My Family is the most popular British sitcom of the last decade with millions ignoring the snide remarks and put downs from critics and enjoying the misadventures of the Harper Family.Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wannamaker carry the show with ease and are supported by and large with great writing. Daniella Denby Ashe and Gabriel Thomson also deserve credit having been a part of the show since it began.Not every episode is a classic and some of the newer characters brought in like Roger and Alfie have had limited success.The show although still has its moments but has never really recovered from the departure of Kris Marshall as Nick. The idiot son stole the show in the first few years and I think if fans of the show had a wish it would be for him to return to the family nest.

This so called "comedy" demonstrates how far the British sit-com has fallen in recent years (with a few notable exceptions). The jokes are all very obvious and predictable, with punchlines telegraphed well before they are delivered. My girlfriend enjoys this, but I'm afraid I've not yet been able to sit through an entire episode, try as I might. Being from Australia, I'm not really familiar with the actors other work. I've been told that they are quite famous and well regarded, but I honestly wouldn't employ a single one of them for so much as a haemorrhoid cream advertisement. The two leads chew the scenery as though they're rejects from a bad Christmas pantomime. I'm very angry about the time I have wasted trying to watch this show - do yourself a favour and don't make the same mistake. Avoid!

Britain has a long history of sitcom making that dates all the way back to the late 1950s. The heyday of British sitcom production was probably the 1960s and 1970s, with such TV shows as STEPTOE AND SON, DAD'S ARMY, ARE YOU BEING SERVED?, ON THE BUSES, GEORGE AND MILDRED, MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE, RISING DAMP, PORRIDGE and countless others being very popular examples.Since the heyday of British sitcom production, there have been big changes. Whilst British sketch shows and stand-up comedy shows have still been going strong over recent years, the situation comedy has fared less well. The past 20 years has seen a notable decline in the standard of British sitcom production, with MR. BEAN being a notable exception.MY FAMILY symbolises the decline in British sitcom production. It is simply an abuse of the word "comedy" to pass it off as such. On dozens of occasions, I have tried to view an entire episode of this TV series and have never succeeded. I've endured a few clips every now and again whilst going through channels but simply cannot bring myself to see an entire episode of this show. Even MY HERO, another modern sitcom, fares better than this rubbish. And that show isn't much better.The biggest problem with this excuse for a comedy is Robert Lindsay. His acting is bad enough as I found out from a really terrible TV show named Jericho, which not surprisingly disappeared into total obscurity after one short series. But, his comedy skills are even worse. He is simply not funny and his presence on the screen is incredibly annoying for most of the time. His character merely seems to appear on the screen during the middle of a very mildly entertaining scene and utter ridiculous remarks that are simply not funny and completely out of context with what is happening, but are strangely always followed with the obviously canned laughter. He basically utters insults at his family and the audience is expected to find this tripe funny. His character is not in the least bit likable and nearly always contains expressions on his face that are kind of a cross between misery and sarcasm. See the show and you'll get my meaning.Zoë Wanamaker might be good as an actress, but comedy is clearly not her forte. Having said that, she is much less annoying than Mr. Lindsay and probably manages to say one thing funny in an entire episode. In fact, I long for her presence on the screen during Mr. Lindsay's scenes just so her character can send him off somewhere.The other characters are not really worth talking about. They are supposed to represent fragments of a "disfunctional" family. Instead they come across as total morons who no one wishes they were unfortunate enough to have as relatives. The actors playing them clearly have little talent and have made very limited career progress outside of this TV show. One of them got out after a few series and has done some acting in very boring "drama premieres" aired on ITV 1. Two others have worked on the TV soap opera, EastEnders. As for the actor playing Michael, he looks like a Harry Potter reject who missed his way.The scripts for this show are absolutely terrible. Let's just say that whoever penned them is no John Cleese. As another commenter has said, the individual episode plots are terrible and focus on very simple objectives such as "what should I do this weekend?". The individual jokes and gags (if you can call them that) are all predictable, poorly-timed and poorly-executed.Overall, MY FAMILY symbolises the Americanisation (read dumbed-down culture) of British sitcom production and is not worth the time or the effort of even the most die-hard fans of traditional British comedy.

I read the comments from page 1 on through to page 5. It seems that there was more criticism with much vitriol in the earlier pages. I for one find the "British" comedies very refreshing. The characters have been explained many times in the previous comments, so I won't bother. I enjoy them all with special gratitude towards "Nick" and "Abi" for making me watch for their next train wreck. I'd like to address two comments that were made previously. 1) As far as the Family having a laugh track-maybe, maybe not. But the laughter is definitely "punched up" to make it a little hotter when needed. 2) To Steve from London who on 04 December 2002 roundly assailed the series as a whole and invited readers to "prove me wrong" I say; I believe they are now into series 5. (Last we heard here)Thanks for listening..