My Family

Robert Lindsay seems to loathe playing Ben Harper

Robert Lindsay muses: "It's strange how the things that I've enjoyed doing least in my career seem to have been the most successful, while the stuff I've really liked doing hasn't done so well."

BBC cuts My Family budget; orders two new series

BBC1 has cut the budget for My Family by 15%, and commissioned a 10th and 11th series of the sitcom.

BBC: My Family has a place in schedules for some time to come

BBC controller of comedy commissioning Lucy Lumsden says My Family has a place on BBC schedules for some time to come, even if a suitable successor was found.

BBC comedy: Nothing funny about playing safe

With BBC comedies having been outstripped by C4 at the Baftas, are the corporation's commissioners stifling the laughter by being too risk-averse?

To some, the Harpers should have become a broken family not long after this sitcom began nine years ago. But here we are with the 100th episode, and more than five million fans watching every week.

Big Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker Interview

As the BBC sitcom reaches its 100th episode, Robert Lindsay and Zoë Wanamaker explain why playing sweet can be hard work. After various run-ins the stars became concerned about the consistency of the writing. There were even times when they refused to perform because they were so unhappy. This was not just a one-off either, Lindsay adds. "There is some real dross in there and we are aware of it," he says. "We had many fights. Out of 100 episodes maybe we've done ten that you can say are really good shows."

Zoe Wanamaker and Robert Lindsay star in this fun family sitcom, now in its ninth series. The most popular comedy of recent years, this series about the doings of a middle-class family in Chiswick has been trundling along for the best part of a decade.

Keiron Self Interview

An interview with Keiron Self, the actor who plays Roger Bailey in My Family.

You know just where you are with this sitcom. The gags are set up and knocked down with metronomic precision; the characterisations are as subtle as a sledgehapper; the laughter comes right on cue; and there's nothing too risque - unless you find the odd sexual innuendo offensive. In fact, it's so middle-of-the-road that you can almost see the white line painted down it.

The only surprise is that there's no sign of Zoe Wanamaker in this first episode of the new series (apparently Susan is staying with her mother). Responsibility for generating the laughs, therefore, lies mainly in Robert Lindsay as Ben Harper who gets into an argument at a pub quiz.

One of Britain's longest-running sitcom - 92 episodes and counting, just 15,235 behind Last of the Summer Wine - returns for a ninth run. It's Ben and Susan's anniversary (again), so Ben takes himself off down the local for a pub quiz with the kids. Where, perhaps, one of the questions will be, 'Which BBC1 comedy should consider quitting while it's ahead?'