Semi-Detached, episode 1, review: Lee Mack's suburban sadsack makes for solid sitcom fare

• There is something cheering about watching people have a worse time than you, as sitcom writers know. You may have a failing relationship, or an annoying parent, or a terrible job or a car that won’t start, but there is a certain type of comedy in which all these things and more happen to a character at the same time. One of them is Semi-Detached (BBC Two), which had a pilot episode last year and is now here for a full series. The lead character is Stuart (Lee Mack, with a moustache that makes him look like a cross between Paul Chuckle and Boycie from Only Fools and Horses), a hopeless everyman beset by disasters. In the pilot, his girlfriend went into labour, his ex-wife’s current husband chopped off a thumb and his coke-snorting dad was arrested for a cow-related incident. That all happened in real time, in the space of 20 minutes. The series proper is a little less manic. Stuart’s gay dad (Clive Russell, taking what could have been a cringeworthy role and making it the best thing here) is still an unwanted house guest, luxuriating in a life of drugs, spray tans and sex with the Amazon delivery man. Stuart is still engaged in a passive-aggressive relationship with his ex-wife and her husband (Samantha Spiro and Patrick Baladi), who for some reason live directly opposite. And Stuart’s fugitive brother (Neil Fitzmaurice, who played the odious Jeff in Peep Show) is still hanging around.