TV TALK - MY FAMILY - Season One

Welcome to TV TALK #1 and for the next few months I will be discussing my favourite TV sitcom from the UK "My Family" starring Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker.

We begin with Season One and like all TV Sitcom's the first season quickly introduces the central characters and allows the audience to know how each of them fit into the scene and what their varying roles will be. In this series, we discover who the family members are, their status within the family unit and how they interact with each other, and what adventures we are likely to expect from them.

Ben Harper (Robert Lindsay)

 is the father in this family and he is caring and loving only its so deep down and hidden by his self-absorbed mind that it is portrayed as acute disinterest and obvious avoidance of their whole lives. On top of that he is a dentist with the worst possible patient tolerance and he is constantly annoyed with Bridget his hippy psychic Dental nurse. We soon learn that everything in Ben's life becomes a source of complete irritation.

Susan Harper (Zoe Wanamaker)

is the mother of the family and we are very clear on two aspects of Susan's personality. She is a complete an utter control freak and she is disastrous cook, experimenting with unpalatable mixes of ingredients and never follows a cook book because she knows better. The family usually go hungry or avoid dinner time altogether. Susan is also a Tour guide taking visitors of London around the various sites and landmarks which does sometimes amount to some awkward adventures for her.

Nick Harper (Kris Marshall)

is the eldest child and whilst he is more than old enough to leave home he is totally dependant on his parents and has no intention of growing up and getting out. He does however have a plethora of idea's to get rich quick and he does manage to spend at least one day in most of the jobs he manages to somehow obtain. He has great affection for his father which constantly puts Ben on edge as he tries to avoid Nick's ever-adoring gestures of love. Most of these gestures however are a deliberate way to obtain money from Ben in exchange for stopping his displays of affection.

Janey Harper (Daniela Denby-Ashe)

is the only daughter and the mere mention of money sparks her attention from miles away. She is still a teenager and quite the rebel, and everything her parents do is humiliating and embarrassing for her. She has a string of boyfriends and both Susan and Ben are not prepared to discover just how experienced in that department she really is. Janey knows how to manipulate them both and constantly extorts cash more successfully than Nick.

Michael Harper (Gabriel Thomson)

is the youngest and turns to books and study to escape them all. His intelligence surpasses them all put together and his sly ever-conspiring brain plans out several scenarios to out wit them all which strangely never seems too difficult. But Michael's geeky appearance does come with his own problems and sometimes being the youngest has it's advantages when dealing with bullies as much as when needing guinea pigs for his experiments.

The First Series consisted of Eight Episodes for our hapless Harpers living at 78 Lancaster Road Chiswick, London in the year 2000.

1. Serpent's Tooth
whilst Ben is a dentist he neglects his children's teeth so Janey goes to another dentist. Ben gets annoyed when he finds out and even more angry when after kissing Susan he notices she has also had work done. Their fighting makes Michael worry they might divorce and he buys a rabbit to rebel. Whilst stroking it at the table Ben compares Michael to a Bond Villain. Nick poses as a girl on the internet to meet a french model lesbian who slaps him when they meet.

2. A Pain in the Class
Michael is being bullied at school so Susan invites the bully's parents over to talk. Their attitude is to ignore it and not worry about their son's behaviour. Ben is annoyed by the father's insults and hits them both with a rolled up newspaper chasing them away. Michael's spirits plummet but Janey saves the day by beating up the bully.

3. Droigt de Siegneur Ben
Ben's dental nurse Bridget sets Janey up on a date with Lord Whitten's son. Whilst he ends up being very handsome he tries to bed Janey against her will. When Lord Whitten's son comes to Ben's dental surgery after he learns about this, Ben decides to torture the man with his dental tools. Sadly Ben discovers this is not the same son, he is the gay son of Lord Whitten.

4. The Last Resort
Ben and Susan go back to an old B&B to rekindle their romantic side and compare themselves to the other couples there. Ben mistakenly agrees to partying with an old couple who enjoy 'swinging'. They eventually find the true source of their own happiness.

5. Farewell to Alarms
When the crime rate bothers Susan she gets a top range state of the art laser beam alarm for the home. It keeps malfunctioning which drives Ben crazy. He gets trapped down stairs and attempts to get back up to the bedroom without setting the alarm off by channeling the spy craft of Mission Impossible. His acrobatic moves and clamouring over bookcases and banisters results in one of the funny physical comedy scenes in the series.

6. Death and Ben Take A Policy
Ben agrees to buy life insurance off Nick's latest love interest in the belief it could lead to Nick moving out. Her presentation poses the possibility of Ben dying unexpectedly as more Dentists die young than any other profession and it frightens them all.

7. The Awkward Phase
Susan describes Nick's latest antics as being an Awkward Phase but Ben disagrees that twenty years is not a phase, it's him. Michael is interested in learning about girls and Nick gives him his own take on what to do the first time with a girl. Ben is forced to explain the birds and bees to Michael which is harder for him to say than for Michael to hear.

8. Much Ado about Ben
Ben ends up in hospital after taking Viagra and Susan forces him to go on a diet. He reads a book by a guru that had a life and death experience and it changes his outlook. The family become quite concerned when Ben appears so happy that he is singing. The family wear him down pretty quickly and he flees to the pub. After suffering a major hangover, Ben agrees to join the Yoga class Susan is hosting at home and it pushes Ben back to his usual self.

In many episodes the resolution often ends with Ben and Susan recalibrating and finding the essence of their happiness which is when they head to the bedroom and get down to the basics. This is how the first series concludes as well.

So many classic features regarding Susan's cooking come out of this season that would become running gags for the whole series such as Ben's Favourite Food being Chinese Take Away, Susan defending her exotic meals "There are many countries in the world where crispy crunchy pea's are a delicacy", and Ben asking Michael to taste the dish first as he will react quicker being the smallest.

Nick's hapless job hunting really becomes a feature with him failing to possess relevant experience but has highly tuned Jedi Powers, and fails the job interviews in one line.

Interviewer "You said your birthday is June 15th, what year?"
Nick - "Every year"

The first season really contains some classic moments when you look back and it really sets the basis for what became a truly enjoyable and hilarious sitcom that ended up spanning 11 years and over 100 episodes.

Sample for yourself and enjoy.

Episode 1 - The Serpents Tooth

PART ONE http://youtu.be/fh1slWA5ai0

PART TWO http://youtu.be/uEPDvG8SYgU

J G S