“Friday Night Dinner” by Robert Popper is a newly launch comedy series launched by the British Channel 4. The sitcom presents the daily life of a Jewish secular family from Northern London who meets every Friday for a Shabbat dinner. In spite of the designed Jewish narrative, the show does not repeat a stereotypical cliché of Jewishness. “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” – explained Robert Popper in an interview for “The Telegraph” – “I was thinking that if I was watching a program about a Muslim or Hindu family and the brothers were mucking around during a prayer, would I get it? I don't know that I would” – added the author.
Popper's sitcom resembles a comedy show “Grandma's House” directed by Simon Amstell. The show about another Jewish family has been screened by BBC Two since 2010. Popper rejects the critique of repeating an already discovered formula, claiming that he had come up with his idea before Amstell's project was aired and did not watch “Grandma's House” on purpose. According to the critics, Popper's sitcom is not innovative, being “a cozy comedy about a middle-aged couple who cook dinner for their children once a week” (“The Guardian”).
