Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Main course of mischief
FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER
IT’S a special thing – the ability of grown adults to instantly degenerate into annoying argumentative teenagers the moment we enter our parents’ house.
It’s probably why Christmas is often such a bundle of laughs. And few shows capture this uniquely irritating – and very funny – phenomenon as well as Friday Night Dinner.
Brothers Adam and Jonny (Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal) will probably still be hurling abusive nicknames and playing painful-looking pranks on each other in their 80s.
Jonny’s in his element tonight, after mum Jackie (Tamsin Greig) manages to persuade Adam to bring his violin round to play for grandma. It was clearly something he was forced to do as a child, and thought he wouldn’t still be doing in his 30s.
Wrong, obviously. Even when grandma has a fall and can’t make it, Jonny finds a way to make sure his brother will still have to go through the humiliating experience, and even manages to up the ante.
He invites round Auntie Val (Tracy Ann Oberman) and her annoying son Spencer, who thinks he’s a doctor.
It’s a toss-up for who is the most annoying family member, as dad Martin (Paul Ritter) spends the evening looking at samples of the family’s hair under a microscope.
However, none of the Goodmans could ever out-weird their neighbour Jim (Mark Heap), whose attempt at playing Adam’s violin is a thing of total joy.