New Jewish Sitcom Premieres in the UK
A new British sitcom “Friday Night Dinner,” inspired by Jewish family life, will debut in the UK this evening starring Tamsin Greig of the TV show “Green Wing” and Simon Bird from the teen-comedy “The Inbetweeners.”
Continuing the Jewish march to the mainstream in Britain, the show, created and written by Robert Popper, a Bafta-winning producer previously involved with “Peep Show,” “Bo’Selecta” and “South Park,” will center around the idea of Friday night Shabbat family dinners.
While the sitcom, set in North London, is based on Popper’s own family dynamics, he was reluctant to make the show too overtly Jewish. He told the UK’s Daily Telegraph: “Usually when I’ve seen Jewish things on TV, it’s always been people saying, ‘Oy vey’ and stuff like that, which is something I don’t really experience and didn’t seem modern and real to me.”
The show comes less than a year after the premier of Simon Amstell’s “Grandma’s House” — a much more obviously “Jewish” family show — but will be very different, says Popper.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30