Telly Talk: Tree tops

I magine, if you will, a brand new partly improvised gentle comedy from the brains that brought us Best In Show and This Is Spinal Tap (Christopher Guest and Jim Piddock), starring The IT Crowd’s Chris O’Dowd, plus award-winning comic ventriloquist and filmmaker Nina Conti and our very own David St Hubbins – Michael McKean – as their English dad. No need to tax your pretty little brains, it’s here.

Presented as eight half-hour episodes, and enjoying the random human abrasions that make so much of top improvised comedy work, Family Tree focuses primarily on Tom Chadwick, played by the aforementioned Chris O’Dowd, as he embarks upon a genealogical exploration of his own family. Recently made both girlfriendless and jobless, our Tom is at a bit of a loose end when his dad informs him and his sister Bea that their great aunt Victoria has died and left them all “a little something”. This is pronounced in perfect Spinal Tap English, I hasten to add. Rock on.

Whereas Bea gets some suspiciously stained curtains, Tom is left a treasure trove – or junk box, depending on your point of view and current boredom threshold – of old family artefacts and nick nacks. Tom is unimpressed, until his boredom threshold is hit, and then he digs out an old photograph, and thus the odyssey begins.

“This is about the quirks that aren’t dangerous but are definitely different”

Everyone’s family, friend and acquaintance circles are filled with oddballs, eccentrics and batty dears and the show makes the most of this. From Bea’s constant companion in her hand puppet Monk (Conti’s real life performance partner in her live ventriloquist shows – ace!), to the bizarre array of turn of the last century photographs that wouldn’t have gone amiss in a sideshow exhibition found in one hallway visited – this is about the quirks that aren’t dangerous but are definitely different.

I, personally, was enchanted by the detail of childhood photos of both O’Dowd and Conti on a side table beside McKean’s regular armchair. It really does feel like family. Even Tom’s best mate Pete, truly one of the most annoying people on the planet, has clearly come from a friendship forged over time and fondness that just gets past his wide-mouthed gormlessness. And I get the distinct feeling that I will be the only one who doesn’t like him.

There’s also the specially made television series that could have been taken straight from the schedule of BBC Worldwide, made with an affectionate poke at bad taste ‘70s sitcoms and grandiose costume dramas. There really is a lot to like about this clever little comedy about a family.

Family Tree is unassuming. It’s unpretentious.

It enjoys itself rather than pandering to an already saturated audience of mainstream laughter-track-filled set-up and gag combo comedies. And it’s worth a punt. Like a story from your own grandad, there’s no knowing where this might lead.

Family Tree, BBC2, Coming Soon