My Family

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My Family
Myfamily2009titlecard.jpg
Title card (2009–2011)
Genre Sitcom
Created byFred Barron
Directed byBaz Taylor
Jay Sandrich
Dewi Humphreys
Nic Phillips
Ed Bye
Starring Robert Lindsay
Zoë Wanamaker
Kris Marshall
Daniela Denby-Ashe
Gabriel Thomson
Siobhan Hayes
Keiron Self
Rhodri Meilir
Tayler Marshall
Opening theme"My Family"
ComposerGraham Jarvis
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series11
No. of episodes120 (+ 1 short) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersDonald Taffner Jr.
Geoffrey Perkins (2000–01)
Fred Barron (2000–08)
Sophie Clarke-Jervoise (2002–04)
Ian Brown (2003–04)
James Hendrie (2003–04)
Tom Leopold (2006)
Michael Jacob (2006–09)
Tom Anderson (2007–11)
ProducerJohn Bartlett
Production locations Chiswick, London, England
Running time113x 30 minutes
3x 50 minutes
4x 60 minutes
Production companiesRude Boy Productions
DLT Entertainment
Original release
Network BBC One
Release19 September 2000 (2000-09-19) 
2 September 2011 (2011-09-02)

My Family is a British sitcom created and initially co-written by Fred Barron, which was produced by DLT Entertainment and Rude Boy Productions, and broadcast by BBC One for eleven series between 2000 and 2011, with Christmas specials broadcast from 2002 onwards. My Family was voted 24th in the BBC's "Britain's Best Sitcom" in 2004 and was the most watched sitcom in the United Kingdom in 2008. [1] As of 2011, it is one of only twelve British sitcoms to pass the 100-episode mark. [2] In April 2020, BBC One began airing the series from the first episode in an 8 pm slot on Friday nights; along with this all 11 series were made available on BBC iPlayer. [3]

Contents

The show chronicles the lives of the Harpers, a fictional middle-class British family. Set in Chiswick in west London, it stars Robert Lindsay and Zoë Wanamaker as husband and wife Ben and Susan Harper, with Kris Marshall, Daniela Denby-Ashe and Gabriel Thomson as their children Nick, Janey and Michael.

Background

In 1999, Fred Barron was considering producing a British sitcom the same way sitcoms were produced in the U.S. My Family was to feature a group of writers in a writers' room rather than the standard one or two, something that had been attempted in the UK with shows including Goodnight Sweetheart and On the Buses , but was nevertheless atypical. My Family was consciously designed to have wide appeal, featuring characters with whom viewers could build relationships similar to the earlier BBC sitcom 2point4 Children which was also concentrated around a family unit.

The show chronicles the lives of the Harpers, a fictional middle-class British family who live at 78 Lancaster Road, Chiswick, London. Dentist Ben and his wife Susan, a tour guide who later works for an art gallery, have three children: Nick, Janey, and Michael, who endanger their lives. Susan is a control freak, but Ben prefers to leave the children to it and stay as uninvolved as possible. Janey later goes to University, but drops out and moves back in later, while Nick finally gets his own place.

Mainly focusing on Ben and Susan, the show featured sub-stories ranging from Nick's schemes to Abi and Roger's love life. It is described as a "dysfunctional family"-style sitcom; however, many of the episodes feature the family working together to get one another out of trouble. Nick's bizarre jobs became a major feature of the first four series. After the departure of Nick, more prominence was given to Abi and Roger's love life, Michael's misadventures, Janey's endless list of boyfriends, and Alfie's dream of musical stardom.

The show saw considerable development and change in its characters' lives, seeing Janey turn from teenage rebel to loving mother, Nick turn from slacker to a mature adult, Abi marry Roger, and Michael go through and beyond his school days. Meanwhile, Ben remained the same grumpy dentist, Susan remained the same control freak, and Alfie remained the same slow-witted lodger.

Cast and characters

The main characters in My Family are parents Ben and Susan Harper. They have three children, Nick, Janey and Michael. Nick is a regular character until the 2003 Christmas special, and makes one appearance in 2004's fifth series before making his final My Family appearance in the 2005 Comic Relief short as actor Kris Marshall wanted to do other projects and avoid being type-cast. [4] Janey is a regular until the 2002 Christmas special and does not appear in series four (2003), while the character is at university. Janey returns as a main character in series five.

