The creators of Breeders are locked into a game of How Far Can You Go

Sky One’s Breeders (Thursday) bills itself as an ‘honest and uncompromising comedy’ about parenting. To this end, the opening scene featured Martin Freeman as Paul trying to do some work while his two children under seven made a bit of noise a couple of rooms away. Having given himself a little pep talk about not screaming at them, Paul then screamed at them — bursting in on their blameless fun to yell: ‘Jesus fucking Christ! How many times do I have to tell you to be quiet?’ He further informed them that he was going to leave home and they should ‘tell mummy that daddy’s gone cos he couldn’t stand the fucking noise anymore. And when you’ve told her, you can watch her cry and you can cry some more, and you’ll all be fucking crying.’

And that, in handy capsule form, was the main trouble with the programme. Uncompromising, certainly — but, at the risk of sounding like some kind of Superdad, far too swearily exaggerated to be honest, or to achieve the presumed aim of making us wince with recognition.