Parents Of The Band

Actor slams fellow sitcom star

Colin McFarlane has spoken of his disappointment about a new sitcom he starred in on the BBC. The Lincoln actor said the prime-time BBC One show Parents of the Band was badly edited and not given the publicity it needed to succeed.

Unlike every other sitcom in the 8.30pm Friday slot on BBC1, this wasn't full of childish humour and blithering idiocy. However, it did lack jokes. Which is a bit of a problem.

The depiction of contemporary schoolboys was standard girl-obsessed, bruv, bruv bruv stuff. Watch The Inbetweeners if you want to see it done properly. Jimmy Nail doesn't have the right sensibility for sitcoms - or music.

There are few tasks more soul-destroying for a writer than having to rubbish a new sitcom. I wish I could tell you this new Jimmy Nail series was a winner, that over the coming weeks we'll laugh and we'll cry at the ups and downs of a bunch of teenagers, their fledgling band and the parents who want to muscle in on the action.

But I don't see that happening. It didn't even begin to make me laugh. That's not to say it won't make you laugh. Comedy is subjective, which is partly why it's one of our Choices tonight: some people might find jokes about playing Deep Purple on the bouzouki hilarious; the series is at least set in a vaguely recognisable version of the real world and Nail still has his distinctive, gruff charm. But compared to BBC1's brilliant Outnumbered, for instance, Parents Of The Band struck me as slow, leaden and horribly out of tune.

A new family drama for BBC1, created by Jimmy Nail and Tarquin Gotch, in which a trio of teenagers form a rock band in order to lark around and attract some girls. So far, so CBBC; the primetime addition comes from the parents, an ambitious bunch who are keen to turn their boys into money-spinning starlets. They include a pop star turned cabinet maker played by Nail; an entrepreneurial single mother played by Niky Wardley, and - by far the best turn in the show - a lawyer with haute couture pretensions played by Colin McFarlane. Judging by this first episode, the series is more a situation in search of a comedy than anything else, aiming simultaneously for Skins and Desperate Housewives viewers, and falling a little short of both.

All parents are obliged to embarrass their children - it's part of the natural order of things - and this gentle new comedy series is based on that moral imperative. Jimmy Nail plays a former musician, recently divorced, who earns his living as a cabinet maker. He had one big hit during the 1980s and now pours all his energy into managing his teenage son's band. But so, too, do all the other parents, reducing the kids - who only ever wanted to play music together for fun - to rigid statues of embarrassment. It gets worse next week when one of the fathers tells his son that he loves him. Twice. On the same day.

It's not very funny but you feel like you have to give this new 'comedy' starring Jimmy Nail a chance. He plays an Eighties pop star who is now a cabinet-maker and trying to live his dreams through his son, Jack, who has set up a band.

Oh dear, this could get messy. This Jimmy Nail starring sitcom casts the Geordie crooner as one of a group of parents who want to muscle in on the band being formed by their teenage offspring. Okay, it doesn't sound that bad, but it misfires from the start with a mercilessly low gag rate. Is it too late to bring back After You've Gone?

There's only one problem with the Beeb's newest Friday night offering - it's being billed as a comedy. This is as misleading as ordering sherry trifle in a restaurant and getting a prawn cocktail. They're both nice, but you'd chew those prawns suspiciously knowing that this wasn't quite what you were expecting.

Unlike bad comedies (BBC3's Clone, After You've Gone, etc) which over-compensate by trying too hard to be funny, Parents Of The Band doesn't seem to be trying at all, which, funnily enough, is its saving grace.

It's written by David Cummings, who, as well as once writing for The Fast Show, was formerly a guitarist with Del Amitri - so he does know his stuff.

Just put any idea out of your head that it's supposed to be making you laugh and you then might even enjoy it.