Friday Night Dinner Series 2 Review “The Loft”

It’s back to top form for Friday Night Dinner this week, as the writers grant my wish of spending time out of the house whilst giving us a good, funny, mystery to solve.

Adam and Jonny arrive at the house with the task of helping their dad clean out the loft ahead of them, but one of the brothers has hatched a cunning plan to get out of it. The show is at its best when the siblings interact, with Simon Bird always a standout, and this is no less hilarious than usual. Pretending to have dislocated his shoulder, Jackie showers Jonny with love and sympathy with the blackmail of what happened when Adam dated a family friend stopping him from revealing the secret.

Dating her, sleeping with her, then not calling her back because she smelt like his mother is probably one of the worst things you want to tell your family. The girl in question was actually ‘Auntie’ Val’s niece, and she returns to the series this week as a support to a warring Jackie and Martin. The trouble is, no one in the know will tell Jonny and Adam what’s going on, and they have to play detective throughout the episode. Friday Night Dinner has tried this format a few times before, with the audience as clueless as the brothers until the end, and it still works brilliantly.

And the answer is just as hilarious. All secrets are revealed when a play fight actually ends up dislocating Jonny’s shoulder and the family unite in the emergency room. I have to say I loved this episode simply because it took us out from around the dinner table, into the pub and then the hospital, and focused solely on the four Thompsons. Even Jim made a briefer than brief appearance, dressed for a date who hadn’t arrived. It’s actually quite sad, but in that funny way that British comedy has always done so well. Either way, last week seems to have just been a blip, and ‘The Loft’ demonstrates how little there was to worry about.

What did you think of the episode? Let us know in the comments.