David J. Nicholls

Divorce comedy is the new romantic fiction

David Nicholls, the Man Booker Prize nominee, says stories of unconventional families and romance in older age are likely to become more common to reflect "huge cultural change".

It's never a good idea to have a pun in a name. Book titles, bands, babies, yachts, TV shows, anything. Come up with it, say it out loud, have a laugh, have a groan, move on, that's the correct behaviour. What's funny now won't be next week. Even a good pun - which, admittedly, Scrotal Recall (Channel 4) is - will irritate in time, if you have to live with it. Imagine if it gets recommissioned.

It's not just a good pun, but an apt one too. Dylan (played by likable actor/folk singer/posh boy Johnny Flynn) finds out he has chlamydia and must contact all the people he's ever slept with, to tell them the news. So memory and (presumably) nutsacks do come in to it. But there's a sweaty, visceral, hairy, loose-skinned crudity about the title that doesn't quite fit Tom Edge's new comedy, tonally.

Dylan's doing it - recalling his sex life - alphabetically, starting with A, for Abigail, three years ago at a wedding. Which one is she, though? The new girlfriend, who dumps him, during the marriage service? One of the bridesmaids? The hot vicar (complete with dog collar, woof woof)? "Definitely top of the wedding sex pyramid," says Dylan's louche mate Luke (Daniel Ings). So there's a guessing game, a nice element of whodun'im about it. [Spoiler alert: don't read the rest of this paragraph if you haven't yet seen it and plan to.] The answer turns out to be none of the above, but the girl behind the desk of the hotel. It's obvious, in retrospect. "Ding if you need me," she said. He did, so he did.

There's more to Scrotal Recall than ding-dong and scrotums and "wall-to-wall snatch" (louche Luke's description of the wedding), though. It's about Dylan's examination of himself, and his relationship with women, including best friend/true love Evie (Antonia Thomas from Misfits). It's about how love hurts, and not just when he pees. There's something of Four Weddings about it, and One Day (you know, by David Nicholls, whose new novel Us is already being read by the person opposite you on the train). Charming, then. But also with drunkenness, and falling over, and bodily fluids. And it's very funny. I already hope it gets recommissioned. I can live with the title.