OK, so after Lenny Henry’s autobiographical film and Cradle To Grave here is this week’s obligatory 1970s comedy. The Kennedys is loosely based on the book by Emma Kennedy, The Tent, The Bucket And Me, and stars tiny, precocious Lucy Hutchinson as little Emma, who calls sex “making love soup”. Prepare to have the pants charmed off you.

The supporting cast is pretty good too. Emma parents Brenda and Tony are played by Dan Skinner and Katherine Parkinson, while their best friends Tim and Jenny are played by Harry Peacock (Parkinson’s true life hubby), who like the dad in Friday Night Dinner likes to take his shirt off, and Emma Pierson. 

This time the action is set on an estate in the new town of Stevenage, where all the houses are identical and the idea of cooking your own lasagne is considered exotic. In the first episode Brenda and Tony go all Abigail’s Party on us and invite some friends round to eat. Calamity inevitably ensues, involving kitchen disaster, lager and a woman with big boobs.

With a cast like this it would be hard for The Kennedys to fail. And it doesn’t. For a primetime sitcom on BBC1 this manages to be both broad and sophisticated. Compare it to the veritable chuckle drought that was Big School that went out in a similar slot. The Kennedys has clever gags about race, risque jokes about sex and, in Lucy Hutchinson, a big cuteness factor. I can’t believe Emma Kennedy was anywhere near as cute as this as a ten-year-old.

I thought that Harry Peacock's abs were a bit too well-developed for an era when getting a six-pack meant popping to the offie, not the gym, but that's a minor quibble. There’s a lot of laughs here and a lot of hair too. All of it good. The missing link weirdly is that other hairy actor Matt Berry - Peacock co-stars with him in Toast of London, Parkinson co-starred with him in IT Crowd and Skinner co-starred with him in House of Fools. Maybe they asked him to take part but couldn’t afford his shampoo budget.

The Kennedys, Fridays from Oct 2, 9.30pm, BBC1.