Entertainment
Friday Night Dinner creator confirms series 6 is the last following death of Paul Ritter
Friday Night Dinner creator Robert Popper has confirmed that series six was the last ever following the death of Paul Ritter.
Paul, known for playing father Martin Goodman, died aged 54 from a brain tumour earlier this year.
Series six finale aired back in 2020 and finished on a high with both Adam (Simon Bird) and Jonny (Tom Rosenthal) finding out their girlfriends were pregnant.
Speaking to LadBible, Robert said that the finale was a fitting end and he wouldn’t bring the series back for more episodes in future.
When asked if it was always planned that way, he said: ‘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 halfway 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.’
Robert went on to say: ‘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.’
It comes after Paul and his co-stars filmed footage for new documentary Friday Night Dinner: 10 Years And a Lovely Bit of Squirrel earlier this year. It airs on Channel 4 later this month.
Speaking about his favourite scene from the hit sitcom, Paul spoke about Wilson – the dog owned by eccentric neighbour Jim Bell (Mark Heap).
‘My favourite bit of Friday Night Dinner has to be the death of Wilson,’ Paul said.
‘It was very clever by Robert because Wilson was the character who died, but it actually unlocked all our feelings about Jim.’
The scene from 2018 saw Wilson buried in the Goodmans’ flowerbed, having terrified owner Jim throughout his life.
Tamsin Greig also reflected on Paul’s death in the documentary, saying that she tried to convince him not to take part in the 10-year anniversary special due to his ill health.
Friday Night Dinner: 10 Years And a Lovely Bit of Squirrel arrives on Channel 4 on May 28. Friday Night Dinner is available to stream on All 4.
Follow Metro across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Share your views in the comments below.
