There’s nothing hugely original about this sitcom about a son and father reconnecting. But it’s laugh-out-loud funny thanks to the gag-dense script and a stellar performance from Rab C Nesbitt’s Gregor Fisher

I laughed out loud five times during the first three minutes of Only Child, which stars Greg McHugh as a semi-successful actor who returns to his home town to look after his ailing dad (Gregor Fisher). That’s probably the highest compliment you can pay the opening episode of a new sitcom – but it’s also the only feasible way to sell this series: there isn’t anything remotely original or different about this doggedly conventional comedy. Set in Forres, a sleepy town in the north of Scotland, the show is geriatric in pace and content; a gentle, bittersweet exploration of midlife’s handbrake turn, when children start parenting their own parents. And yet Bryce Hart’s script is meticulously dense with gags, delivered with exemplary timing by its two leads. In other words, it’s pretty funny.

We begin with McHugh’s Richard arriving home for a flying visit; he doesn’t have long before he must journey back south to film the latest series of his cosy police procedural Detective Manners (he plays Doctor Sparrow, whose imperfect grasp of basic medical principles enrages the local GP). But he doesn’t even make it out of the station before his dad is on the phone, pestering him for help with his iPad. The tech-literacy generation gap is a groan-worthy subject at this stage, but Ken’s gruff reaction to his tablet-based confusion (the iPad in question is actually the kitchen scales) sells the joke. Then we’re promptly whisked off to the funeral of a man Ken can’t stand (Richard: “Why are we here?” Ken: “Well it’s a social contract – you go to someone’s funeral, they come to yours.” Richard: “Not if they’re dead … ”).