Let the food fights commence. The eccentric Goodman family – and even more eccentric neighbour Jim – are back on our screens for the sixth series of Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner on Friday, March 27. Here’s all you need to know.
1. What’s it about?
Now in its sixth series, Friday Night Dinner sees the secular Jewish Goodman family – mum Jackie, dad Martin and grown up (in the loosest sense of the word) sons Adam and Jonny – meeting up for Shabbat dinner, often with hilarious, toe-curlingly embarassing and sometimes disastrous consequences.
Regular visitors include eccentric neighbour Jim, who has a crush on Jackie and seems to be scared of his own dog, Jackie’s best friend Aunty Val and Martin’s mum, Horrible Grandma.
2. Who’s in it?
Tamsin Greig (currently starring in ITV’s Belgravia) plays mum Jackie, Paul Ritter (also currently starring in ITV’s Belgravia) is dad Martin, Simon Bird (Will in The Inbetweeners) is eldest son Adam and Tom Rosenthal (Plebs) is Jonny. Mark Heap (Upstart Crow) plays Jim, Tracy-Ann Oberman (EastEnders) plays Aunty Val and Rosalind Knight (most recently seen in The Crown) plays Horrible Grandma. Sadly, Frances Cuka, who played Jackie’s mum Nelly, passed away earlier this year.
3. What can we expect from this series?
Series five is going to be a hard act to follow, with hilarious highlights including Jackie and Martin getting a hot tub, much to Adam and Jonny’s horror, Aunty Val moving in after a row with her husband and upsetting Martin by throwing away his 20-year-old tin of “lucky” beef – and Martin becoming obsessed with his old ventriloquist dummy, Lord Luck.
In this series Martin starts living in a rundown caravan, Aunty Val takes up sexting and both sons get girlfriends – or ‘females’ as Martin calls them. There will also undoubtedly be plenty of ill-timed, slightly weird visits by Jim, Adam and Jonny will continue to prank each other (adding salt to each other’s drinks is a favourite trick) and Martin will still have an aversion to wearing a shirt.
4. Who’s it written by?
Friday Night Dinner is written and produced by Robert Popper, who has said in interview that the inspiration for the series came from his own family’s weekly gatherings. Popper’s other comedy credits include co-creating and starring in BBC Two’s Look Around You with Peter Serafinowicz, producing Peep Show and writing for South Park. He was also script editor of some of the biggest comedy shows of the last decade, including The Inbetweeners, The IT Crowd and Him and Her and he has co-written several episodes of Stath Lets Flats with Jamie Demetriou.
5. When is it on?
It starts on Channel 4 on Friday, March 27, at 10pm. The previous series are available on All 4.
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