The Goodman’s have an unwelcome visitor…

Gran has come for dinner with a wholly inappropriate date for the evening.

It’s good to see such a strong show continuing the good work from series one and Friday Night Dinner is certainly that. Last week’s comic stylings were clearly a prelude to the ludicrously hilarious comedy served up in episode two which had me howling with laughter! Surely never has the sight of two bare chested mature gentlemen wrestling comedically with each other been quite so amusing and for that alone the episode is worth watching.

The episode began with the Goodman family slightly on edge due to their impending visit of Gran with her new ‘male companion’ Mr Morris, a man in his 80s. Things don’t get off to a good start for the hapless octogenarian as he ploughs his already battered car into the Goodman’s house and then blames them for it occurring. After an awkward introduction Mr Morris decides that he wants champagne and during the meal insists on having the family guess various aspects of his life such as how many heart attacks he has had which puts everyone slightly ill at ease.

Next door neighbour Jim (Mark Heap) visits for the usual unknown reasons and is worried that Mr Morris may be Hitler due to his moustache and a visit to the garage for a replacement indicator light leads to further embarrassment culminating in a massive misunderstanding with Adam after Mr Morris decides to have a little lie down…

All I can say about this episode is that it was tremendously funny; the more it continued the more ridiculous it grew and the funnier it became. Paul Ritter is at his understated best as the hopelessly baffled dad who just wants to be in his shed and get away from it all. Tamsin Greig flaps around desperately trying to get things under control but often circumstance leads things to veer out of control like any good sitcom. But Friday Night Dinner isn’t just a good sitcom, it is a great sitcom and often when the plot is a stretched a little too thin, the actors have a knack of keeping things on track leading to greater believability over the most outlandish scenarios. Mr Morris was spectacularly well played by Harry Landis who to his credit became more and more deranged as the night went on, becoming no less demanding and even getting Adam (Simon Bird) to buy condoms for him. Mr Morris had more than one or two surprises up his sleeve for the family and this episode was well worth watching just to see where things were heading.

A brilliant and well realised sitcom with relatable characters and cracking storylines. Definitely worth a watch.