Actress Tamsin Greig on the new series of Friday Night Dinner

Over four series, our visits to the Goodmans in the comedy Friday Night Dinner have provided a funny snapshot of family dysfunction and infantile shenanigans. As mum Jackie (Tamsin Greig), dad Martin (Paul Ritter) and adult sons 

Adam (Simon Bird) and Jonny (Tom Rosenthal) gather for the traditional Jewish meal each week, we see it’s less reverential than it is chaotic, featuring schoolboy pranks, blatant lies and often some bare-chested cooking. 

Tamsin, who also stars in BBC2’s Episodes, explains why Friday Night Dinner has struck a chord with viewers – because family dynamics never change. 

“You step over the threshold of your parents’ home and you’re instantly transported back to your childhood,” muses the 50-year-old actress. “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.”

But family relations are pushed to breaking point this series, particularly when Jonny returns from holiday a married man. 

When we meet actors Simon Bird, 31, and Tom Rosenthal, 28 – who in person clown around just as they do as on-screen brothers – Tom takes up the story. 

“They’ve gone to Las Vegas and on a whim got married as you do, or as you don’t when you have a mother like Jackie,” he says, laughing. “She is absolutely furious and Jonny just can’t fathom why. 

“The episode is a long process of trying first of all to get into the house, because Jackie banishes them to the car, and eventually of Jonny trying to get his new wife into Jackie’s affections.”

Simon describes Friday Night Dinner as a happy set, where actors and crew compete in series-long table tennis tournaments and make each other laugh. 

“There’s not an hour that goes by without some practical joke being played,” he explains. “The recurring one this time was Tom would steal my phone, take quite gross photos and put them up as the wallpaper on my phone.” 

Many takes are ruined due to the actors dissolving into giggles (or corpsing, as it’s known in the trade). 

“We know each other so well now and get along so well that we do make each other laugh,” Simon adds. “It’s such a claustrophobic set. 

It’s filmed in a real house, so there are cameras and people in tight hallways and toilets and very small spaces, so it leads to a lot of corpsing and I have to say it’s mainly us,” he says. 

“The other actors are very professional and do their jobs responsibly – although, to be fair, Tamsin likes to giggle. 

Once in a while, we start laughing and it takes half an hour for us to be ready to film again.”

Given the show’s title, food obviously plays a part in every episode, but Tom says that Jonny’s habit of squirting canned whipped cream straight into his mouth – much to his mother’s disapproval – was a hardship for him at first. 

“I’m allergic to cream,” he explains. “The first series, it took me two or three weeks to mention that every time I had to eat the squirty cream, I then had to go to the toilet to throw up.” 

So brace yourself for another round of crazy goings-on with the Goodmans in a series that portrays a slightly odd squabbling family with affection.

Simon muses on the sitcom’s successful formula. 

“It’s both quite mainstream – a recognisable family sitcom – but also it’s got a certain Channel 4 edginess and weirdness to it that you don’t get in some of the BBC1 sitcoms,” he says. “So I think it’s the best of both worlds.”

Friday Night Dinner, Friday, 10PM, Channel 4