List of My Family characters
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This is a list of characters for the British sitcom My Family, that has aired on BBC One since 19 September 2000.
My Family centres around the fictional Harper family, who live in Chiswick, West London. The family is lead by parents Ben and Susan, played by Robert Lindsay and Zoë Wanamaker. They have three children, Nick (Kris Marshall), Janey (Daniela Denby-Ashe) and Michael (Gabriel Thomson). Nick is a regular character until the 2003 Christmas special, and makes one appearance in 2004's fifth series before making his final My Family appearance in the 2005 Comic Relief short as Marshall wanted to do other projects and avoid being type-cast.[1] Janey is a regular until the 2002 Christmas special and does not appear in Series Four (2003), while the character is at University. Janey returns as a main character in Series Five.
Abi Harper, played by Siobhan Hayes, first appears in Series Three as the daughter of Ben's cousin Richard (Anthony Head).[2] Series Three also see the first appearance of Roger Bailey, Jnr, played by Keiron Self. Roger, who becomes a main character in the fourth series, is a dentist and the son of Ben's former mentor. In the 2005 Christmas special Alfie Butts (Rhodri Meilir), a friend of Nick's, moves into the Harper household.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Main characters
[edit] Ben Harper
| Ben Harper | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | ""Serpent's Tooth" (2000) |
| Portrayed by | Robert Lindsay |
| Information | |
| Spouse(s) | Susan (née Riggs) |
| Children | Nick Janey Michael |
Ben Harper is a misanthropic dentist who is married to Susan Harper and has three children Nick, Janey and Michael. He shows little compassion for his family, his patients or anyone else he encounters. In most episodes he can be found trying to come up with ingenious plans to annoy his wife, get rid of his kids and sit on the sofa with a beer and the paper. He enjoys watching football (shown supporting both Arsenal F.C. and QPR F.C.) and reading Tom Clancy, although it usually takes him the better part of a year to get through a single book. Ben and Susan have been married for about twenty-five years.
His children each have their different problems (with the possible exception of Michael), possibly due to the chronic lack of attention from their dad who doesn't seem to care about anyone. This lack of caring is shown to others outside of his family too, mainly towards his dental practice partner Roger Bailey.
[edit] Susan Harper
| Susan Harper | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | ""Serpent's Tooth" (2000) |
| Portrayed by | Zoë Wanamaker |
| Information | |
| Spouse(s) | Ben Harper |
| Children | Nick Janey Michael |
Susan Beryl Harper (née Riggs) is a tour guide, and later works in an art gallery. According to her family she is a bad cook. Susan is married to Ben Harper and has three children, Nick, Janey and Michael. Susan shows love to her children and husband. In the earlier series Michael calls her a control freak, which she still is. She enjoys cooking certain dishes, but uses the wrong ingredients. Ben and Susan have been married for about twenty-five years.
Over the years it was known that Susan was past her 40th Birthday (having celebrated it several times), trying to give up smoking, thinking she was pregnant again and being fired from her job.
Susan finds it hard to deal with the fact of her children moving out. In the same series, she had to deal with Janey moving to Manchester to go to university, and Nick flying the nest to live in his own flat. She also had to deal with Abi Harper moving into the Harper household in series 3 and Alfie in series 6.
Susan does not have a good relationship her mother, Grace Riggs, but in the later series their relationship improved by the fact that Grace spent more time with her in the house while Ben was away. When the family appeared on Weakest Link, Grace revealed that Susan had a one-day marriage in 1973, after she married a wrestler called Troy the Punisher in Las Vegas while drunk.
[edit] Nick Harper
| Nick Harper | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | ""Serpent's Tooth" (2000) |
| Last appearance | Comic Relief Special (2005) |
| Portrayed by | Kris Marshall |
| Information | |
| Date of birth | 15 June c. 1980 |
Nick Harper is the oldest of three siblings in the Harper family, with Janey being his sister and Michael being his brother. It was after finding out that Susan was pregnant with him, that his parents got married. His idiotic and childish behaviour make him irritating to his family, yet his laid back personality made him strangely popular with women. Nick seems to get himself in awkward situations with other people, often getting confused as to what he is actually doing. Nick has attempted many jobs, such as a female impersonator, stunt-man, mime artist and magician; but was hopelessly unsuccessful at all of them. His birthday is 15 June. Nick is a central character in the series which first screened in 2000, but Kris Marshall left at the end of series 4 to pursue other projects, although he has appeared in one episode of series 5 and a Comic Relief Special since.
[edit] Janey Harper
| Janey Harper | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | ""Serpent's Tooth" (2000) |
| Portrayed by | Daniela Denby-Ashe |
| Information | |
| Date of birth | c. 1982 |
| Spouse(s) | Ches Rochester (div.) |
| Children | Kenzo Harper |
Jane Elizabeth Laura Harper is the only daughter of the family and is known to be rather shallow as a person. She is a shopaholic and is very concerned with her clothes and physical appearance. She is sexually promiscuous and becomes pregnant at 19, becoming a single parent. She named the baby Kenzo although her original choice of name was "Prada-Handbag" according to Susan. She later married Ches Rochester, a man old enough to be her father, but asked for a divorce on her wedding day. She also develops a bad headache when she goes without intercourse for more than two weeks at a time: this causes her to become very aroused and to chase after any man she sees.
