Young Writers Society

The third series of the popular sitcom recently came to a conclusion and although I thoroughly enjoyed sitting down on a dull Friday night at 10 o’clock to watch one of my favourite programmes, compared to the first two series I didn’t find myself laughing as much as I thought I should have been.

The first two series gave the writers and producers a lot to live up to, with several funny moments in each episode which gave me the reason to repeatedly watch both series again and again. After seeing the advert for the third series I was anticipating more of the same. Lots of absent minded comments from Martin Goodman, pranks played by the two ‘bambinos’ Jonny (Tom Rosenthal) and Adam Goodman (Simon Bird) and awkward situations caused by lonely neighbour Jim (Mark Heaps) all of which gave the programme something else, comedy that was different to most other sitcoms.

The series began with two episodes which were more alike to series 1 and 2 than the rest in my opinion. The father Martin Goodman was at his very best in the first instalment, and was the foundation of a hilarious theme throughout the second show, trying his utmost best to hide a dead but frozen fox from his wife Jackie Goodman (Tamsin Greig).

However the following four episodes gave less comical value than the previous 15 episodes and included story lines that were also controversial due to the unrealistic factor that they carried. An example, the wedding of Grandma (Frances Cuka), although this could be a real life issue, was carried out in my opinion in a way that didn’t agree with the humorous side to the programme. This is what prevented the show from reaching the high standards that were set by the first two series.

Although, only negative points have been addressed, I still enjoyed watching the show every week and would duly look forward to another series possibly being released in the future. To add, although it may contrast to other people’s opinions, I would much rather see the consistency of humour that the first two series carried compared to the writers trying something different as they have tried in series three. However, I will almost certainly be an excited viewer if there is to be a series four of Friday Night Dinner.