My Family: Series 10 Episode 2

Oh, come on. Admit it. You do watch it. Hell, someone does, it’s being going for ten years, and remains one of the most phenomenally successful programme the BBC has. It’s fashionable to knock My Family as something of a middle-class, middle of the road sitcom, as dangerous and as inventive as wallpaper.

However, the fact remains that it really is one of the BBC’s most successful programmes, and it’s simply because there’s a hugely engaging cast, headed by Zoe Wanamaker and Robert Lindsay, and - despite what we like to think - it really does have a couple of cute one-liners mixed in with the old-fashioned plot lines where misunderstanding is piled over misunderstanding. Misunderstandings abound in this episode where youngest son Michael (Gabriel Thomson) comes out to his family.

Since the episode is titled with a pun - 'The Son Will Come Out' - your hopes may not be high. Surely it’s likely to be a 1970s-style half hour, with embarrassing borderline homophobic gags aplenty, right? Well, actually, no. It’s really a very sweet episode, occasionally moving with a cute twist on the parental reactions, riffing on Susan’s all-accepting hippyness and Ben’s blinkered reactions. And while there’s a few scenes involving one character’s inability to accept that someone in their family is gay, this all comes across like an honest, believable rendition of a (positive) coming out, with a few clever tweaks. Most importantly, there's a very real sense that by next week’s episode, Michael’s sexuality won’t be the object of any gags and will indeed be part of the wallpaper. There is a repeat of the old joke about a straight man not being able to embrace a recently outed one, but that’s explained by the fact that ‘we’ve never been much of a demonstrative family’.

Very quietly, mixed in with what will be considered by many a bland sitcom (or say they claim), 'The Son Will Come Out' is a minor triumph.



Airs at 9pm on Friday 16th July 2010 on BBC One.

Reviewed by by Andrew Allen.