Latest news with #FridayNightDinner
Daily Record
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Friday Night Dinner fans must watch forgotten sitcom with 100% Rotten Tomatoes score
The 90s dramedy is still celebrated over 25 years after its debut Friday Night Dinner fans have been urged to watch a British sitcom that aired 12 years before the Channel 4 hit show. A TV enthusiast recently appealed to Reddit users, asking them to recommend similar "light-hearted shows." The thread quickly garnered over 100 comments, with some urging the original user to stream Spaced, which also aired on Channel 4. Making its debut in 1999, the two-season series received critical acclaim during its time on air. It was nominated for a British Comedy Award for Best TV Sitcom in its first year on air, and went on to received two BAFTA TV Award nominations for Best Situation Comedy. Written by Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (née Stevenson), who also star, the comedy follows 20-somethings Tim and Daisy. Desperate to find a new home, the duo pose as a couple to secure the only apartment they can afford. Pegg and Stevenson are joined by Julia Deakin, Nick Frost and Mark Heap, who also starred in Friday Night Dinner. Behind the scenes, celebrated filmmaker Edgar Wright serves as the director. Over 25 years since its debut, Spaced is still a hit with viewers and critics alike, boasting a rare 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating for both seasons. What's more, viewers are still petitioning for the show's return, with one voicing: "I wish this show could come back!" Audiences on IMDb are equally enthusiastic about the Pegg-led comedy. "Possibly the best thing to ever happen to television," raves a recent review. The viewer continues: "The whole two series was as close to perfect as I can imagine. Funny, beautifully shot, well-produced, the only downside was that there wasn't more of it." Another fan agreed, writing: "Possibly the best British show ever," before adding: "Simon Pegg, master of modern comedy and the gorgeous Jessica Stevenson [...] have written and starred in what I consider to be the best British comedy ever." Meanwhile, a third viewer echoed the praise: "Having just watched this series again, I am prepared to say that 'Spaced' is definitely one of the greatest comedy shows EVER!" With a final person sharing their verdict: "It's just brilliant! It's one of my favourite shows and I love rewatching it and noticing all of the different little laughs!"
Telegraph
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Government Inspector: Gorgeous to look at, but where's the rottenness?
Long before Stalin, there existed in Tsarist Russia a trickle-down terror. In considering his 1836 comic masterpiece of mistaken identity – in which Khlestakov, a hard-up visitor to a provincial backwater is taken to be an undercover government inspector and treated like a king – Nikolai Gogol remarked: 'I tried to gather in one heap all that was bad in Russia. I wished to turn it all into ridicule. The real impression produced was that of fear…' It's hardly the worst time to be placing a vision of Russian folly and grasping venality on a regional main stage, and if a director gets the balance right between domino-effect mayhem and a hierarchy of domination, then in theory you get the best of both worlds: an evening fit to have you clutching your sides, while delivering a punch to the guts about stupidity, self-interest and the herd instinct. Attending the premiere, the Tsar himself – Nicholas I – waved it through, which shows not its inoffensiveness but its guile in slipping an indictment of power abuse past the noses of officialdom. Stepping back into the directorial fray after his esteemed tenure running the RSC, and capably opening Chichester's summer season, Gregory Doran almost hits the mark, but doesn't quite. There's a thin line between catching the way a shared misapprehension becomes a grinding mechanism ensnaring everyone, and parading a gallery of grotesques going through the motions of helpless frenzy. Despite the evident, even strenuous, effort applied across the board, the rottenness Gogol was striving to anatomise feels decorous. Keeping the play in period is fine (albeit you could 'Putinise' the piece, and Doran has written an interesting programme note about the battle over Gogol's Ukrainian identity). The fidelity does mean, though, that we're in a world of amiable between-scenes folk-music, frock-coats and large boots, and an opulent, absurdist set (by Francis O'Connor) that makes overflowing filing cabinets part of a picturesque townscape. The company deliver energetic, larger-than-life performances that serve well to fill Chichester's capacious auditorium; what's less apparent is a sense of inner-life – of panic and hysteria rising from deep within. Only in the second half, when a townswoman petitions the newly influential Khlestakov for redress against mayoral abuse, and bears the scars of a whipping, does a brutal reality manifest. Taking on a role played in the past by Tony Hancock and Michael Sheen (and 20 years ago, in Chichester, by Alistair McGowan), Friday Night Dinner's Tom Rosenthal sports a nicely disbelieving demeanour as the suddenly fêted and hastily freeloading ne'er-do-well, taking relish in Phil Porter's springy adaptation ('He'd sell his own granny for two roubles and a half-sucked sweetie'). There's robust work on all sides – whether it be Lloyd Hutchinson as the pompous mayor, or Miltos Yerolemou and Paul Rider as a delightful double-act (Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky), redolent of a Tsar-era Tweedledum and Tweedledee. I laughed a fair bit and acknowledged the audience merriment around me. Did I feel I was in the presence of a gold-plated, cleverer-than-it-seems classic, though? Not really.
