About 'My Family'

My Family is a modern British sitcom success story - it is one of only a few situation comedies made this decade which regularly attracts large audiences (6 million plus viewers is common for even a repeat episode of this sitcom).

With eight series now broadcast, this show displays no sign of losing its wide appeal. Looking back, we can see it was always destined to be a success - creator Fred Barron set out to make a mainstream comedy based around a 'typical' British family at a time when everyone else was producing cult shows. The demand for a mainstream family comedy was definitely there.

Some credit for the show's success must go to the excellent casting of established television stars Robert Lindsay and Zoë Wanamaker. The leads always deliver their lines perfectly. The stand-out performance was from at the time newcomer Kris Marshall though. He took on the role of Nick and created one the funniest comedy characters of the decade (the writers never intended Nick to feature much, but soon changed their minds when they saw the audience's reaction to Marshall's character).

My Family is focused on the Harper house, a typical semi-detached family home where Ben and Susan attempt to raise three children; dysfunctional Nick, fashion obsessed Janey, and clever Michael. There is rarely a normal day in the Harper household as lazy Nick tries his hand at a different bizarre job each week (often bringing his work home), Ben tries to avoid people Susan has invited into the house, and everyone tries to avoid Susan's cooking.

There have been some changes to the plot as the show has progressed - in the latter series Michael has grown into a teenager and is on the lookout for a girlfriend; Nick has moved out; and Janey, having been to university, now has a baby called Kenzo. Dumb cousin Abi, and Nick's friend Alfie moved in, plus always-cheerful Roger was added to the character list. But, with nearly 100 episodes now made, much on My Family remains the same - Ben is still the same grumpy, put-out father and Susan is still over-protective, manipulative and a terrible cook.

[Un-usually for a British comedy My Family is written by a team of writers rather than a single individual, and is overseen by a foreign producer (American Fred Barron). Maybe this is new approach is partly the reason this sitcom has lasted so long, whilst most other new shows haven't made it past a couple of series?

Comedy 'purists' often snub My Family for being too bland, repetitive and based on low-level humour. They feel it is too much like a typical, old-skool sitcom (do expect a loud laugh-track and jokes signposted a mile off) in an age when intelligent, dark and cult series are fashionable. We feel they're missing the point - this sitcom is deliberately mainstream and that's why it has survived more seasons than any other show this decade.

The resilience of this comedy is clear to see, because it has had to navigate a couple of awkward problems. When two of the main cast left to expand their careers most people thought this comedy would rapidly die (Daniela Denby-Ashe who plays Janey had to be written out, as did the very popular Kris Marshall). The writers got around the issue by saying Janey went to university and Nick moved into his own place. They plugged the gap with the new characters of Abi and Roger and before long the crisis was gone - in fact, since then Denby-Ashe has reprised her role as Janey and Alfie - a character remarkably like Nick in many ways - was parachuted in.

During 2007 it was predicted that the end of this long-running sitcom may actually now be close - there was noticeably more comments that the situations the family found themselves in had started to repeat and, more worryingly for the producers, the main stars seemed to be getting fed up. Just before the start of series seven Zoë Wanamaker was quoted in a newspaper interview as saying: "Robert [Lindsay] and I refused at one point to do one [a My Family episode], it was so bad. That caused a lot of problems, but we just felt it was not good enough. We had practically a football team of scriptwriters working on the last series."

The demise seems to have been prematurely predicted (perhaps something to do with the huge pay packets the stars now get). Since that fact came to light, an eight season has been broadcast, and filming has begun on a ninth series.

It has yet to be seen whether My Family will become a classic which is repeated in years to come however, for now at least, it is certainly one of the most popular sitcoms on television.