British Comedy Guide
Friday Night Dinner. Image shows from L to R: Jackie (Tamsin Greig), Adam (Simon Bird), Martin (Paul Ritter), Jonny (Tom Rosenthal)
Friday Night Dinner

Friday Night Dinner

  • TV sitcom
  • Channel 4
  • 2011 - 2020
  • 37 episodes (6 series)

Channel 4 sitcom observing as twenty-something brothers Adam and Jonny go round to their parents' house for Friday night dinner. Stars Paul Ritter, Tamsin Greig, Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal, Mark Heap and Tracy-Ann Oberman

  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 722

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Series 3, Episode 1 - The Girlfriend

It's finally happened: Adam is bringing a girl home for dinner.

Preview clips

Further details

Friday Night Dinner. Image shows from L to R: Adam (Simon Bird), Emma (Sophia Di Martino). Copyright: Popper Pictures / Big Talk Productions

It's finally happened: Adam is bringing a girl (or as dad would say, 'female') home for dinner. Mum is so excited, and immediately takes a shine to 20-something Emma, who is definitely marriage material.

The evening doesn't begin well, though, as Emma witnesses dad washing his foot in the toilet bowl, after he's trod in some dog muck.

Adam and Emma get on brilliantly, but just as things start going smoothly, the Goodmans have an unexpected guest: Katie is an adorable-looking, 8 year-old girl, for whom Adam used to babysit. Katie's mum has had to go to hospital, so now the family have to look after little Katie for the evening.

To Jonny's delight, Katie has a massive crush on Adam, whilst taking an instant dislike to his girlfriend, Emma. But things get worse when Adam suddenly gets sent sexy photos, on his phone, from Emma's sister. Adam doesn't know what to do, but Emma must never find out.

Unfortunately, little Katie finds the photos on his phone, and threatens Adam she'll tell his girlfriend if Adam doesn't spend the whole evening playing with her, doing everything she wants. Adam is distraught: he's being blackmailed by an 8 year-old girl.

When Emma sees Adam, covered in make-up, crawling around with little Katie on his back, while barking like a dog, she starts to get suspicious that something's up. But when Katie makes Adam hold her hand, saying, "If you let go, I'll tell Emma all about the photos", what will Adam do? Absolutely agony for Adam. Absolute pleasure for Jonny.

Broadcast details

Date
Friday 20th June 2014
Time
10pm
Channel
Channel 4
Length
30 minutes

Cast & crew

Cast
Paul Ritter Martin
Tamsin Greig Jackie
Simon Bird Adam
Tom Rosenthal Jonny
Mark Heap Jim
Guest cast
Sophia Di Martino Emma
Honor Kneafsey Katie
Writing team
Robert Popper Writer
Production team
Martin Dennis Director
Robert Popper Producer
Kenton Allen Executive Producer
Caroline Leddy Executive Producer
Matthew Justice Executive Producer
Paul Machliss Editor
Kyz Kistell Production Designer

Videos

Series 3 Trailer

In Series 3, Dad paints a picture of mum that looks like Margaret Thatcher, mum tries to practice her counselling on the boys, Adam brings a 'female' home for dinner, Jonny gets a revolting tattoo, Jim swallows his dog's sleeping pills, and grandma reveals she is getting married to the horrible Mr Morris.

Featuring: Paul Ritter (Martin), Tamsin Greig (Jackie), Simon Bird (Adam), Tom Rosenthal (Jonny) & Mark Heap (Jim).

Murder In The Family

Introducing your girlfriend to your parents is always a worrying time.

Featuring: Simon Bird (Adam), Tom Rosenthal (Jonny), Paul Ritter (Martin), Tamsin Greig (Jackie) & Sophia Di Martino (Emma).

Tomato Blood

Preparations for meeting Adam's new girlfriend aren't going so well.

Featuring: Tom Rosenthal (Jonny), Paul Ritter (Martin) & Tamsin Greig (Jackie).

Press

It was mainly business as usual on Friday Night Dinner with more calamity for the family who just can't seem to have a quite meal together. This week's comedy of errors saw Paul Ritter's fantastic patriarch invite round his old uni friend to dinner however it later became clear that he'd got mixed up the two Tonys that he went to university with. Instead of inviting round the guy who he had a lot in common with he was lumbered with Jason Watkins' unfunny bore whom he tried to get rid of by telling a rather whopping lie. Just like prior episodes of the sitcom, this episode of Friday Night Dinner played out like a mini-farce which ended with a big gag that I for one didn't find in the least bit amusing. In my opinion Friday Night Dinner is at its best when we just see the family engage in witty interplay as I feel the core cast have developed some fine chemistry over the past four series. However it's when events get too far-fetched that Friday Night Dinner loses its way and after watching the series four opener it feels that Robert Popper's comedy has run out of ideas. The problem with Friday Night Dinner is that the entire premise shackles the characters to the same setting every episode meaning that Popper has to find increasingly outlandish things to happen to the family which just don't ring true.

Matt, The Custard TV, 24th July 2016

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