The Independent
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Mastermind viewers beg producers to ‘up the bar' after contestant sparks outrage with specialist subject
Mastermind viewers have begged the show's producers to improve the standard of contestants' specialist subjects after one person answered questions about the TV show Friday Night Dinner in the latest episode. During Monday night's episode of the BBC gameshow hosted by Clive Myrie, retired teacher Gary Austin answered specialist questions about the 2011 sitcom, which starred Tamsin Greig, Simon Bird, Paul Ritter and Tom Rosenthal. The two-minute-long round sees contestants answer questions within the time limit on a specialist subject of their choice, aiming to score the highest number of correct answers. Contestant Eddie Crawford answered questions on 12th-century monarch Henry II, consultancy director Kate Bleazard's specialist topic was Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novels, while financial crime investigator Nathan Hamer picked Wales Rugby Union Test matches from 2000. Austin went last and was told he had to beat Crawford's 21 points to get the next round. He successfully answered 22 questions correctly across the whole programme, meaning that he was through to the semi-finals. However, Austin's victory with the Friday Night Dinner round angered some viewers, who argued that his topic was easier than others. ' Friday Night Dinner is way too narrow a specialist subject for Mastermind. 15 hours of telly. #mastermind #dumbbritain,' wrote one person on X/Twitter. Other viewers agreed, with one adding: '#Mastermind shouldn't allow TV programs as specialist subjects! You watched a few episodes of a program? Great. That's not the same as studying world history, science, literature. Moan over haha.' '6 series and 37 episodes. That's not a specialist subject, that's a passing interest,' said one person. 'Can we please up the bar for acceptable specialist subjects?' Another person added: 'I got almost as many right as him – Friday night dinner is a great show but hardly Mastermind material #Mastermind.' But others seemed entertained by the round, with one person adding: 'I'm definitely going to watch #fridaynightdinner after that round, it sounds hilarious.' 'Love Friday Night Dinner, I only got 4 though haha #Mastermind,' said another person. Previous examples of specialist subjects include the science sitcom The Big Bang Theory, the films of Orson Welles and the life of the documentarian Louis Theroux.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Former Eastenders star in critically acclaimed production this week
Following two triumphant West End season and a sold-out UK tour, Tracy-Ann Oberman (EastEnders, Doctor Who, Friday Night Dinner), has reprised her starring role as the first British actress to play Shylock in the critically acclaimed production of The Merchant of Venice 1936. She stars at Fareham Live until Saturday. With the city on the brink of political unrest, fascism sweeping across Europe and Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists threatening a paramilitary march through the Jewish East End, strong-willed single mother Shylock runs a pawnbroking business from her house in Cable Street where Mosley will march. (Image: Marc Brenner)READ MORE:Influential figure on the city's music scene to move on after 25 years Tracy-Ann Oberman said: "Demand has been so high that I feel bringing it back is essential. "The message of my female Shylock - based on my Great Grandma, a widow in the East End standing up to Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists, with all her neighbours and others horrified by the message of BUF - feels more pertinent than ever. "The play is about unity, standing together against hatred and the play's impact has been beyond my wildest hopes and ambitions for it.' Tickets from
Telegraph
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Backstroke: It's a tough watch – but Celia Imrie and Tamsin Greig are superb
The chance to see Celia Imrie and Tamsin Greig on stage together – and up close at the 250-seat Donmar too – has meant that tickets are scarce for Backstroke, despite Anna Mackmin's play being flagged as a tough watch. Although the title's swimming reference is duly honoured and explained, 'stroke' is the operative word; the evening explores the distressing aftermath of one. Set those two names side by side and you'll likely think of comedy in the first instance. Aside from being in the latest Bridget Jones film, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel hits, Imrie is still cherished as the affected Miss Babs in Victoria Wood's Acorn Antiques skits, while Greig is a darling of British sitcom who became adored as just-coping Jackie in Friday Night Dinner. Despite Imrie playing a critically ill mother called Beth, and Greig her beleaguered daughter Bo, there are aspects of the evening that play to these strengths. Mackmin's script jumps about in time, achieving an Ab Fab dynamic in its evocation of Beth as an outspoken, boho child of the Sixties – whose metier is woven sculptures – and her sensible, self-contained offspring. But there's no sugar-coating it, the core of the piece confronts what many of us will likely go through, and many of us have to witness: a medical crisis that renders a once autonomous adult incapacitated, and approaching the point of no return. A wail of ambulance sirens ushers in the sight of Imrie bed-bound in hospital, staring into space. If you're easily triggered perhaps steer clear, but catharsis may await too. Mackmin valuably catches the agonising shared powerlessness, and nigh impossible decisions on treatment. The obvious topical, and ethical, considerations around end-of-life care are only gently touched on, though, apparent most in Bo's recoiling at the issue of long-term support (this struggling TV writer has a disturbed adopted daughter to contend with). Mackmin's main focus is on huge emotional upset, the way we are borne back into the past during these crunch-moments – revisiting causes of resentment, and happier times too. The dramatic structure neatly mimics synaptic connections as it builds up the backstory, requiring the leads to convey their characters at different ages. But Mackmin, who also directs, errs towards overload. Bursts of flickery video convey a home-movie of the mind, but are distracting too. Stirring? It is, but running at two hours plus an interval, momentum flags. Even so, the production confirms Greig as one of our finest actresses – her deadpan features a surface beneath which churns so much; she can convey incredulity with a raised eyebrow, exhaustion with a sustained blink. A choked-up funeral oration achieves a wrenching sense of belated filial appreciation. And Imrie musters the complexity of this raffish, motley matriarch, who, when active, smokes at breakfast, dishes out tactless insults, divulges her sexual history with disinhibition and becomes ditzily inclined to malapropisms. A show, then, not unlike a domineering but dear relative: there's much to pick away at but much to hold on to and admire too.
