Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7866 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-06-25
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 220 minutes

Synopsis
The sixth series of this phenomenally successful family comedy sees Ben getting his house (and his life) back as the kids move away. But then it starts filling up again. Nick may still be away, but Janey's back and spending more time at the Harpers than in her flat, Michael's still very much in residence and now Susan seems to have adopted Nick's friend, Alfie, who came for Christmas. With regular visits from mother-in-law Grace thrown in, it's no surprise that Ben starts taking refuge in dental conferences.

Customer Reviews

Not the best, but still funny
The Harpers return in the sixth series of the long-running "Britcom" series, starring Ben (Robert Lindsay), his wife Susan (Zoe Wanamaker), children Michael and Janey, neice Abi, her boyfriend and fellow dentist Roger Bailey and new addition to the cast, Alfie Butts (who was introduced in the 2005 Christmas special).

There's all the usual hilarious situations going on, including Ben attacking cyclists and joining a gay brotherhood, Susan joins a pyramid selling scheme, Janey dates a dentist whilst Michael dates a girl who is scarily similar to his mother and Roger is getting closer to popping the question to Abi.

Even though this series is very funny, it seems to not be at the high level of quality it was in the first four or five series. For example - Aflie, although can be quite funny, is a completely pointless character, seeming to only be there to fill the gap of Nick's dopey character (Kris Marshall left the show after series four). Abi and Roger come across as a little too stupid, making them feel a lot less believable. Also having so many extra characters in the house all the time makes the show feel a little over-run by non-family members (isn't the point of the show to be focused on the family?). Ben (in my opinion the best character) is also absent from 2 of the episodes.

Another problem with series 6 is that there are only 7 episodes, making you feel that you have been a little short-changed as the price is exactly the same as the previous 14 episode, 2 disc series.

Overall, although not the strongest, funniest or best series of 'My Family', it is still one of the best British comedy series for a long time and is always great fun to watch with a lot of guaranteed laughs.

Ploughing a lone furrow?
My Family is a long-running British sitcom starring Robert Lindsay and Zoë Wanamaker that first aired in 2000. Six series have so far been aired and a seventh series will air in 2007 . In 2004, it came 24th in Britain's Best Sitcom.

My Family is about the life of the Harper family, a fictional English family, who live in the London suburbs. Ben, a dentist, and Susan, a tour guide, have three children, Nick, Janey and Michael, all of whom cause problems in their own way. While Susan is a control freak, Ben prefers to leave the children to it and tries not to get involved. In the third series, Abi, the daughter of Ben's cousin, comes to lives with them, and she eventually falls for Roger, Ben's neighbouring dentist. The humour, like most domestic sitcoms, came from the relationships of the family members and the situations they end up in.

The series is scripted by a team of writers, following the American model. Historically, British sitcoms were more generally written by one or two writers. By employing a wider number of writers to brainstorm jokes for each episode, the BBC has been able to maintain a consistent and relatively long-lived product without having to wait for a single writer to produce more material.

My Family is a simple domestic comedy that relied for its laughs upon character and sharp dialogue, rather than complex plotting, and was well served by the excellence of Zoe Wanamaker and Robert Lindsay. Though few critics warmed to it, finding it middle-of-the-road and old-fashioned, above-average audience ratings encouraged the BBC to stick at it, commissioning further (longer-than-average) seasons and eventually scoring a sizeable and deserved hit.

Long wait, but worth it
I love this show.

I ordered this last year as i thought that it would come out one month later, but it didn't, and it got pushed back to December 06, then June this year. I have now got it after a long wait.

I've seen the series on the BBC and the repeats on UKTV Gold, and i still cannot get enough of the mad harper family. The new Character Alfie is great, but is not a patch on Nick who i think is the best character in the show and i think that they should bring him back in Series 8.

This series has some great moments such as the pyramus scam, the susan look-alike and the dog which alfie gets and seems to understand.
Overall, a great DVD and bring on series 7 to DVD (it is set for release in september but after my experince of this release, i would not bet on it being released at that time, maybe sometime next year).