Line #1 Series/MyFamily


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/my_family.jpg]]
2
3	A British DomCom made by Creator/TheBBC. It feels somewhat more like an American series than most other {{Brit Com}}s, because it was created by an American, Fred "''Series/CarolineInTheCity''" Barron, and was produced by the more American styled "team of writers" format (British {{sitcom}}s usually only have one or two writers).
4
5	The plot is centered around the (of course) [[DysfunctionalFamily dysfunctional]] Harper clan. Ben (Creator/RobertLindsay), the Dad, is an [[JadedWashout Al Bundy-esque]] dentist (only less of an intentional jerk, more of a man of many misunderstandings). His wife is the ControlFreak tour guide Susan (Creator/ZoeWanamaker). They love each other but express their love through sarcasm most of the time. Their kids are:
6	* Nick (Kris Marshall), who is one part {{Schemer}} and one part LazyBum. While old enough to move out, he hasn't yet (Ben wishes he would, Susan can't stand the idea). He does eventually.
7	* Janey (Deniela Denby-Ashe), the standard BrattyTeenageDaughter obsessed with manipulating her family to get her own way. Not a DaddysGirl, however, as Ben doesn't trust her as far as he can throw her.
8	* Michael (Michael Thomson), the TeenGenius, easily the [[OnlySaneMan smartest and most responsible member of the family.]] Not that this is particularly hard.
9
10	Janey eventually moves out to go to university (she later drops out) and then becomes a single mother. She is replaced by Abi (Siobhan Hayes), Ben's [[Series/{{Friends}} Phoebe]]-ish [[TheDitz Ditz]]''/''CloudCuckoolander (it varies) cousin. Later seasons see the appearance of ButtMonkey Roger (Keiron Self), Ben's fellow dentist and later husband of Abi, and Alfie (Rhodri Meilir), Nick's Welsh CloudCuckoolander friend who comes to live with the family. In later years, Ben becomes the prominent ButtMonkey to the point of DeusAngstMachina and sometimes even KafkaKomedy.
11
12	It came in twenty-fourth in ''Series/BritainsBestSitcom''.
13	----
14	!!Contains examples of:
15	* ActorAllusion:
16	** One episode centres around Susan being stuck in a foreign airport because her flight is cancelled, and meeting a mysterious traveller known as [[Series/DoctorWho "The Doctor"]], played by Creator/JohnBarrowman.
17	** In one episode, Nick gets a [[Film/HarryPotter Madam Hooch]] trading card, which is a role of Zoë Wanamaker's.
18	** In the 2009 Christmas special, Michael (played by Gabriel Thomson) tells Kenzo how to pronounce the angel Gabriel's name.
19	** Series 8's ''Let's Not Be Heisty'' features Pauline Quirke and her on-screen husband as bank robbers who take Ben and Janey as well as the bank staff as hostages.
20	* AndADietCoke: In the Series 2 finale ''Breakable'', Janey takes a waitress job at a restaurant in Soho (hoping to be spotted by a movie producer), but doesn't bother keeping her bad attitude in check. She gets fired after snarking at a customer over this.
21	-->'''Janey''': Right, so that's a slimline tonic to go with your slimline foie gras, slimline steak and kidney pie and slimline chips. Oh, and may I recommend the slimline sticky toffee pudding?
22	* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: Ben is insulted when nobody hits on him in the gay bar.
23	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: When Susan says; "Janey's pregnant," "I'm leaving you," and "Nick's wearing your trousers." Guess which one gets Ben's attention.
24	* AsHimself:
25	** Ainsley Harriott and Rolf Harris in the 2010 Christmas Special "Mary Christmas" when the Harpers and neighbour Mr Casey hire them in an attempt to outdo each other's New Year's Eve parties.
26	** Also, the 2005 UsefulNotes/ComicRelief short, which guest stars: [[Series/TopOfThePops Jamie Theakston]], Creator/AnthonyHead, TV presenter Myleene Klass, historian Adam Hart Davis, athlete Nell [=McAndrew=], newsreader Dermot Murnaghan, and [[Series/RipperStreet Clive Russell]] as themselves.
27	** Anne Robinson in Series 7's "Susan of Troy".
28	** The late Richard Whiteley in the 2003 Christmas Special.
29	* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Ben and Susan, many times.
30	** Michael and Janey in the later series.
