Robert Popper isn't a name many people will recognize, but he's been involved with some of the better British comedies in recent years; most notably his co-writing of '70s school education film spoof Look Around You with Peter Serafinowicz, which even led to him working on a few episodes of South Park. Popper returns with his first solo project, Friday Night Dinner, which is another example of a recent trend to have sitcoms take place in a restrictive location. It even shares some conceptual DNA with Simon Amstell's Grandma's House, as they both involve young people mixing with their middle-aged Jewish relatives. Friday Night Dinner concerns the Friday night ritual of twentysomething brothers Adam (Simon Bird) and Jonny (Tom Rosenthal) visiting their Mum (Tamsin Greig) and Dad (Paul Ritter) for Shabbat. Needless to say, their parents are an eccentric couple: Mum's obsessed with recording the final of Master Chef while she cooks; Dad parades around topless, eats out of the bin, and is determined to secretly hide some vintage New Scientist magazines his wife wants rid of; and they have a weird next-door neighbour called Jim (Mark Heap) who keeps finding excuses (usually a toilet visit) to intrude on their evening and stave off his loneliness. Comedies that impose restrictions on their location are in many ways the thoroughbred example of a sitcom, as the situation is clear and only slightly flexible. Fawlty Towers, Porridge, The Royle Family, The Office all are classic British examples of shows that stuck to one environment and therefore had to focus on character, dialogue and story to keep audiences engaged with the material. In many ways there's something comforting about boundaries, and Friday Night Dinner will hopefully blossom into a regular treat as we drop in on the Goodman's latest attempt to sit down and have a family meal together. Tamsin Greig (fresh from Episodes) plays a far more likeable character here, and despite a rather unflattering wig she's surprisingly believable as a slightly dotty Jewish mother. Paul Ritter gets the most opportunity for humour as the oddball father, and already appears to have developed an early catchphrase in his tortured bellowing of "shit on it!" whenever things go wrong. The two sons are easily the least entertaining of the clan; partly because Bird's so far just recycling his Will MacKenzie persona from The Inbetweeners, and also because there wasn't much opportunity for him and Rosenthal to steer the story along. They were mostly just the audience proxy to meet their parents and weird neighbour Jim, who marks another of Mark Heap's creepy eccentrics. It was also a pleasant surprise to see Matthew Holness guest-star as an Ebay buyer arrived to collect a sofabed Dad's sold, speaking as a fan of Holness' cult '80s horror spoof Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Here he's involved in the episode's funniest moment, after receiving bad news during a phonecall. "My dad's just died" he tells the shocked Goodman's. "How awful", comforts Dad, "what sort of dog was it?" Overall, this wasn't the funniest or most energetic of starts, but it was a nice introduction to the characters and premise (despite technically being episode 2, after a last-minute change in the running order). The silly beauty of Popper's comedy imagination started to take flight halfway through, and there was enough here to draw you back for more. The blue, pulsing opening titles are a reminder that Friday Night Dinner may look and sound like a very traditional sitcom, but there's a subversive streak running through it. I'll be back for the second course.
WRITER: Robert Popper DIRECTOR: Steve Bendelack CAST: Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal, Mark Heap & Matthew Holness TRANSMISSION: 25 February 2011, Channel 4, 10PM