Here We Go, review: don't be fooled by its ordinary appearance, this is a comic masterpiece

The trailer for Here We Go (BBC One) has been running on the BBC for a while now, and it gave every indication of being a proper turkey, gobbling in to view. It featured an ordinary family posing for a self-timer photo in front of a suburban semi, and then – wouldn’t you know it! – the camera they’d propped up fell over. To the sounds of a million sides not splitting and the spectre of My Family hovering in to view.

Well, someone in marketing’s head should roll, because Here We Go is an instant, stone-cold comedy classic. Based on a lockdown pilot called Pandemonium, in its six half-hours it manages to achieve something extraordinary while working only with the most ordinary of tools – an everyday family, made up of six recognisable characters, for whom normal things just go slightly more wrong, in a funnier way, than they do for you, me and our families.

It's a classic sitcom set-up, if you accept that the defining sitcoms of the modern age are The Simpsons and The Office. Here We Go owes plenty to both, but is also worthy of the comparison. The premise is that the teenage son, Sam, is making a documentary about his family for his media studies coursework. What we’re watching is that wonky footage spliced together by an amateur, but that means lots of long takes for the cast to improvise and play, as well as a series of time jumps that allow director Will Sinclair and creator Tom Basden to provide context.

It works exceptionally well - the show is a masterpiece of subtle technique as we learn about the frustrations and resentments of mum Rachel (Katherine Parkinson), dad Paul (Jim Howick), daughter Amy (Freya Parks) and even, eventually, Sam himself (Jude Collie). Throw in a man-child, lovelorn brother-in-law (played by Basden himself) and an ever-present mother-in-law (Alison Steadman) and the six episodes offer a remarkably complete portrait of a modern British, just-about-managing family.

Except that they’re relentlessly funny. Writer Basden wrote a similarly brilliant comedy for Channel 4 called Gap Year a few years back that no one seemed to watch, so thank goodness he’s been given another go – especially with an idea that wouldn’t have seemed like an idea at all when he pitched it. (“It’s about a family, a bit like Friday Night Dinner but without dinner and not on Friday.”)

Of course, one person’s belly laugh is another’s shoulder shrug, but I chuckled from beginning to end at lines from every character and the chaotic situations they found themselves in. I mentioned The Simpsons: the feat Here We Go achieves is decidedly Simpsons-esque, in that there is a warmth – love, you could call it – between the Jessop family that very quickly transcends the fact that on the face of it they’re a bunch of no-hopers.

As so often in great comedy, the humour gets you through the door but the characters are what keep you there. Across the board, Here We Go is wonderfully cast, with Parkinson and Howick superb, Steadman reliably Steadman-ish and Parks excellent as the surly teenager Amy.

Check out the scene at the crazy golf; marvel at the episode about the inflatable pool; go a bit gooey when you realise that Sam may have found himself a girlfriend. And get ready to welcome a new favourite family on to your screens.

All episodes of Here We Go are available now on BBC iPlayer