Friday Night Dinner

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.

Friday Night Dinner, Channel 4, review

Marc Lee is impressed by a sharp and quirkily authentic new comedy on Channel 4.

Friday Night Dinner review

The laff-o-meter recorded that I found myself smiling quite a bit, but I think I only chuckled out loud once, in recognition at Dad trying to smuggle in his eBay "collectables".

TV Review: Friday Night Dinner 1.1

Overall, this wasn't the funniest or most energetic of starts, but it was a nice introduction to the characters and premise.

Friday Night Dinner - Channel 4, 10pm

Robert Popper - the writer of this new sitcom - is a comedy giant who can walk down the street without fear of being recognised. He's produced Peep Show, written for South Park and co-created and starred in Look Around You - the comedy science show. His TV and film credits are endless, but you might know him as Robin Cooper - pen-name for his ­best-selling The Timewaster Letters.

Surprisingly traditional family sitcom from Look Around You's estimable Robert Popper. Green Wing's Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, Simon Bird from The Inbetweeners and Brass Eye's Mark Heap star as the Goodman family and their odd neighbour respectively. It will draw comparisons with Grandma's House in that it's about a Jewish family, but the trad exterior slowly begins to yield Popper's distinctive comic voice as this first episode warms up. Superb stuff.

Interview: Friday Night Dinner creator Robert Popper

Robert Popper, creator of Channel 4's new sitcom Friday Night Dinner, talks about how he drew on his own family'eccentricities.

Comedy writer Robert Popper on Tangerine gate

Award-winning comedy producer, writer and actor Robert Popper has helped create some of the most popular British shows on TV in recent years.

What a rarity: a sitcom that isn't black-hearted, cruel, vituperative, mean-spirited or blushingly filthy. Friday Night Comedy is rather sweet, which might sound like the kiss of death for a comedy, but luckily it's funny, too. Not gut-bustingly funny, but enough to make you want to return. Writer Robert Popper (he also acts, produces and is a prank phone-caller of considerable renown) has adapted his own early family life to bring us the Goodmans; mum, dad and two grown-up kids, who all gather round the dinner table every Friday night. Mum (splendid Tamsin Greig) is sweetly daffy and obsessed by MasterChef, while dad (Paul Ritter) is a bit bonkers, and has a bizarre obsession with his yellowing collection of ancient New Scientist magazines. It's all a bit Mike Leigh, only funnier.

Friday Night Dinner: Can It Pass The Inbetweeners Test?

I'll say it now: for viewers inevitably migrating to Friday Night Dinner from The Inbetweeners, it's nowhere near as rude, crude, and...well, funny.