Friday Night Dinner

The second series of this sitcom about the lives of the hapless Goodman family goes out with a bang for oddball neighbour Jim (Mark Heap), who pops round in his weasely way and ends up being electrocuted. There's a rather cute mouse in the tale, an unexpected and original sight gag, lots of slapstick and a nicely understated script, all of which make it as enjoyable as ever. A lot of the charm lies in the warmth of the family and their united front - nicely illustrated in tight midshots of the group - against Jim, and that's to the fore tonight: the latter even induces the odd moment of pathos to counteract the idiocy that occasionally borders on irritating. Charming rather than laugh-out-loud, but warmly winning in a way that UK comedy excels at.

Hello bambinos! The most underrated show on TV and also quite probably the funniest. Great performances all round, but (topless) Paul Ritter and Mark Heap steal the show every week.

Have you been watching ... Friday Night Dinner?

The second series is broader and more slapstick than the first, but its gag-rate is still superb. Has it been living up to your expectations?

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Robert Popper's Friday Night Dinner contains moments that are tricky to defend as psychological realism. "He looked like Hitler," said odd neighbour Jim, after meeting the grandmother's monstrous new boyfriend. "It's not Hitler, is it?" But Popper's comedy has an internal consistency that makes it work. Jim is strange enough to say something like that. You feel absolutely confident that none of the other characters would, because they stay true to type. The monstrous boyfriend works too, even though he's a kind of cartoon of belligerent old age, because the forms of his unpleasantness are simultaneously unpredictable and credible. "One rule I have when I'm in a vehicle," he barked when driving the boys out on an errand. "Complete silence! Not a word!" After which, he slowly drove into the wall in front of him. Like a lot of good comedy it's simultaneously over the top and understated.

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.

Dotty grandma arrives for dinner with her terrible new boyfriend, or "male companion" as she prefers. He's a mean-spirited old man who arrives by crashing his car into the Goodmans' front door before berating the household. Again, it's an episode that relies heavily on farce and eye-popping outrage, so it wears thin quite quickly. But Harry Landis, as the boyfriend, is gloriously awful, whether he's engaging in excruciating displays of affection with grandma ("I'm all randy") to claiming he's been abused by the entirely innocent Adam (Simon Bird). And there's a welcome, though all too brief, visit from febrile neighbour Jim (Mark Heap).

Impish family kibitzing this episode gives way to wall-to-wall haranguing, as grandma brings her new boyfriend to dinner. Flashes of Inbetweeners-style brinkmanship in what's acceptable abound, as the Goodmans are forced to appreciate the presence of an octogenarian fuck-buddy in their matriarch's life. Fans of Mark Heap will be disappointed with minimal creepy-neighbour shtick this time round. But Harry Landis's demonic suitor, Mr Morris, more than makes up for this, stealing the show - and possibly the series - as an archetype of doddering evil. If creator Robert Popper is conducting some sort of twisted experiment to find the most grotesque and misshapen form into which the traditional family sitcom can be contorted, then the final five minutes of this show are probably a bit of a breakthrough. At least a nine point five on the shudderometer.

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.