Aimee Lou Wood and David Morrissey star in this winning BBC series about a pregnant party girl forced to flat share with her man-child dad David Morrissey and Aimee Lou Wood in 'Daddy Issues'. Photo: BBC/Fudge Park Productions David Morrissey and Sharon Rooney in 'Daddy Issues'. Photo: BBC/Fudge Park Productions Let the joy be unconfined.
Daddy Issues (BBC3, Thursday, August 15) is that increasingly rare and precious thing: a British comedy that actually makes you laugh. Not smile or snicker or chuckle but laugh, and laugh hard. It makes for a refreshing change.
Frankly, I’m fed up to the back teeth of hearing comedies being described as “gentle”, “whimsical”, “charming”, “subtle” or any other adjective that’s really a euphemism for “not very funny”. “Sweet”, on the other hand, gets a pass. Daddy Issues, written by Danielle Ward ( Brassic ), is often sweet but it’s also savagely funny.
Aimee Lou Wood from Sex Education, a series that’s become a kind of feeder factory producing bright young stars on the up, sparkles as 24-year-old Gemma, a hedonistic Stockport girl who’s spent the summer abroad, careening between wild parties and random hook-ups with men. When we meet her, she’s just joined the mile-high club with a guy called Ben, who only introduces himself after they’ve had sex in the plane’s tiny bathroom. Neither is carrying a condom, but they take a chance anyway.
Back home two months later, Gemma, who works in a hair salon, learns.