Tamsin Greig

I love this series and I love Mum and Dad Goodman (Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter). When the "bambinos" turn up for dinner on this particular Friday night, dad - mildly deaf and obsessed with his aged copies of New Scientist - emerges from the garage clad in a vest, shorts and cut-off wellies. "Why are you dressed like that like a sex attacker?" wonders Adam (Simon Bird). What follows is the usual collision of family in-jokes, misunderstandings and general silliness. Dad has been ordered by mum to burn his beloved magazines, but he's mapped out a ruse designed to pull the wool over her eyes. Meanwhile Aunty Val (Tracy-Ann Oberman) is on her way round to show off her mother-of-the-bride dress. I am delighted to admit that I laughed immoderately all the way through; at the gag about the mobile stuck on speakerphone; at neighbour Jim (super-twitchy Mark Heap) and his supernatural fear of his perfectly timid dog. And at dad's Join The Dots Sex Book. Don't miss.

Another Friday night, and another borderline gruesome family dinner with the Goodmans. The hapless, girl-shy Adam (Simon Bird) faces yet another painful interrogation about "females", or girlfriends, from Dad (the magnificently weird Paul Ritter): "Don't call them females" Adam whines, "they're not corpses." Tonight batty granny visits and upsets Mum (Tamsin Greig), who's already feeling generally unappreciated, by dissing her new curtains. But the most sublimely stupid bit of the episode involves barmy neighbour Jim (Mark Heap) and his dog. This superb beast does the best drunk-acting I have ever seen on television when Jim takes him to the local pub, a ghastly hole called the Black Boy. Dogs shouldn't drink beer. Really, they shouldn't.

A family comedy like no other, Friday Night Dinner is well on its way to becoming the kind of small-scale Channel 4 hit that keeps the cognoscenti coming back year after year. The chemistry between Tamsin Greig, Simon Bird, Paul Ritter and Tom Rosenthal is terrific. Tonight's antics revolve around gin, bin bags and Mrs Goodman's efforts to improve the living room décor; it's astonishing how much comedy can be mined from a pair of pee-coloured curtains.

The latest sitcom from Friends co-creator David Crane stars Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig as a British couple who write a hit BBC TV show. They move to LA to recreate their sitcom for a US audience, but realise the studio execs have no intention of sticking to their original concept. Enter the great Matt LeBlanc (Friends' Joey), playing a caricature of himself, who is horribly miscast as the show's protagonist, much to Mangan and Greig's vexation. Frequent laugh-out-loud moments and a host of endearingly awful characters make this series feel like a very promising start, but Americanised one-liners fail to capitalise on Mangan and Greig's distinctly British delivery.

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."

Tamsin Greig: 'I always think I'll never work again'

A second Olivier awards nomination, a starring role in Episodes and now Friday Night Dinner. Tamsin Greig has never been busier.

Friday Night Dinner: Sitcom Review

Friday Night Dinner is the first significant solo writing piece from the much travelled Robert Popper who is one of the men behind such hits as The Inbetweners, Spaced and Peep Show. The show which consists of the strong cast including Simon Bird and Tamsin Greig is set in the family home with the Jewish family meeting up for Friday Night Dinner which is very similar to a traditional English Sunday roast in terms of the occasion.

The opening episode of a sitcom is always tricky, but Friday Night Dinner is particularly underwhelming so far, like a less interesting version of Simon Amstell's Grandma's House.

Dad gets the wrong end of the stick, mum's weird, the neighbour's weirder, the sons revert to childish behaviour when they return home, the sofa man comes on the wrong day, the sofa gets stuck on the stairs. Perhaps this is part of a new trend for gentleness someone was telling me about. I think it's taking it too far though; it's not funny enough.

But the cast is good: The Inbetweeners' Simon Bird, Green Wing's Mark Heap, and everything's Tamsin Greig. Writer Robert Popper has an impressive CV: Look Around You, Peep Show, South Park. Maybe we'll give it one more go. The sit's established, now let's have the com.

If you liked the cleverly played-out dysfunctionality of Grandma's House, you'll enjoy this new comedy. Newcomer Jack Rosenthal and Inbetweeners star Simon Bird play brothers joining their parents (Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter) at the family home for dinner. The evening descends into enjoyable farce as a man unexpectedly comes to collect the sofa bed, Dad figures out how to avoid chucking away his New Scientists and a weird neighbour (Green Wing's Mark Heap) keeps popping in to use the loo.