Channel 4 orders sixth Friday Night Dinner
- Friday Night Dinner will return for a sixth series
- Channel 4 has ordered six new episodes, for broadcast in 2020
- Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, Tom Rosenthal, Simon Bird and Mark Heap all return
Channel 4 has commissioned a sixth series of Friday Night Dinner.
Written and produced by Robert Popper, the sitcom follows a middle class Jewish family living in north London, consisting of mum and dad Jackie and Martin, and adult sons Jonny and Adam, as they return to their parents' home each Friday evening for a traditional Jewish family meal.
Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, Tom Rosenthal and Simon Bird will return to play the respective roles, with Mark Heap also reprising his role of bemused neighbour Jim.
The critically acclaimed, multi-award winning comedy is produced by Big Talk and has run for 31 episodes since its 2011 debut. Series 5 of the show was voted by the public as Best Returning TV Sitcom in the 2018 Comedy.co.uk Awards.
Robert Popper jokes: "I'm really looking forward to exploring new avenues with Series 6. Inspector de Vries (Paul Ritter) will still be working on the Rynsburger case, but this time he's joined by new partner-in-crime, Mees Janssen (Tom Rosenthal), fresh out of Rotterdam Police Academy. Eva de Bruin (Tamsin Greig) is now trying to regain control of her pharmaceutical company, after an aggressive takeover-bid by the always-cunning Sem Teuling (Simon Bird). But can 'Vos' (Mark Heap) and his faithful dog, 'de Welson' save the day?"
Kenton Allen, Big Talk CEO, says: "Friday Night Dinner has grown into a monster hit for Channel 4 and it's incredibly exciting to see the audience growing every season as new viewers fall in love with the antics of the Goodman household. It's also incredible that Robert has single-handedly written and produced all 31 episodes so far, which must make him one of the most prolific comedy writer/producers working today. We're incredibly grateful to C4 for letting him have another go. Fingers crossed!"
Fiona McDermott, Head of Comedy at Channel 4, said: "We're delighted that audiences love Friday Night Dinner as much as we do at Channel 4, and are thrilled that it will be returning. It's always brilliant when audiences for a show grow over time and we're thrilled that more and more people are falling in love with the Goodmans. We are so pleased to be making a new series with Robert and Big Talk."
Friday Night Dinner is now one of Channel 4's longest running sitcoms. [y]21018[/y]'s Series 5 is the second highest-rated series so far, beaten only by the first. Series 5 also attracted the biggest audience share to date, averaging a viewership of 1.9 million (11.4%) per episode - up 19% on its Friday 10pm slot's average, and up 27% on Series 4.
Friday Night Dinner Series 6 will consist of six new half-hour episodes, to be filmed later this year for broadcast on Channel 4 in 2020.