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: 239

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Series 3, Episode 4 - The Anniversary

It's Martin and Jackie's 26th anniversary, and Jonny's got a secret he's desperate to keep. And then Jim arrives, heavily sedated...

Preview clips

Further details

Friday Night Dinner. Image shows from L to R: Jackie (Tamsin Greig), Martin (Paul Ritter). Copyright: Popper Pictures / Big Talk Productions

It's mum and dad's anniversary, and the boys come home to hear them giggling upstairs in their bedroom. To their dismay, dad emerges in just a pair of green underpants, and promptly tells them, "Your mother and I were just making love". Revolted, the boys go and sit in the car for twenty minutes until dad comes out to announce: "All done".

As a surprise anniversary present, dad has painted a portrait of mum. It's absolutely terrible and bears no likeness to her at all. In fact it looks more like Margaret Thatcher. Mum is horrified. Dad promptly hangs it up in the downstairs landing for all to see. To make matters worse, Jonny has just had a tattoo done of a skull on his arm, with the words "Live fast die young" in Latin. Mum's anniversary evening is getting worse and worse.

But when Jim turns up heavily sedated, having accidentally swallowed his dog's sleeping pills, and falls asleep on the stairs, the evening goes from worse to terrible. Soon, Jim starts sleep-walking, causing chaos all around the house, before locking the family in dad's study. How will they escape? And can grandma save them?

Broadcast details

Date
Friday 11th July 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
Frances Cuka Nellie (Grandma)
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

We Were Just Making Love

Finding out about the sexual habits of your parents is always a treat!

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

He's Got a Tattoo

Adam does an extremely good job of keeping a secret...

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

Press

For Paul Ritter: Friday Night Dinner - The Anniversary

It's a great episode. As Martin is explaining he and his wife's sexual escapades, he delivers the immortal line "If your mother and I had never met all those years ago, you two would never have been produced... Those two acts of penetration" - to the utterly justified disgust of the boys.

Capers Magazine, 4th May 2021

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