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My Family

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]

This article is about the British sitcom. For other uses, see My Family (disambiguation).

My Family

Fred Barron

Baz Taylor
Jay Sandrich
Dewi Humphreys
Nic Phillips
Ed Bye

"My Family"

Graham Jarvis

United Kingdom

English

11

120 (+ 1 short) (list of episodes)

Donald 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)

John Bartlett

Chiswick, London, England

113x 30 minutes
3x 50 minutes
4x 60 minutes

Rude Boy Productions
DLT Entertainment

19 September 2000 (2000-09-19) –
2 September 2011 (2011-09-02)

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.

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Background[edit]

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.

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(2000–11) portrays Ben Harper. Ben Harper is an overly-misanthropic and cynical dentist. When he is not at work sacking another assistant or trying to avoid fellow-dentist Roger, he is at home trying to relax (which never works). Ben isn't a bad man; behind his sardonic exterior he does really love his family and has to put up with being bossed about and manipulated by his wife Susan and continually fleeced for money by his children. Ben also hates Christmas, which is never explained.[6]

Robert Lindsay

(2000–11) portrays Susan Harper. Susan Harper is a control freak and very good at getting her way. She is constantly worried about her three children and often forces Ben to go out of his way to monitor or look after them. Susan is a tour guide but seems to spend most of her time at home. She is a terrible cook. This is a homage to Butterflies, in which the male lead is also a dentist called Ben and the rest of the family often have to sneak the food she has prepared into the bin without her noticing.

Zoë Wanamaker

(2000–05) portrays Nick Harper. Nick Harper is the oldest sibling. He is a layabout who is constantly changing jobs – a self-employed stuntman one minute, a gorilla-o-gram the next, at one point a sperm-donor. Extremely laid-back, Nick cannot be trusted to look after money or handle important tasks. He was last seen moving into his own flat, and from phone conversations Ben and Susan have with him, he seems to be coping with living on his own.

Kris Marshall

(2000–02; 2004–11) portrays Janey Harper. Fashion-conscious, money-loving, boy-mad Janey spends all her time on the phone, switching boyfriends, or pestering Ben for shopping money. Whilst at Manchester University (spending yet more of her dad's money) Janey got pregnant. She was expelled and returned home to once again take advantage of her parents. Susan does not seem to mind, as it means she now has Kenzo Harper to look after.[6]

Daniela Denby-Ashe

(2000–11) portrays Michael Harper. Michael (or "Mikey" as Ben calls him) is Susan and Ben's youngest, a smart, geeky adolescent. He looks down on his family, thinking he is more sensible than the rest of them put together, and often ends up getting them out of trouble. Since starting university he has experimented with bleached hair and piercings. In series 10 Michael comes out and tells his family that he is gay; he is relieved when they accept this.

Gabriel Thomson

(2002–08) portrays Abi Harper. Abi moved into the Harper household in the third series. She is Ben's first cousin once removed, very clumsy and very dim, and often seen telling off Ben or Susan. When she finally realized that Roger was madly in love with her, they married in series seven, but she later left him to become a nun.[6]

Siobhan Hayes

(2002–11) portrays Roger Bailey. Roger is the over-enthusiastic dentist who works in the same building as Ben. He often turns up at the Harper household uninvited and proceeds to unintentionally annoy Ben. For a long period Roger was trying to build up the courage to ask Abi out. They were, after all, ideally suited – like Abi, Roger possesses no common sense and is gullible. Eventually they did marry but have since split as Abi has decided to become a nun. He's now a part-time policeman as well a dentist.[6]

Keiron Self

(2005–09) portrays Alfie Butts. Alfie is a friend of Nick's who turned up at the Harper household at Christmas 2005. Alfie comes from a small community in Wales which, based on his stories, has some rather backwards traditions. Also, there weren't many girls where he came from, so he savors spending time at the Harpers' and meeting Michael's friends. Most of the family have turned to him at various times for advice. He's a struggling musician who is very laid-back about life despite not having a home or a steady income.[6] He did not appear in the 2009 Christmas special and was completely absent from the whole of series 10 and 11, with no explanation.

Rhodri Meilir

(2006–11; character introduced in 2003) portrays Kenzo Harper. Kenzo is the youngest member of the Harper household, son of Janey, grandson of Ben and Susan and nephew of Michael and Nick. Even at such a young age, he's shown a massive intelligence which at times even rivals, and at times even beats, Michael's. At the end of series nine, he has done a project about his family and he tells them his teachers want him to see a psychologist. As portrayed by Tayler Marshall, Kenzo bears a striking resemblance to his uncle Nick (Kris Marshall).[7] Before becoming Kenzo in 2006, Tayler Marshall portrayed a guest at Kenzo's third-birthday party in 2005.

Tayler Marshall

Fred Barron (2000–2003)

Ian Brown & James Hendrie (2004–2005)

(2006)

Tom Leopold

Tom Anderson (2007–2011)

[8]

Reception[edit]

Critical reception[edit]

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.

Cancellation[edit]

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]

"Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy", BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2003

Mark Lewisohn

. BBC. 25 March 2011. Retrieved 16 September 2016.

"My Family dropped after 11 years"

https://web.archive.org/web/20091115112108/http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/tickets/tv

Edit this at Wikidata

Official website

at BBC Online

My Family

at British Comedy Guide

My Family

at IMDb

My Family

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