31	** Very, ''very'' occasionally between Ben and his children, such as him getting violently protective when one of Janey's dates goes too far.
32	* BasementDweller: Nick, Janey and Michael all live at home well into their twenties and maintain much the same kind of lifestyle as when they were teenagers, although Nick does eventually move out. Janey briefly went to university but dropped out and returned home. Michael supposedly goes to university (or College, according to at least one Series 7 episode) and then lives with a boyfriend, but spends as much time hanging around the family home as he ever did.
33	* BigEater: The 2009 Christmas episode showed that thirty years into the future Janey has become a compulsive eater and enormously obese.
34	* BigOMG: When Abi [[spoiler:runs away to become a nun]], she leaves a letter explaining her actions for Ben and Susan, but words it as something like "I'm leaving to work for the boss. Yes, the boss, the big guy." After a moment's confusion, Susan realises what she means and lets out a shocked "Oh my God!"
35	-->'''Ben:''' Yes, that's who she's referring to.
36	* BottleEpisode: "Sixty Feet Under" sees Ben, Susan, Nick and Michael stuck on a subway train due to signalling problems.
37	* BrainlessBeauty: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Janey. She acts like one a fair bit but this is mostly due to being lazy rather than stupid and when she puts effort in she can be very sharp, particularly on things that she's interested in. Notably she is able to tell the exact amount of a pile of random bank notes at a glance.
38	* BreakingTheFourthWall: During the episode set in 2039, Susan mentions several times that the reason she looks so youthful is down to moisturiser- before turning to the camera and winking, indicating that she's had plastic surgery. The basic implications are obvious to everyone, but the hidden joke will only be apparent to [[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]] fans: Zoë Wanamaker played the infamous surgery-addicted Lady Cassandra, who had the well-remembered [[CatchPhrase catch phrase]], "moisturise me".
39	* BullyHunter: Ben got this reputation at school by accident. He saw a fellow student getting beaten up, was actually rushing in to join in the bullying and hit one of the bullies by accident. The group dispersed and the victim was so thankful Ben decided SureLetsGoWithThat.
40	* TheBusCameBack: Nick made two return appearances in season five and the 2005 Comic Relief special before never returning to the show again.
41	* BusCrash: In the eleventh (and final) series, Susan's mother Grace is revealed to have died offscreen, and the Harpers attend her funeral.
42	* ButtMonkey: Ben, especially in the show's last three seasons or so.
43	* CelebrityParadox: Creator/AnthonyHead appears in the Series 4 episode "May The Best Man Win" as Ben's cousin Richard, and later guest stars AsHimself in the 2005 UsefulNotes/ComicRelief short.
44	* ChristmasEpisode: There's one every year from Series 3 to Series 10.
45	* ClassicalMusicIsCool: In "Droit de Seigneur Ben", Ben is horrified when Susan reveals that she has tickets to a performance of Mozart's ''Theatre/DonGiovanni'', as he hates opera. Susan insists that he listen to a recording while reading the libretto before they see it live, and Ben ends up enjoying it immensely. (He also finds parallels between the title character's use of DroitDuSeigneur and the episode's A plot, in which Janey is set up on a date with an aristocrat's son, who tries to force himself on her.)
46	* ClipShow:
47	** Series 3's ''Shrink Rap''.
48	** The Series 5 ''Reloaded'' Special.
49	** For the show's 100th episode, ''Kenzo's Project''.
50	** The 2009 Christmas Special.
51	* CloudCuckoolander: Nick, Abi and Roger Bailey are all just a little cuckoo.
52	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: In the first episode of the show, Ben's assistant Brigitte criticises him for not making the time to treat his own wife and children, comparing him to the story of "The [[TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes cobbler's children who had no food]]." Ben corrects her, and she replies that "That makes no sense, their dad was a cobbler."
53	* CommutingOnABus: Roger in series 10 (he appears in only one episode).
54	* ControlFreak: Susan, though she won't hesitate to deny it.
55	* CoversAlwaysLie: The title sequence, in its various forms, usually depicts the main characters smiling. They are seldom like that in the show itself.
56	* CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure: "The next time you try to quit, do it on holiday."
57	* DaddyDNATest: In series ten, when Ben suspects that a visiting house guest (who's also Janey's new boyfriend) might be his son from a previous relationship. [[spoiler: He isn't.]]