She temporarily left the cast in series 4 after going to Manchester University to study Communications in series 3, from where she drops out during the fifth series and returns to live near the rest of her family. In series 7, she is 25 years old.
[edit] Michael Harper
| Michael Harper | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | ""Serpent's Tooth" (2000) |
| Portrayed by | Gabriel Thomson |
| Information | |
| Date of birth | c. 1988 |
Michael Harper is Ben and Susan's unplanned third and youngest child.[3] At the start of the series Michael is a typical 'geek' who has also had a large interest in the military and is highly intelligent if somewhat naive. He also exhibits a strong sense of morality and integrity, attempting to win the election for student president by honest means. He is also repulsed by the thought of sex. However as the series goes on and he matures he becomes very interested in the opposite sex and develops something of a dark, cynical sense of humour. He has displayed Machiavellian tendencies in his dealing with others and has demonstrated excellent skill as a businessman. As a teenager he is usually well-dressed, differing from his more geeky persona at the start of the series. Throughout the series he has been known for being a Smart Alec, differing significantly from the rest of the family.
As the youngest member of the Harper family, he was at secondary school until series 6, he is now in the sixth form. He is known for his frequent short-term relationships with women and for being the black sheep of the family. He is also known for being a supporter of the Conservative Party (as opposed to his Labour Party father). From series 4 to present his posh, geeky friend Hubert makes occasional appearances. When the eighth series begins, Michael has been at University for six months.[3]
[edit] Abi Bailey
| Abi Harper | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | ""Desperately Squeaking Susan" (2002) |
| Last appearance | ""The Abi Habit" (2008) |
| Portrayed by | Siobhan Hayes |
| Information | |
| Date of birth | c. 1982 |
| Spouse(s) | Roger Bailey (2007-) |
Abigail Therese Bernarde Bailey (née Harper) is Ben's first cousin once removed. Her father, Richard Harper, has been married and divorced five times. Her mother, Shelley, has been married and divorced many times, too.
Abi came into the Harper household in the third episode of the third series to stay with them while she was at college. Susan invited her to stay following Janey's departure to University. Although good natured, Abi is very accident - prone, especially in the earlier series, where she puts her hand through a window, and hits Ben around the head with a cricket bat, thinking he was an intruder. She has tried a variety of jobs such as a salesperson and a car mechanic, which led her to dismantling Ben's car and leaving it in pieces on the kitchen table. Abi had a few boyfriends, before finally falling in love with Roger Bailey and agreeing to marry him. They married in the seventh series, with Janey as bridesmaid and Ben as best man. She is a Catholic, and, in the final episode of series eight, she becomes a nun, and opts to stay with her order rather than to return home with Roger.
[edit] Roger Bailey
| Roger Bailey, Jnr. | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | ""The Second Greatest Story Ever Told" (2002) |
| Portrayed by | Keiron Self |
| Information | |
| Spouse(s) | Abi Harper (2007-) |
Roger Bailey, Jnr. is the husband of Abi Harper. Roger, a dentist, first appears in "The Second Greatest Story Every Told" (2002), as the son of Ben's dental mentor, Roger Bailey, Snr. Roger's next appearance is in "Fitting Punishment" (2003), when much to Ben's annoyance, he buys the surgery below Ben's. Soon after he falls in love with Abi Harper, the daughter of Ben's cousin, and she eventually falls in love with him and he proposes in "The Art of Being Susan" (2006). They marry in "Abi Ever After" (2007), with Ben as best man and Janey as bridesmaid. By the start of Series Eight (2008), Roger has become a Special Constable.[3]
[edit] Alfie Butts
| Alfie Butts | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | ""... And I'll Cry If I Want To" (2005) |
| Portrayed by | Rhodri Meilir |
| Information | |
| Date of birth | c. 1981 |
Alfie Butts is a friend of Nick who turns up at the house in the 2005 Christmas Special and moves in with the family. He is always slow when he moves or speaks. A Welsh starting musician, he is not very successful in the industry. In series 7, he was 26 years old.
[edit] Recurring characters
My Family features several recurring characters. In the first series Ben's dental assistant is Brigitte, played by Daisy Donovan.[1] In the second series Kevin Bishop appears as "Stupid" Brian, Janey's boyfriend.[1] Series Four features Rachel Harvey playing Fiona, Michael's girlfriend. That series also sees the introduction of Hubert (Alex Dawson), a friend of Michael's, and Grace Riggs (nee Ryman) (Rosemary Leach), Susan's mother, both of whom appear in subsequent series until Series Seven.[1] In addition, Mr. Alexander Casey, the Harpers' neighbour, appears in two episodes, "Driving Miss Crazy" (2001) and "Neighbour Wars" (2008).
