Will Mellor

In with the Flynns (BBC1) is bland, smooth and unremarkable. You would call it a sitcom designed by a committee, were it not for the fact that programmes with a lot of writers tend to be quite good. There's a family, without much money: the kids say the darndest things and the teenager gets a piercing. The father's adult brother lives among them, I think in an attempt to splice the eternal humour of the family unit with some of the classic larks of Men Behaving Badly.

The acting is not great. The kids are not great. Are you even allowed to slag off child actors? Is that like saying you don't think Pippa Middleton's all that? Will Mellor's long-suffering but chirpy dad has a portfolio of exaggerated hand-gestures that he borrowed off the 1970s: the "what's he like?" backward thumb point; the "I don't know why I bother" flap. Somebody on the set should be poking him with a stick, saying: "Have you ever seen anybody do that? Anybody in real life?"

It is unfair to single any of them out, though, since the problem is the set-up: if they want us to fall in love with the Flynns, as one might a regular family, beset by tribulations but battling through, yik yak yik yak, then they need to be a bit more like actual people. And if they want us to fall about, like we're watching Miranda, only without the hassle of getting the actual Miranda, then it has to be funny.

So, take this snatch of dialogue: "Your perfume is exquisite." "Actually, that might be Brasso". No two people in the history of enlarged frontal lobes have ever had that exchange: yet where's the thrill, the intoxication, the certain something that makes up for how unlikely it is? I think there should be a litmus test for all sitcoms; is it as funny as a kitten falling down the back of a sofa? Nope? Well, then, back to the drawing board, or we need to start paying more for home videos. It would save so much human endeavour. And the kittens would be doing that stuff anyway.

A mainstream, family-based sitcom billed as "warm" and "authentic" sets all the alarm bells ringing. This new six-parter written by Daniel Peak is a kind of aspirational working-class companion to the bourgeois settings of Outnumbered and My Family, but if anything, it's even more flat-footed. It feels incredibly dated, from the staging to the characters to the jokes. Will Mellor and Niky Wardley are the parents working extra shifts to take the family on holiday; Warren Clarke is the best bit as the grouchy grandfather looking for romance.

With the last series of My Family starting later this month, In With The Flynns picks up the sitcom baton and sprints off with it.

Weirdly, both series have American roots. My Family was created by Fred Barron, while The Flynns is executive produced by Caryn Mandabach whose name you'll have seen attached to such monoliths as Roseanne, 3rd Rock from the Sun and Nurse Jackie.

This is a British version of her US show Grounded for Life and it's written by George Jeffrie and Bert Tyler-Moore - the two big comedy brains behind Pete Versus Life and Star Stories.

Where My Family feels forced and artificial to the point of being almost physically painful to watch, In With The Flynns, with its seamless use of flashbacks, is much more relaxed.

Set in Manchester, it stars Will Mellor and Niky Wardley as Liam and Caroline, the harassed young parents of a teenage daughter Chloe and two younger sons.

Warren Clarke plays Liam's dad Jim and Liam's brother Tommy is played by Craig Parkinson - who you'll recognise as the only probation worker to survive the Asbo Five in Misfits.

With Liam and Caroline too busy to keep a proper eye on their kids, it's left to Tommy this week to give them the benefits of his worldly wisdom.

If you're a fan of Seinfeld, you'll probably spot that Tommy has a touch of the Kramer about him - he is a law unto himself and completely Teflon coated so that blame never sticks.

Judging from this first outing, The Flynns could be with us for even longer than My Family has managed.

Straight-ahead family sitcoms are a hard trick to pull off, but when it works, it's a trick that can run and run (look at My Family, starting its 11th series next week). Here's a new contender, loosely based on the US hit Grounded for Life (which briefly aired on ITV) and featuring a likeable, mildly chaotic Manchester family. Parents Liam and Caroline had their first child when they were still teenagers and are now in their 30s and struggling with three. Liam's unreliable brother Tommy should help with the parenting chores but only adds to their woes. The first episode revolves around the couple's efforts to work the overtime necessary to pay for a holiday in the sun - neglecting their children along the way: one has her tongue pierced, another gets bullied and the third takes to scavenging from bins. The comic rhythms are creaky at this stage, but Will Mellor and Niky Wardley are convincing as the hassled parents, while the star of the show looks to be Craig Parkinson as wayward Uncle Tommy, who tonight dishes out advice to his nephew on martial arts.

Will Mellor on a mission to save British family sitcoms

Will Mellor's latest role is very close to home. In With The Flynns sees the Stockport actor playing a young dad struggling to navigate his way through the pitfalls of parenthood. The father of two lively children, Will had no problem relating to the character he plays.

In With The Flynns

In With The Flynns is a new family comedy for BBC One. Will Mellor and Niky Wardley play Liam and Caroline Flynn, Mancunians in their early thirties who are raising their three children and holding down jobs. It's tough - and even tougher because they're still growing up themselves.

No sooner does Life of Riley finish than In with the Flynns starts - this is clearly the Beeb's designated slot for a family sitcom with an Irish surname in the title. This new effort stars Will Mellor and Niky Wardley as over-stretched Mancunian parents with an unruly brood. There's the odd witty one-liner, but overall it makes My Family look like Frasier.

Warren Clarke interview

Warren Clarke co-stars with Will Mellor, Niky Wardley and Craig Parkinson in a Manchester-based family sitcom, In With The Flynns...

Devotees of this show, which used to be awful and is now rather addictive, will know that Gaz (played by Will Mellor) is now in a wheelchair.

Just as in Byker Grove many years ago, when PJ and Duncan, later and less enjoyably known as Ant and Dec, went from being joyful youngsters to morbid goons after the paintball accident that blinded PJ, so sitcoms are harder to pull off when the main character is paralysed. Laughter feels wrong. Send for a secret millionaire, I kept thinking to myself, and undo this injustice.