58	* DeadpanSnarker: Ben and Susan seem to be engaged in a constant deadpan snarkery contest. Easy to see where Michael gets it from.
59	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: A scene in the pilot where Ben finds out Susan went to another dentist for a filling is treated as though she had an affair.
60	-->'''Susan''': It didn't mean anything\
61	'''Ben''': It didn't ''mean'' anything?!... What was he like?\
62	'''Susan''': Well...he took a lot more time over it...
63	* DoggedNiceGuy: Roger, friendzoned by Abi for a long time.
64	* DroitDuSeigneur: As you might gather from the title "Droit de Seigneur Ben", the A plot of the episode in question sees Janey being set up on a date with a local aristocrat's son who tries to take advantage of her; Ben likens the incident to the invocation of this trope by the title character in ''Theatre/DonGiovanni''.
65	* DumbBlonde:
66	** Janey, sometimes.
67	** Abi, although she is more of a CloudCuckoolander variety.
68	* DysfunctionJunction: YES.
69	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the first series, the layout of the house has some key differences, such as an extra fireplace in the living room next to the kitchen. Ben and Susan's bedroom also has their window and en suite on the other sides of the room from where they are later.
70	* FakeHigh: A marijuana joint that actually turned out to be made of cinnamon and oregano powered by the placebo effect shared by Ben and Susan. Effects range from Susan overcoming her habitual mental block as to how horrible her cooking is, Ben correcting the lyrics to Jimi Hendrix songs at the top of his voice.
71	* {{Flashforward}}: The episode "2039: A Christmas Oddity" takes place 30 years after the airing of the episode (in 2009) and gives us a glimpse at what the family has been up to since then.
72	* FourthDateMarriage: Janey marries a guy she's known for only ten days, because they met at a wedding where a fortune teller said Janey would meet her true love. [[spoiler:She runs off with someone else and asks for a divorce on the same day.]]
73	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In one episode, Nick gets a job as an extra and spends several scenes practicing by appearing in the background of Ben and Susan's conversations. It gets weird when he brings home several fellow extras to form a co-operative, including a traffic warden, an old lady and a city gent.
74	* GirlOnGirlIsHot: In one episode, Janey brings a lesbian friend home, leading the rest of the family to suspect that she's gay.
75	-->'''Nick''': My worst nightmare - two lesbians sharing a bed in my house and one of them's my sister.
76	* GrammarCorrectionGag: Season 1, Episode 7.
77	-->'''Janey:''' Well, I wish I was dead!
78	-->'''Susan:''' Janey! How can you say that? I wish I ''were'' dead, the subjunctive.
79	* HeadTiltinglyKinky: Ben and Nick when they try to look up dentists online with the phrase "oral services". Later, Michael and Alfie, when they look up who has occupied the homepage name ''Welsh boys''.
80	* HerBoyfriendsJacket: One episode involves Janey being given her boyfriend's jacket and taking a liking to it so much she tries to avoid giving it back even after dumping him. Eventually he tricks her into giving it back, though she manages to coax it out of him by dating him again.
81	* HiddenDepths: There are occasional hints that Nick isn't quite as stupid as he usually comes across; for example, in "Droit de Seigneur Ben", he claims that he has decided to become a painter because Creator/LeonardoDaVinci appeared to him and said "Nick, mate, two words: nude models." Ben scoffs at the idea, then Nick adds that it was actually "Caro Nico, due parole: modelle nude."
82	* IncestSubtext:
83	** Michael accidentally kisses Susan, mistaking her for his date.
84	** Susan matchmakes for Michael, getting him a girlfriend exactly like herself.
85	** And of course, Nick and Ben often mistaken for a couple.
86	** In a less close example Michael is attracted to Abi, his second cousin.
87	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Ben all the way.
88	* ItsAllAboutMe: A family trait on both sides.
89	* IUhYouToo:
90	** Abi and Roger:
91	--->'''Abi''': What are you doing?\
92	'''Roger''': I am writing a list of the guests.\
93	'''Abi''': Why is only my name on it?\
94	'''Roger''': I am a little nearsighted.\
95	'''Abi''': Why are little hearts around it?\
96	'''Roger''': Because I love... writing lists.\
97	'''Abi''': I love... writing lists, too.
98	** Janey and Michael say it word for word in series 11.
