiting a lot, which was slightly off-putting. Personally, I feel that vomit and 'sick humour' are best applied under the "Elizabeth Mainwaring" rule - it's much funnier when it isn't shown, because the image in your head is much better than the one on screen.

Then again, it could just be that this episode had to follow perhaps the most awkward and unfunny episode of Have I Got News for You there's been in years. So in hindsight, Me and Mrs Jones probably deserves a second chance. Another viewing after a more joyful atmosphere may improve the output. At least I hope so.

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.

Tamsin Greig on Friday Night Dinner and going grey

"Maybe this whole obsession with colouring our hair is about our inability to grow up..."

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: Tamsin Greig on play Jumpy, Archers & Episodes

We spoke to the very busy actor as she plays a teacher in new play Jumpy which looks at the relationship between parents and children.

She says the play surprises her on a regular basis as she draws many different meanings from it.

She also has good news for fans of her other major roles in The Archers and Episodes.

Tamsin is appearing in Jumpy at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End until the 3rd November.

Tamsin Greig revisits mid-life meltdown in play Jumpy

As she returns to the West End stage, actress Tamsin Greig explains why she relished the chance to revisit the role of a mother having a mid-life crisis in April de Angelis's comedy Jumpy.