Season Six Of Friday Night Dinner Was The Last One, Creator Robert Popper Confirms
The show's creator says it was 'the end' of the iconic comedy
Season six of Friday Night Dinner was the last ever, its creator has revealed.
Robert Popper says he felt it rounded off the story perfectly and that the iconic comedy would not be returning.
Speaking to LADbible, the 53-year-old says the last episode was one of his favourites and he doesn't want to carry on the story.
When asked if this was always planned, Robert reveals: "It wasn't, actually. I never really know until I start.
"I have all my ideas and I have my board up on a wall, but I never really know, until I start an episode, what it's going to be about.
"But I did think half-way through it would be great if they both brought girls round, and then I thought that one of them was pregnant and then 'oh, what happens if they're both pregnant?' So I thought that was good.
"And then, yeah, I was thinking this will be the end, because I didn't want to do a series where they had kids and babies, and Jim would have seven dogs, also, like, the world's weirdest dog that you couldn't find seven of.
"So that was going to be the end, yeah."
But just as it was was never the original 'plan' for the story to end there, neither was the final line.
Robert says: "I didn't really want to do that [end on 'S*** on it#'], but I thought it sort of had to end there."
Looking back at his time with Friday Night Dinner, the writer says he misses working so closely with the cast.
He says: "The bit I always liked the best was when, before we filmed, say, a dinner scene, it would be just the cast, me and the director, and we would do it without their script, and it was just us.
"And I always liked that because seeing it said properly in the actual space, but no one else watching, those moments I always like, because when you're filming, you do the shot, you do it three times, you do it from this angle and this angle, and after a while, you've heard the lines 50 times.
"So for a six or seven-page dinner scene, that's a whole day, and you're in there the whole time, doing the same scene again and again and again.
"So just seeing it fresh like that, they were my favourite moments."
A special Friday Night Dinner 10-year anniversary documentary will air this Friday (28 May) on Channel 4.
Friday Night Dinner - 10 Years And A Lovely Bit Of Squirrel is a look back at the funniest moments from the six series of the hit comedy, and includes interviews with its creator and the entire Goodman family, including the late Paul Ritter (Martin), who sadly died earlier this year.
Speaking in the documentary, the 54-year-old, who took part despite being seriously ill at the time, said playing the shirtless patriarch was 'absolutely everything to him'.
He said: "I'd be nothing without him. Seriously. I mean it was the great career gift. In terms of interesting parts, he's been absolutely everything to me, and I have loved playing him. I've loved all the extraordinary scenes we do."
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Robert Popper, Entertainment, Paul Ritter, Funny, UK Entertainment, Channel 4
Dominic Smithers