Abi Harper first appears in series three as the daughter of Ben's cousin Richard. [5] Series three also sees the first appearance of Roger Bailey, Jnr. Roger, who becomes a main character in the fourth series, is a dentist and the son of Ben's former mentor. In the 2005 Christmas special Alfie Butts, a friend of Nick's, moves into the Harper household. [4]

My Family features several recurring characters. Series one features Daisy Donovan as Ben's dental assistant, Brigitte. In the second series "Stupid" Brian appears as Janey's boyfriend. [4] Series four features Michael's girlfriend Fiona. That series also sees the introduction of Michael's friend Hubert and Susan's mother Grace Riggs, who both appear in subsequent series until series seven. [4] A minor recurring character from the 2006 Christmas special to series seven is Denis, the local Vicar. In addition, Mr. Alexander Casey, the Harpers' neighbour, appears in three episodes, "Driving Miss Crazy" (2001), "Neighbour Wars" (2008), and "Mary Christmas" (2010)

Overview

CharacterPlayed by Series Episode count
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Ben Harper Robert Lindsay
117
Susan Harper Zoë Wanamaker
115
Nick Harper Kris Marshall
45
Janey Harper Daniela Denby-Ashe
94
Michael Harper Gabriel Thomson
114
Abi Harper Siobhan Hayes
57
Roger Bailey Keiron Self
59
Alfie Butts Rhodri Meilir
31
Kenzo Harper Tayler Marshall
23

Main characters

Other characters

Guest cast

My Family has used several actors from various past hit sitcoms, most notably David Haig from The Thin Blue Line , Belinda Lang of 2point4 Children , Diana Weston (Robert Lindsay's former long-term partner) from The Upper Hand who portrayed a trans woman named Charlie, Pauline Quirke of Birds of a Feather played a bank robber (whilst her husband in Birds of a Feather was a bank robber), and Sam Kelly from On the Up .

Episodes

Series
SeriesEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
1 819 September 2000 (2000-09-19)7 November 2000 (2000-11-07)
2 1331 August 2001 (2001-08-31)30 November 2001 (2001-11-30)
3 136 September 2002 (2002-09-06)12 December 2002 (2002-12-12)
Special25 December 2002 (2002-12-25)
4 1321 March 2003 (2003-03-21)13 June 2003 (2003-06-13)
Special25 December 2003 (2003-12-25)
5 1412 March 2004 (2004-03-12)18 June 2004 (2004-06-18)
Specials24 December 2004 (2004-12-24)25 December 2005 (2005-12-25)
6 710 March 2006 (2006-03-10)28 April 2006 (2006-04-28)
Special25 December 2006 (2006-12-25)
7 96 April 2007 (2007-04-06)8 June 2007 (2007-06-08)
Special26 December 2007 (2007-12-26)
8 711 April 2008 (2008-04-11)23 May 2008 (2008-05-23)
Special24 December 2008 (2008-12-24)
9 92 April 2009 (2009-04-02)14 May 2009 (2009-05-14)
Special24 December 2009 (2009-12-24)
10 99 July 2010 (2010-07-09)27 August 2010 (2010-08-27)
Special24 December 2010 (2010-12-24)
11 91 July 2011 (2011-07-01)2 September 2011 (2011-09-02)

The first episode aired on 19 September 2000, with the final episode on 2 September 2011. 120 episodes, including ten specials, were broadcast as well as one Comic Relief short.

The BBC and UKTV refuse to re-broadcast the series four episode "Blind Justice", due to the receipt of 4 complaints (from a viewing public of 12m). Although no reason was given, it is likely that was considered offensive to blind people. This episode is banned from British TV, but it is still on BBC iPlayer, the series four UK DVD release and has been screened on BBC America.

The episodes are recorded in front of a live audience in Pinewood Studios, Iver, Buckinghamshire, except where the set used is too large, this is then filmed, and played out to an invited audience 'as-live'. Also, the show, unlike most British sitcoms but in common with most American television comedies, has no location footage. Scenes taking place outdoors were actually sets.

The series was scripted by a team of writers, following the American model. Historically, British sitcoms were more generally written by one or two writers. By employing a wider number of writers to brainstorm jokes for each episode, DLT Entertainment UK Ltd, the production company, was able to maintain a consistent and relatively long-lived product without having to wait for a single writer to produce more material.

Opening sequence

At the start of the first two series, it slides across four boxes with each character's face in them. The first box stands alone with Ben and Susan in it. The other three are lapped over each other with a photo of Michael, Janey and Nick from left to right in them. While it slides across at the start, each character's face turns with Janey and Nick smiling and the others being fairly plain faced. Once the boxes are placed, the boxes with youngsters in them drop to the bottom of the screen and are replaced with the show's logo.

