Imogen Stubbs

No amount of digital remastering would have improved the pilot episode of The Adventures of Daniel, just some top-to-bottom rewriting. Not unlike the BBC's other new sitcom, Grandma's House, The Adventures of Daniel revolves in sub-Seinfeld fashion around a comedian playing himself, in this case the teenage Scottish stand-up Daniel Sloss. He seems like an engaging and talented lad, but he was ill-served by some gruesomely unfunny material, all constructed around the notion that his (Scottish) girlfriend's (English) dad didn't care for him, but thought that his (Scottish) girlfriend's (English) sister's (Scottish) boyfriend was the bee's knees. As the (Scottish) girlfriend's (English) mother, looking faintly as though she had wandered into the wrong rehearsal room, was Imogen Stubbs.

Some of the previews of this pilot were decidedly enthusiastic. One of them even featured the emotive word "funny". So maybe I was alone in finding it, on the whole, as funny as gastroenteritis. Coincidentally, trawling through the channels not long after watching it, I happened on a superannuated Scottish stand-up, Billy Connolly, on one of his world tours, and was reminded what "funny" really is. But then not everyone is tickled by Connolly, either. What "funny" is more than anything is subjective, so let me just say that The Adventures of Daniel might be your thing, but on this early evidence it certainly isn't mine.

Nineteen-year-old Daniel Sloss from Kirkcaldy - a comedy circuit 'veteran' of three years - makes his annoyingly young debut as a sitcom star this week. The Adventures Of Daniel takes elements from Sloss's real life and fictionalises them, but less self-consciously than Simon Amstell's awkward Grandma's House. It feels like the pilot has been thrown together, which is not necessarily a bad thing but the supporting characters - mum (Imogen Stubbs), friends, girlfriend and her family - are all lightly sketched, more ideas than fully formed characters.

He's an engaging screen presence though and while there are a few too many teenage clichés, it's already better than many of BBC 3's attempts to be down with the youf.