99	* ItsAWonderfulPlot: [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] in ""It's A Window Filled Life"" with Ben falling into the river and saved by a man named ''Clarence''. [[spoiler: In a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] finding out he ''didn't'' make much of an impact on those around him is what cheers up Ben, since that means his family being screwed up isn't his fault.]]
100	* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne:
101	-->'''Grace''': The point is until he gets back, I'm here for you, darling.\
102	'''Susan''': Here for me as in running up the phone bill, insulting the neighbours and draining the drinks cabinet?\
103	'''Grace''': I hardly use the phone!
104	* IWasQuiteALooker: Susan and her mother Grace, who, despite being in their 50s and 70s respectively, still seem to attract quite a bit of male attention.
105	* JumpingOutOfACake: In one episode, Ben is asked to throw his cousin a bachelor party. Susan is upset at his plans to hire a stripper to jump out of a cake, and decides to take the stripper's place. The cakes get accidentally switched, so Susan ends up at a convention for pipe-smokers, and the bachelor party gets a cake containing a guy in lederhosen smoking a pipe ...
106	* KarmaHoudini: Almost any of the Harpers with the clear exception of Ben can get away with crap, especially if it's at his expense. They are sometimes dragged down with him however.
107	* KissingCousins: Michael nurses a crush on Abi, his second cousin, and the two do kiss on one occasion [[OperationJealousy (though only to make another girl jealous).]]
108	* TheKlutz: Abi to a dangerous degree. Ben notes that since she moved in they've had to visit the hospital so often he's being asked to chip in for staff birthdays.
109	* LethalChef: Susan. Her approach to cooking is generally just to throw together ingredients with little care and see what happens.
110	* [[LittleMissSnarker Little Mr Snarker]]:
111	%%** Michael, in earlier series.
112	%%** Kenzo.
113	** Just about every child character with a speaking role.
114	* LivingInAFurnitureStore: Averted: Janey's room, at least in "Death Takes a Policy", is as messy as a teenager's room should be.
115	* LongBusTrip: Nick does not appear at all throughout the last six series, after CommutingOnABus in series five.
116	* LowCountGag: In one episode, Susan runs for the local council and is shocked when someone else is declared the winner. She immediately demands a recount, which the adjudicator performs right then and there to reveal that Susan got all of ''one'' vote (presumably her own).
117	* MistakenForCheating: In one episode, Susan and a business partner book a hotel together while on a business trip, only to learn at the front desk that [[ThereIsOnlyOneBed they've been booked in the same room]] despite having apparently asked for separate rooms. Ben, who already suspected they might be cheating, is even more suspicious when he learns this and starts spying on them, eventually becoming so convinced that he bursts into the room to try and attack the man. Which leads to...
118	* MistakenForProstitute: In the same episode, after Susan and the business partner disappear into the elevator, the concierge and receptionist turn to each other and agree that Susan must be a prostitute. Shortly after Ben bursts in, the concierge also walks in to find [[NotWhatItLooksLike Ben wrestling with the business partner]], and the three of them are immediately kicked out with the admonishment that "this isn't that kind of hotel".
119	* MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels: Susan's attempt at speaking Spanish while on holiday in Lanzarote, despite everyone else having no trouble speaking to her in English. The high point is when she accidentally seduces a pharmacist while trying to buy sunscreen.
120	* ObfuscatingStupidity: Janey, who studied French, Economics and History at A-Level and went on to university, is a clear-cut example of this trope.
121	* OlderThanTheyLook: Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker are sixty years old as of the latest series, and Wanamaker in particular appears to be getting younger with each series.
122	* OnlineAlias: In one episode, Ben gets advice from a forum. A joke is made about the wisdom in getting investment advice from someone going by the name "[=Yoda212=]". Another member of the chatroom goes by "[=ProfessorFrankenBanker=]."
123	* OnlySaneMan: Usually Michael, sometimes Ben or Susan. Alfie too occasionally plays this role. Bear in mind that this leaves 50% of the cast to be as mad as hatters the whole time.
124	* OperationJealousy:
125	** Susan's friend Megan finds out her husband has a young lover. She and Susan scheme that Ben will play Megan's lover at the same restaurant where the husband and his girl-friend are having dinner. It looks hopeless, but it turns out it worked and he returns to Megan.
126	** Abi briefly pretends to be Michael's recently dumped girlfriend in a surprisingly successful attempt to attract a girl he's interested in.
