Ade: It is SO boring

Actor Adrian Edmondson says cult sitcom The Young Ones, which made him a star, is the most boring TV show ever.

Unforgivable casual racism aside, was ITV1's new Adrian Edmondson sitcom Teenage Kicks all that bad? I laughed out loud a couple of times, and I hadn't even had that much to drink.

His missus has left him for a man from Belgium (Belgium! Ha ha ha!) and now Adrian Edmondson has moved in with his own kids. He's bumbling through his new singledom - bumbling into things and falling over, both metaphorically and literally. We have a good giggle at the way the Chinese lodger speaks - there are misunderstandings, boom boom.

Maybe it's ironic commissioning, like the Andy Millman sitcom in Extras. If so, it's a bit too clever. And if not, then it's just not good enough, I'm afraid. Predictable groan-along sitcoms are no longer acceptable television. There is interesting new comedy out there - look at Pulling - but not on ITV, on a Friday night. Hell, I may have to go out next week.

Adrian Edmondson stars as Vernon, a divorced dad with delusions of trendiness (he used to be in a band), who's forced to move in with his children in their student flat. Cue endless "embarrassing dad" jokes, close-ups of trousers splitting and even that Seventies sitcom staple - the comedy foreigner (a Hong Kong student). In the opening episode, Vernon seeks "an easy hot night of passion" and ends up in bed with more than one person. So old-fashioned it's as if The Young Ones never happened.

Why are half-decent domestic sitcoms so few and far between? Get it right and you've got a long-running hit like My Family on your hands. But get it wrong... It's like a house of cards: if one bit of the whole doesn't work - casting, chemistry, plot or jokes - it all collapses around your ears.

Here we have the latest brave attempt, an eight-part series adapted from a Radio 2 comedy and starring Adrian Edmondson as Vernon, an ageing punk rocker who moves into his kids' student flat after a messy divorce. I know what you're thinking: Adrian Edmondson, ageing punk rocker - this is the continuing adventures of Vyvyan from The Young Ones, but it really isn't. For a start, Vernon is a bit hopeless and poshly spoken and has none of Vyvyan's anarchic energy.

Sadly, neither does the script. If I quote just one exchange - 'I could pass for 39!'... 'What in an IQ test?' - you'll get the idea. There are some good moments, but some shocking ones, too. Can it really still be funny in 2008 to have a joke at the expense of a Chinese accent?