My Family

Robert Lindsay on our TV screens at present in two roles so vastly different from each other- Captain Pellew of Hornblower fame and as the "insane" dentist - father - family man of My Family! I am a great fan of RL ever since first seeing him in Nightingales, another quite insane comedy of quite a different calibre.

After last seeing Zoe Wannamaker as the love of Adam Faith it makes a change to see her as less 'Ms' Prim and Proper and more as 'Mrs' Avant Gard Dentist's wife. She does both so well in my opinion.

Anyway, I love My Family, it will appeal to an audience who likes the humour of Seinfeld mixed with the madness of someone of the ilk of Lenny Henry and it does really work. The wit is very clever, very in your face and not as subtle as english humour can be at times but nevertheless it is great fun.

I have been watching this show for years its an amazing witty comedy for all the family love the all the characters the Harper family are lovable and get them self in all kinds of situations ever episode is great never dulls down not once

Not an original summary really sums up how I feel about this great comedy. Robert Lindsay is hilarious (and strangely attractive) as the incredibly cynical Ben and Kris Marshall just as funny as Nick. However, in my opinion the star turn is Zoe Wanamaker ( v. sexy) and words dont do her justice. Watch out for the funeral scene in the new series where she is taking 'unprescribed' flu medication and is to put it bluntly, stoned. Her performance here is understated and fabulous, not staggering around, just glassy eyed wierdness. Please watch this (and the repeats on UK Gold) It wont tax your brain and we all need a good laugh sometimes :-) The scary part? I see some of my family in them!

a BBC product. so, spiced humor, precise frame for ordinaries problems, good actors and special situations. result - an adorable series. but this is only a sketch of My family. its charm is result of great attention to details. the humor is like a mirror for each viewer. and Zoe Wanamaker is amazing as wife and mother who build measure in her family. like the performance of Robert Lindsay as head of a strange group who becomes, only accidentally, a real family.it is not an exception - many films presents situations about slices of ordinary society but, in this case, something is different. its flavor who discovers, like old Commedia dell''arte, the errors and conflicts, crisis and solutions of each day in warm light.

Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker star as the parents of Kris Marshall, Daniela Denby-Ashe, and Gabriel Thomson in "My Family," a very successful British television series that lasted 11 years.

Unfortunately only the first few seasons are available on disk thus far, but it is a very funny and lively series. Lindsay and Wanamaker are terrific pros as the head of the Harper household. The beleaguered Ben Harper is a dentist and iffy housewife Susan, who definitely can't cook, is a tour guide. Nick (Marshall) has a new job every episode. I think the funniest episode was when Susan's boss stayed overnight and the next morning, Nick tried to take some bacon and Susan told him it was for their house guest. Then Ben finds Susan's boss dead. When he announces it, Nick asks, "Can I have his bacon?" Michael (Thomson) grows up on the show, and when the disks stop, he is developing an interesting life as a chick magnet and a wheeler dealer. Janey is in college, and the situation is not without problems.

Kris Marshall is still in the show when the disks leave off, but I can imagine it was rough going without him. He added so much humor to the show. The writers must have had a blast with that outrageous character.

Highly recommended. Not every episode is spectacular, but it's still a wonderful and well-acted series.