I Hate You review – like watching two grown women possessed by the spirit of puerile teenage boys
Three episodes in, I couldn’t take any more of Robert Popper’s new ‘comedy’ about two unbearable friends. It’s confusing, underwhelming and has no idea what it’s meant to be
September 2022
Robert Popper: ‘I’ve said so many times: I hate my friends – they’re so close, they can annoy you’
Friday Night Dinner was famously based on the writer’s own family. So who was the inspiration for the bickering best mates of his new show I Hate You?
April 2022
The reader interview
Simon Bird: ‘All my favourite directors specialised in bleak, sad comedy – right up my street’
The reader interview
Post your questions for Simon Bird
May 2021
The one where … TV’s tired revivals like Friends reunited cover the same old ground
Michael Hogan
Why bother with getting the Botoxed gang back together when new shows are what we really need now?
TV tonight
TV tonight: celebrate a decade of Robert Popper’s sitcom Friday Night Dinner
Come for the insight, stay for the behind-the-scenes footage of the late Paul Ritter. Plus: Mary Beard goes inside culture. Here’s what to watch this evening
Farewell Friday Night Dinner: the joyous Jewish sitcom that became a national treasure
This brilliantly odd slice of comedy gold has lit up our screens for 10 years. As its creator announces it has come to an end, we give thanks for all the belly laughs and squirrel gags
April 2021
Tamsin Greig: ‘Without Paul Ritter, the world is a less brilliant place’
Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter played the Goodmans for six seasons of the Channel 4 comedy Friday Night Dinner. She pays tribute to her friend and co-star, who died on 5 April
'A lovely bit of squirrel': Paul Ritter's most memorable roles
Ritter carved out a wonderful career, culminating in the acclaimed Chernobyl – but he’ll be remembered most as oddball patriarch Martin Goodman in Friday Night Dinner
Paul Ritter: Friday Night Dinner star dies of brain tumour at 54
Ritter, who also appeared in films including Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, died at home alongside is wife and two sons
June 2020
On my radar
On my radar: Simon Bird on his cultural highlights
The actor and director on a Spike Lee classic, Ethiopia’s astounding piano-playing nun and a set of photographs of a ping pong table
April 2020
The funniest thing
Robert Popper: 'Peter Serafinowicz is a very silly genius'
TV tonight
TV tonight: Joe Lycett, comic and consumer champ, is back on the case
August 2019
'Whenever you have sex, it’s on your mind': Tom Rosenthal on turning circumcision into comedy
The procedure left the comedian with sexual anxiety – and a tell-all show at the Edinburgh festival
May 2018
TV tonight
Friday’s best TV: Hip-hop Evolution; The Biggest Weekend; Friday Night Dinner
Shad, Canada’s nicest MC, interviews the hip-hop greats in a valuable documentary; live festival music comes from Belfast and Roger Popper’s sitcom returns
April 2018
Sound and vision
This week’s best home entertainment: from Dunkirk to Taskmaster
Christopher Nolan’s pounding war epic arrives on the small screen, while Alex Horne’s gloriously offbeat gameshow returns with a new batch of contenders
August 2016
TV tonight
Friday’s best TV: Mastermind, Amazing Spaces: Shed of the Year
TV tonight
Friday’s best TV: Amazing Spaces Shed of the Year; Highlands; Scotland’s Wild Heart
July 2016
Observer TV reviews
The week in TV: Eden, The Secret Agent, Containment, Friday Night Dinner
Channel 4’s year-long survival show looks set to whip up a storm. And the BBC did the impossible with Conrad’s seedy anarchists
July 2014
The Q&A
Q&A: Simon Bird
'Who would play you in the film of your life? Fassbender or the movie's off'