At the start of the third series, four rectangle blocks fall onto a completely white screen to create Ben's face. Those blocks are then replaced with blocks that create Susan's face; each block then shows different parts of the other characters to finally reveal Nick's face. It continues to do this for Janey, Michael and (starting from the fourth episode entitled "Of Mice and Ben") the new character to the show Abi. Abi's (for the first three episodes, Michael's) face then falls into the bottom right corner while the previous faces spread across to other places of the white screen. It reveals that Nick, Janey and Michael are next to Abi and Ben and Susan are with each other at the top left of the screen. The logo fades on the top right of the screen.

The fourth series is similar to the third series opening sequence. Only difference is that the photo of each character is changed, each block does not show different parts of each character when it transitions; instead it transitions in various styles, for example in an opening in a window blind style. Series five titles still remain similar; the photos are changed again and there are eleven rectangles instead of four. Nick is almost completely absent from the opening titles in series five except in episode six of series five titled "My Will Be Done"; he was missing in some episodes from series four and a few from series three.

The series six opening titles have cut-outs of each character, as they fade into the white screen and zoom in and out and eventually stop moving. The line-up from left to right is Abi, Michael, Susan, Ben, Janey and Roger. The titles remain the same for series seven and eight; the one difference is that Janey's clothes are changed. In series nine, the line-up changes due to Abi's departure at the end of the previous series. Her place is taken by Alfie, who has been a regular since series six but never appeared in the titles until the ninth series. Starting in the 2009 Christmas Special, Alfie has been replaced by Kenzo.

Writers

The first writer for the series was its creator, Fred Barron with British writer, Penny Croft. Barron wrote eight episodes up until the fourth series. Other major writers include James Hendrie and Ian Brown who wrote numerous episodes, including the first episode together up until the 2004 Christmas Special. Steven and Jim Armogida are the only writers to remain on the show throughout its run. Writers such as Sophie Hetherington, Georgia Pritchett, James Cary and Tess Morris have all written at least one episode for the sitcom at one point. None of these writers have written more than five episodes. Andrea Solomons has written many episodes for My Family, she wrote from the second series to the sixth series. Meanwhile, Darin Henry has written one episode for the fifth series before returning for the eighth series onwards.

Paul Minett and Brian Leveson were the sitcom's last main writers. Credited for most of the specials, at least three episodes from every series since 2005. Bert-Tyler Moore and George Jeffrie both have written a few episodes for the sitcom in its sixth and seventh series and returned for series ten. Tom Leopold wrote two episodes for the sixth series only. Tom Anderson, the series' last executive producer and showrunner, wrote his first episode for series seven and wrote until series ten, but remained showrunner for series eleven. Ed Dyson and David Cantor have written episodes for the seventh, eighth, ninth and eleventh series.

WriterYear(s)Episodes
James Hendrie
Ian Brown
2000–200427 (inc. 2 co-written)
Fred Barron2000–20038 (inc. 4 co-written)
Shawn Schepps20001 (inc. 1 co-written)
Penny Croft20001 (inc. 1 co-written)
Andrea Solomons2001–200612 (inc. 1 co-written)
Sophie Hetherington2002–20043 (inc. 2 co-written)
Georgia Pritchett20031
James Cary 20041
Darin Henry 2004; 2008–20118 (inc. 2 co-written)
George Jeffrie
Bert-Tyler Moore
2006–2007; 2010–20114 (inc. 1 co-written)
Tess Morris20061 (inc. 1 co-written)
Tom Leopold 20062
Steve Armogida
Jim Armogida
2000–201024 (inc. 1 co-written)
Paul Minett
Brian Leveson
2005–201013 (inc. 2 co-written)
Tom Anderson2007–20118 (inc. 2 co-written)
Ed Dyson2007–2009; 20115
David Cantor2007–2009; 20115 (inc. 1 co-written)
Amy Shindler2009–20102
Andrew Kreisberg 2009–20102
Robin Taylor2009; 20112
Dan Staley 20101

Show runners

Reception

Critical reception

Initially, the show received a poor critical response, and many dismissed its humour as mundane and dated. In spite of this, the programme received above average audience ratings, and further series were commissioned, with critical approval gradually improving as the series progressed. [9] Bruce Dessau, writing on the 100th episode, noted that it was a comedy that "the critics hate, but the public love", on the basis of ratings. [10]

