Ben Harper is a dentist with a cynical outlook on life. He is married to Susan, a control freak who can't cook. They have three children: dosy Nick, shallow Janey and clever Michael.

Ben and Susan's niece Abi can also often be found hanging around the family's home. She is now married to the over-enthusiastic Roger Bailey, a dentist who manages innocently infuriate Ben whenever they meet.

During the eight seasons other characters have come and gone. They include Nick's dopey Welsh friend Alfie Butts, Ben's dental assistant Brigitte and Janey's dumb boyfriend Brian.

Our Review: My Family is without a doubt the best British sitcom that has been launched this decade... that is if this judgement is based soley on audience figures. Week in, week out My Family crushes all other comedies in the ratings - many millions tune in every week to see the family's latest adventure.

My Family certainly has all the right ingredients to be an audience-grabber: strong stereotypical characters that are easy to identify with placed in embarrassing and comical (yet believable and familiar) situations.

This comedy is criticised by many for being rather 'generic', with a somewhat unsophisticated strategy to make the audience laugh (quick one-liners are key in this sitcom, rather than clever built-up jokes). This doesn't seem to bother a large percentage of the population though - after all, My Family was carefully designed by creator Fred Barron to appeal to the masses.

Whilst comedy snobs continue to look down on the comedy, it continues bulldoze on. The 8th series is now here, and filming has already begun on a 9th series!