Watch TV with Paul Flynn
IN THE 13 YEARS since the start of Outnumbered, intermittent sitcoms about the hapless job of young parenthood have plugged the Brockman family gap. First came Motherland: media-class north London mum attempts to navigate the school run. Then There She Goes: mediaclass north London couple attempt to navigate the school run with special needs.
Now Breeders arrives on the schedule. Paul and Ally are media-class north London, a handsome couple who had their kids slightly too late into their thirties. Their shiny townhouse is full of Aram Stores furniture. One set of in-laws are crazy, eccentric bohemian divorcees, the other distilled with stereotypical workingclass magnificence on which to offset their weather-beaten metropolitan guilt. Inexplicably, they never argue about money.
Peel a layer back, though, and Breeders hides its unique qualities in plain sight. The humour draws not on managing the love parents have for their young children but on the interminable resentments built into the deal. Hate, basically.
It’s a dark twist softened by the natural likeability of actors Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard. Episode one covers the familiar territory of a sleepless night, parents loosely sharing responsibilities for making sure their children survive another night on earth. Unforced flashbacks fill in their backstory gaps, doubling up as Paul’s tossing and turning memories of a less tense past in their relationship as he tries to will himself to sleep. A lecture from the binmen about how many booze bottles inhabit the recycling hit an uncomfortably pointed note. This is easily the best opening episode of a domestic sitcom since Catastrophe.
The dialogue is whip-smart, profane, cruel. The plot hinges on a fantasy of smothering the children with a duvet. The minor detailing is fabulous – Paul dresses better than his wife, yet Ally is cooler than her husband. Seven-year-old Luke is realising the world is full of trapdoors, while four-year-old Ava is obliviously dependent.
Most impressively, Breeders has spotted a new archetype to throw into the parental comedy brew. This is the couple you were friends with until they had kids. You know who I’m talking about.
Begins Thursday, 10pm, Sky One