Daddy Issues stars Aimee Lou Wood and David Morrissey on new BBC comedy

Enter her dad, Malcolm – a hapless man-child who, recently divorced from Gemma’s mother, is living in a grubby shared flat for divorced men and is unable to load a washing machine, use the microwave without its contents exploding, or any other basic life tasks.

When Gemma’s flatmate decides to move out, she asks her dad to move in with her – after all, it must be better than financial ruin and crippling loneliness while raising a baby – and it’ll get him away from the creepy Derek he currently lives with.

Hilarity ensues as Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood and Sherwood’s David Morrissey come together in this affectionate story about a father and daughter facing up to parenthood, albeit at very different stages.

Wood says: “Gemma is a very honest, independent, true-to-herself woman who finds it hard to let people in fully and to accept help. Over the course of the series, she learns how to be vulnerable and open up to people, and not always be so hyper-independent.”

Malcolm, meanwhile, is someone who has been “infantilised all his life,” says Morrissey, “and he’s a man who doesn’t know the basics of how to look after himself in the world.

"At best he’s naive, at worst he’s ignorant. He doesn’t know how to look after himself and he sees the world in a very innocent way. But he’s in crisis, we meet him in a crisis, but he’s unable to look after himself.

“He loves his daughter and she loves him, but whether they are good for each other is debatable. They are both in desperate need and they find themselves at a point in life where they need to lean on each other but they aren’t sure whether the other is capable of holding that weight. There’s some heightened emotions between the two of them, particularly as she’s at a point in her life where she is in desperate need.”

At the beginning of the series Gemma and Malcolm feel like strangers to one another, says Wood.

"Even though they are father and daughter, they don’t really know each other that well, but she’s pregnant and needs someone, and he’s going through a divorce, so they need each other. As the show goes on they start to really see each other as humans, and we see how Gemma and Malcolm – through all their weird choices and crazy ways – just choose to love each other through it all.”

Morrissey’s best known for dramatic roles – why did he fancy comedy?

He waslooking for something a bit different, and besides: "I just loved (Malcolm). I love Aimee Lou Wood, I think she’s amazing, such a great talent and I’ve admired her for a while now.”

Daddy Issues starts on BBC Three on Thursday, August 15 and the whole series will be available on BBC iPlayer.