Zoë Wanamaker said in 2007 that she was no longer happy with the quality of the writing, claiming she and co-star Robert Lindsay even refused to film one episode because it was so poor. [11] In May 2009, the two stars revealed they were still unhappy with the writing quality, with Lindsay stating "There's some real dross (in the scripts) and we're aware of it". He later admitted that the eleventh series might be the last stating "As far as Zoë (Wanamaker) and I are concerned, we will do a tenth series of 16 episodes, which the BBC will probably split into a tenth and eleventh, then that will be it." [12]

In 2004, the show came 24th in Britain's Best Sitcom .

Ratings

SeriesTimeslot#
Ep
First airedLast airedAvg.
viewers
(millions)
DateViewers
(millions)
[13]
DateViewers
(millions)
[13]
1 Tuesday 8:30 pm (1–4)
Tuesday 8:00 pm (5–6)
Monday 8:30 pm (7–8)
819 September 20008.847 November 20007.627.09
2 Friday 8:30 pm1331 August 20018.9430 November 200111.1510.45
3 Friday 8:30 pm (1–4)
Thursday 8:00 pm (5–13)
136 September 20028.1012 December 20027.247.76
4 Friday 8:30 pm1321 March 20038.7713 June 20036.618.32
5 Friday 8:30 pm (1–12)
Friday 9:00 pm (13)
1312 March 20049.1718 June 20045.626.75
6 Friday 8:30 pm710 March 20067.1728 April 20066.226.54
7 96 April 20076.658 June 20074.845.90
8 Friday 9.00 pm (1)
Friday 9.30 pm (2–7)
711 April 20085.5623 May 20084.745.14
9 Thursday 8.30 pm (1–2, 5)
Thursday 8.00 pm (3–4, 6–9)
92 April 20096.7214 May 20094.915.08
10 Friday 9.00  pm79 July 20104.3327 August 20104.094.55
11 Friday 9.00  pm (1–10)
Friday 8.30  pm (11)
1117 June 20114.422 September 20113.893.94

Note: The tenth series features nine episodes, but the final two did not originally air with the series and were held over and included within the eleventh series, therefore, for the purpose of listing average ratings, the two episodes will appear in the ratings table for the eleventh series as they aired in that year.

Awards and nominations

YearCeremonyCategoryNominee(s)ResultRef.
2002 BAFTA Television Awards Best Comedy Performamce Robert LindsayNominated [14]
Lew Grade Award My FamilyNominated
British Comedy Awards Best Comedy NewcomerKris MarshallWon [15]
Royal Television Society Awards Team AwardMy FamilyNominated [16]
2003 BAFTA Television Awards Best Situation Comedy Nominated [17]
National Television Awards Most Popular Comedy PerformerRobert LindsayNominated
Most Popular Comedy ProgrammeMy FamilyWon [18]
TV Quick Awards Best Comedy ShowWon
2004 National Television Awards Most Popular Comedy ProgrammeNominated
2005 Golden Rose Awards Best Sitcom ActressZoë WanamakerWon
2006 National Television Awards Most Popular Comedy ProgrammeMy FamilyNominated [19]
2007 National Television Awards Most Popular Comedy ProgrammeNominated [20]
TV Quick AwardsBest Comedy ShowWon [21]
2008 National Television Awards Most Popular Comedy ProgrammeNominated
TV Quick AwardsBest Comedy ShowNominated
2009Golden Rose AwardsSitcomWon [22]
TV Quick AwardsBest Comedy ShowNominated

Cancellation

BBC One controller Danny Cohen, when commenting on the decision to axe the series, said "Now that all the Harper children have flown the nest we feel it's time to make room for new comedies". Robert Lindsay said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph : "I'm amazed by the public's love for the series [...] When Kris Marshall left in 2005 I was convinced that was it. But somehow Zoë and I have kept the essence of it together." [23]

DVD releases

All episodes are available on DVD in the UK. Each of the eleven series were released on DVD both individually and as a box set in the UK, minus the Christmas specials. On 20 November 2006, Christmas 2002 – 2005 was released on DVD, followed by Christmas 2006 – 2010 on 5 December 2011. In Canada and the United States series one to four are available on Region 1 DVD. In Australia Series one to seven are available on Region 4 DVD. A box set containing Series one to five was released on 7 April 2011 in Australia. In the UK, series 1, series 2 and series 3 were released on DVD by Video Collection International, series 4 was released on DVD by 2 Entertain and series 5, series 6, the four (2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005) Christmas specials, series 7, series 8, series 9, series 10, series 11 and the five (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010) Christmas specials were released on DVD by both 2 Entertain and BBC Video. [24] Series eight was released on 6 October 2011 in Australia. [25] Series 9 was released 3 November 2011 in Australia. [26] Series 10 was released 3 May 2012 in Australia. [27] A box set containing Series 6 to 10 was released 7 November 2012 in Australia. [28] In Australia as of 20 August 2019, Series 11 and both Christmas Specials have not been released in Region 4.

