I’d never heard of sitcom Teenage Kicks before last night, but its theme music was not promising. It featured a watered-down version of the Undertones classic from which the show gets its title, only without the passion, and with a ‘nice’ acoustic bit added so as not to shock anyone who might be unduly energised by the rawness of the original. I should have taken that as an omen and not proceeded any further.

The show’s premise is that, following a divorce, dad Vernon (Adrian Edmonson) moves in with his son and daughter, now students. He’s an ex punk, and is looking to relive his youth in the company of his teenage children and their flatmate David, whose main purpose, beyond representing Chinese youth on ITV, is to bankroll Vernon’s madcap schemes.

So, in other words, what we’ve got is a potential twist on The Young Ones, even more so because Edmonson is scripting as well as being the lead character in Teenage Kicks. And that’s not such a bad idea, as they go. What’s on offer is the conservatism of contemporary students versus the radicalism of Vernon’s earlier days, which he’s now trying to relive from the broom cupboard under the stairs where he now lives in his kids’ flat.

What happens in practice is that the kids are woefully undeveloped, with very little to distinguish Daughter A from Son B, other perhaps than Son B is a little more worldly wise than his sister. In other respects - and stop me if you’ve guessed where I’m headed here - Vernon’s children are now acting as his parents, urging caution and wanting to put the brakes on his madcap schemes.

Did I mention madcap schemes? If only the plot lived up to that billing. Instead, what we get is a limp tale that has Vernon rehearsing a backing band to tour Eastern Europe with the leader of his old punk rivals, who had a ‘punk’ name so embarrassing I’ve erased it from my memory. Anyway, the nearer the actual tour gets, the less likely it turns out to be likely to happen. And the band leader turns out to be a conman. Who was tricking Vernon into getting David (the Chinese guy, remember?) into paying for a van for the tour, which he then steals. Or something along those lines. At any rate, hilarity failed to ensue.

Yes, I know sitcoms are hard to write, and ITV seems to have a problem getting them right. But they had a decent stab at it with Moving Wallpaper, a thoroughly enjoyable show. Is it so difficult to bring some of the edge of a programme like that into the family comedy, or is there something about the family sitcom that propels British writers into cosiness instead of humour? Please God, there has to be room at the table for something other than pisspoor riffs on My Family, which is what Teenage Kicks aspires to be.