127	* ParentalIncest: PlayedForLaughs with Ben and Nick, ''disturbingly often'' (such as in the episode where [[ItMakesSenseInContext Nick is watching Kenzo whilst in Ben and Susan's bed]]).
128	* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Kenzo, in the 2009 Christmas Special.
129	* PunnyName: Janey became [[Literature/JaneEyre Jane Rochester]] after her extremely brief marriage, but later changed her name back to Harper after asking for a divorce on the wedding day.
130	* ReallyGetsAround: Janey.
131	* RetCon: Susan's mother is initially named as Rebecca and later as Grace. Ben's cousin Richard is introduced as Abi's father but there is no mention of her when he reappears in the 2009 Christmas Special (perhaps because her actress had left the show by this time.)
132	* ReversePsychology: Turns out using it to get money out of Ben doesn't really work.
133	* RomanticSpoonfeeding: During one dinner, an older man feeds his young girlfriend. Megan, the older guy's wife who tries to top him and make him jealous, asks Ben (who plays her lover) to spoon-feed her as well. Ben is a bit clumsy, though, and it's very awkward.
134	* RunningGag:
135	** Nick's rapid career changes, usually after he cocks up the previous job.
136	** If Ben has hold of a camera, there's a safe bet the flash will go off in his face at close range.
137	* SanityBall: Never goes anywhere near Nick, Abi or Roger.
138	* ScreamingBirth: Parodied in the episode where Janey gives birth to Kenzo. As Susan and Ben drive to the hospital to see her, they have flashbacks to the ScreamingBirth of Nick. When they arrive, Janey has had the baby with no fuss at all and is sitting up painting her nails.
139	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness:
140	** Abi, in an episode where she applies for a job in a library and memorises an entire dictionary to help her prepare for the interview.
141	** Michael was like this in the earlier series, though the trait was dropped as he grew older.
142	* SexIsGood: Ben and Susan might squabble constantly but they maintain an impressively healthy sex life for a couple in the 40s with three children, with their only interruption being the occasional LysistrataGambit from Susan (which she can rarely hold for long, as she enjoys sex too much).
143	* SiblingTeam:
144	** Michael and Janey (sort of) in the later series.
145	** Nick and Michael when Nick manages to rope his younger brother into his strange schemes.
146	* SitcomArchNemesis: Ben has an occasional one in the form of the Harpers' neighbour Mr Casey. He's also been shown to have rivalries with his cousin Richard and with an old friend who became a celebrity dentist.
147	* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Ben and Susan seem to be engaged in a constant deadpan snarkery contest.
148	* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: Going by Christmas specials and in-show references, the show appears to take place in real-world time with a year in between each series; but Janey is 16 in the first series but in Series 10 claims to be "almost 30."
149	* StylisticSuck: Alfie writes guitar-assisted songs in the style of [[Series/{{Friends}} Phoebe Buffay]]. For example, "My dog and I go together like a jacket and a tie. (beat) My dog and I. Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof...,"
150	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Abi for Janey (initially, although Janey returned later), Alfie for Nick. Then Alfie left and was replaced with Michael's new boyfriend Scott, a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for a Suspiciously Similar Substitute! For some reason, no one was brought in to replace Abi, but Roger had become a more prominent character over the storyline involving the Roger-Abi romance.
151	* TeenGenius: Michael. It's also implied Kenzo will be one when he's older.
152	* TemporaryBlindness: Susan from the shock of catching Michael with a girl in his bed.
153	* TheUnfairSex: Subverted. This is one of the few sitcoms where the females are just as bad as the males and not depicted as being in the right for it. Granted due to the scale of luck [[ButtMonkey Ben]] and other male characters have, they still usually [[KarmaHoudini get away with it]] a lot more often.
154	* UnfortunateSearchResults: In the first episode, Ben is looking for a dentist online, hoping to locate them using the phrase “oral contacts”. Although the audience doesn’t see what he locates, it does cause him and Nick to reel back and [[HeadTiltinglyKinky tilt their heads in shock]].
155	* WillTheyOrWontThey: Roger and Abi. [[spoiler:They did, and got married - but then Abi converted to Catholicism and left Roger to become a nun.]]
156	* WorldOfSnark: Ben and Susan seem to be engaged in a constant deadpan snarkery contest. Easy to see where Michael gets it from.
157	* YourCostumeNeedsWork: Abi auditions as a drag queen and is told she isn't a convincing enough woman.

Context Series / MyFamily