Standard sets
SeriesRelease dateFeatures
Region 1 Region 2 Region 4
1 10 October 2006 [29] 22 March 2004 [30] 3 January 2007 [31]
  • 8 episodes
  • 1 disc
  • BBFC rating: PG
  • ACB rating: PG
2 10 October 2006 [29] 7 June 2004 [32] 5 September 2007 [33]
  • 13 episodes
  • 2 discs
  • BBFC rating: 12
  • ACB rating: PG
3 13 October 2009 [34] 12 September 2005 [35] 2 January 2008 [36]
  • 13 episodes
  • 2 discs
  • BBFC rating: 12
  • ACB rating: PG
4 13 October 2009 [34] 20 March 2006 [37] 4 September 2008 [38]
  • 13 episodes
  • 2 discs
  • BBFC rating: 12
  • ACB rating: PG
5 TBA18 September 2006 [39] 2 January 2009 [40]
  • 13 episodes
  • 2 discs
  • BBFC rating: 12
  • ACB rating: PG
6 TBA25 June 2007 [41] 1 October 2009 [42]
  • 7 episodes
  • 1 disc
  • BBFC rating: 12
  • ACB rating: PG
7 TBA24 September 2007 [43] 7 July 2011 [44]
  • 9 episodes
  • 2 discs
  • BBFC rating: PG
  • ACB rating: PG
8 TBA14 July 2008 [45] 6 October 2011 [46]
  • 7 episodes
  • 1 disc
  • BBFC rating: 12
  • ACB rating: PG
9 TBA25 May 2009 [47] 3 November 2011 [48]
  • 9 episodes
  • 2 discs
  • BBFC rating: 12
  • ACB rating: PG
10 TBA6 September 2010 [49] 5 April 2012 [50]
  • 9 episodes
  • 2 discs
  • BBFC rating: 12
  • ACB rating: PG
11 TBA15 August 2011 [51] TBA
  • 9 episodes
  • 2 discs
  • BBFC rating: 12
Multiple collection sets
SeriesRelease dateFeatures
Region 2 Region 4
Christmas 2002–2005 20 November 2006 [52] No release
  • 4 episodes
  • 1 disc
  • * BBFC rating: PG
1–7 22 October 2007 [53] No release
  • 76 episodes
  • 12 discs
  • BBFC rating: 12
1–5 No release7 April 2011 [54]
  • 60 episodes
  • 9 discs
  • ACB rating: PG
6–8 No release2011
  • 23 episodes
  • 4 discs
  • ACB rating: PG
6–10 No release7 November 2012 [55]
  • 41 episodes
  • 6 discs
  • ACB rating: PG
Christmas 2006–2010 5 December 2011 [56] No release
  • 5 episodes
  • 2 discs
  • BBFC rating: 12
1–11 (complete)5 December 2011 [57] No release

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<i>My Family</i> series 11 Season of television series

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Diane Morgan is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has portrayed Philomena Cunk on the review programme Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe (2013–2020) and in the mockumentary series Cunk on Britain (2018) and Cunk on Earth (2022). She also played Liz on the BBC Two sitcom Motherland (2016–2022) and Kath in the Netflix dark comedy series After Life (2019–2022), as well as writing and starring in the BBC Two comedy series Mandy (2019–present).

<i>Bad Education</i> (TV series) British television sitcom

Bad Education is a British television sitcom set in a dysfunctional secondary school broadcast on BBC Three. Running from August 2012 to October 2014, the first three series were written by Jack Whitehall, who starred as Alfie Wickers, "the worst teacher ever to grace the British education system". Set at the fictional Abbey Grove School in Hertfordshire, the series follows Wickers' class of misfits, Class K, headed by eccentric headteacher Shaquille "Simon" Fraser, and Wickers' ploys to win the affection of crush Rosie Gulliver.

References

Specific
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