Tamsin greig:'we're all just children pretending to be grown-ups'

The four main characters in Channel 4’s much-loved family sitcom Friday Night Dinner  – mother Jackie (Tamsin Greig), father Martin (Paul Ritter), and sons Adam (Simon Bird) and Jonny (Tom

Rosenthal) – call each other by nicknames which are far too rude for publication.  “I have a friend whose family all call each other these nicknames,” Tamsin reveals. “They are meant very

tenderly. It just goes to show how much Friday Night Dinner has caught on.”  The sitcom, which begins its third series this week, has gained a large and loyal following. It centres on the

Goodmans, a close yet chaotic family whose two adult sons return each Friday night to have dinner at their parents’ house in north London. This weekly ritual is the trigger for all sorts of

hilarious shenanigans. For example in the new series, which is written and produced by Robert Popper, Jonny gets a terrible tattoo, their hapless neighbour Jim (Mark Heap) eats his dog’s

sleeping pills by mistake, and Jackie tries to become a counsellor – much to the rest of the family’s consternation.  And as always, Adam and Jonny try to trump each other with ever more

ridiculous and extreme pranks. Tamsin laughs that many of these practical jokes are drawn directly from Robert’s real-life experiences with his own brother.  “Robert told us that one day he

was going home on the tube after meeting his brother. He put his hand in his coat pocket and fished out a handful of spaghetti bolognese, which his brother had put there!” Tamsin, 47, who

can also be seen in BBC2’s Episodes opposite Matt LeBlanc and Stephen Mangan, observes that viewers also connect with the Goodmans because their experiences are so universal. “Families are

families. We’ve all got them, more or less, and we all know what it’s like to be bullied by another generation. Jackie is pushed around by her children because she has an overwhelming need

to be wanted by her two sons. “But they need her just as much. Adam and Jonny come home every Friday night and eat her food. So both parties need each other.” Friday Night Dinner also

strikes a chord in the way it portrays how Adam and Jonny are immediately infantilised the second they return home.  “You step over the threshold of your parents’ home and you’re instantly

transported back to your childhood,” says Tamsin.  “It’s like time travel. You revert at once to a place of arrested development. The Goodmans’ constant fighting is also very childish.

Everyone turns into a child when they don’t get their way. We’re all just idiot children pretending to be grown-ups.”  Tamsin, who has also starred in TV shows such as Green Wing and Black

Books and has played Debbie Aldridge on BBC Radio 4’s The Archers since 1991, is hopeful they will be allowed to build on the success of Friday Night Dinner with another series.  “Families

always stay the same, but they always provide more stories. It would be particularly interesting to see whether the boys could ever get girlfriends!” Away from the small screen, Tamsin has

been busy shooting the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2. This is a sequel to the hugely successful 2012 film about a group of British pensioners, led by Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and

Bill Nighy, who decide to emigrate to a hotel in India. “There are two new characters in the sequel, played by myself and Richard Gere,” she says of the film she didn’t hesitate to be part

of. Beyond that, the self-effacing actress merely smiles about the unpredictability of the acting game.  “I try not to look any further ahead than the next cup of tea. You never know if that

cuppa will come or not, do you?” _FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER, FRIDAY, 10PM, CHANNEL 4_