Only Child
BBC One and iPlayer
There’s a reason bachelors are twice as likely as married men to die of heart failure. It’s because many men are incapable of looking after themselves alone. They prosper much better with a partner looking out for them.
Single men, overall, tend to neglect their health, their diet and drink too much.
And the worst cases are men of a certain generation who have forgotten how to care for themselves entirely, such was the wraparound care provided by their wives.
This is the fertile subject matter of this gentle BBC comedy, Only Child.
Gregor Fisher (Rab C Nesbitt) plays Ken, a 74-year-old widower who lost his beloved wife a year earlier.
He’s due a flying visit to his highland Scottish home from his actor son, Richard, who’s too busy to stay more than one night.
Richard plays Doctor Sparrow in the apparently moderately successful Detective Manners on the TV, and London is awaiting his return.
However, his dad is in a bit of a state. The house smells and he is bordering on hoarding, his complete lack of IT ability means he’s easy prey for scammers and he barks at the local cat.
Ken’s behaviours make some sense in the context of a man struggling to come to terms with his new life.
For instance, there’s a kind of logic in barking at the cat to stop it from pooing on your driveway, although it’s seriously lacking efficiency.
But there are more troubling signs. Ken’s taken to driving around on his motorbike with a ventriloquist’s dummy riding in the sidecar and this is partially because he drove his car into the town’s outdoor swimming pool.
Most troubling of all for Richard, because of the guilt it creates, is confirmation that above all else his dad is lonely.
When he bumps into old school crush Emily, who grew up across the road, and she tells him that she’s taken to sitting with Ken to keep him company, you can feel Richard die a little inside.
As if the universe understands his need to follow the well-worn path of a child parenting his parent, the lead actor in Detective Manners dies suddenly and the series is cancelled. Richard is out of a job and out of excuses.
In classic sitcom fashion, the scene has been set for father and son to get into all kinds of scrapes as they travel, with Richard now in the sidecar.
First up is a trip to the surprisingly large bed shop. A new one is needed after Ken fell through his the previous night and father and son had to go tops and tails.
Ken, who’s never without a processed meat product in his pocket for a snack, ruins proceedings when he tries out the mattress and leaves it a sticky pasty mess.
There’s something of the Last of the Summer Wine about it all, although I suspect it will be nowhere near as successful.
Still, there’s plenty to like about Only Child.
Gregor Fisher plays Ken beautifully as a man still deeply grieving for his beloved wife and perhaps on the edge of senility, but with a remaining twinkle in his eye and a devilish sense of adventure.
There are also some good gags and decent supporting characters in the local kleptomaniac criminal Digsy, the bin obsessed neighbour with nothing else to worry about and the unhinged odd job man.
Overall though, I suspect that Only Child is a little too old fashioned for most tastes and ultimately lacking in laugh out loud moments.
