I'm a big fan of Jack Whitehall but it took a while for him to win me over. When I first saw him doing stand-up he hadn't really found his voice. Sometimes he was a little bit too wordy like Russell Brand, sometimes he was a little bit too deadpan like Stewart Lee. Neither persona seemed to suit him.
But then he started to embrace the fact that he was posh and privileged and everything clicked. As well as filling arenas, the former student who quit Manchester University to pursue a comedy career has graduated from TV roles in Fresh Meat and Bad Education to fun Hollywood comedies such as Jungle Cruise with The Rock.
He has also developed a neat double act with his father, former showbiz agent Michael Whitehall, co-starring in a series of colorful Netflix travelogues. Jack is the hapless self-deprecating man child, and Michael is the grumpy perma-scowling parent. Needless to say they have natural chemistry.
And now they are back with Fatherhood with my Father. Jack and his wife Roxy have had a daughter, Elsie and in the pair's latest series, the nervous comic faces up to the future and wonders how he will cope with the life-changing event. "I can't even keep a house plant alive," he says anxiously.
I assumed that the four-part series was going to be all about babies, but it is only really the first episode that looks at that topic in any depth. As Roxy approaches the big day Jack, with sour-faced Michael in tow, has a giggle in ante-natal classes, learns about the latest parenting techniques and wears an "empathy suit" — fake boobs and belly — to get an idea of what pregnancy is like.
If Jack is planning to grow up it hasn't happened just yet. As he checks out the latest gadgets to keep your offspring amused he can't resist cracking childish jokes about them resembling sex toys, leaning hard into his stand-up vibe and joking with his dad when not taking tips from his more sensible mum Hilary.
While old school traditionalist Michael advises Jack to steer clear of experts the duo have lots of fun trying out different New Age approaches to bringing a baby into the world. The thoroughly entertaining episode ends on a memorable image — not with the birth but with Jack and Michael in LA swaddled in blankets like a couple of mummified sausages.
I was surprised then that after part one the programme pivots away from parenting and shifts more into Louis Theroux-lite documentary mode to take a look at the future, with father and son exploring technology, security and longevity, from biohacking and the metaverse to armored cars with wing mirrors that squirt pepper spray.
In the technology episode, for example, our intrepid guides look at the rise of robots and AI. They meet a disturbingly lifelike female robot and Michael is unexpectedly smitten as he discusses art with her over a pub lunch. They visit boffins into body modification who have implanted Bluetooth devices under their skin — which seems fine until you need to change the battery.
There are further laughs in the third installment when they look at security. How will Elsie stay safe when all they have for protection is their fluffy cavapoo Coco who resembles a "barking tea cosy". Jack and Michael head back to America to meet survivalists — "preppers" who think that the apocalypse is imminent and have got ready by storing tins of food and guns. Lots of guns.
The Whitehalls get plenty of mileage out of the cultural contrast of the lumberjack shirted tough guys teaching them how to use machine guns in an emergency situation. After a nervous start Michael in particular, seems to take to target practice like a duck to water, like, says Jack, a "geriatric Scarface".
It's a shame that some of their escapades are more of a skim than a deep dive. In the final episode on longevity, I would like to have discovered more about how Andreas in Berlin thinks standing in front of a red light in his pants will help him stay young. The highlight is Jack and Hilary in a sweat lodge, "like being trapped inside a McDonald's apple pie," says Jack as he emerges.
For someone who is clearly pretty smart Jack Whitehall does have a tendency to go for the more obvious dumb gag. When they meet centenarians in Sardinia (a place recently covered more seriously in the recent Netflix series Secrets of the Blue Zones) he can't resist joking that "gnocchi" sounds like "nookie" when a 100-year-old woman makes lunch for his father.
But this is a small quibble. If you've enjoyed Jack's previous comedy outings as much as I have there is plenty to smile at here. Whether I learned much about the ups and downs of modern parenthood I'm not so sure. But the image of a pasty-bodied Jack Whitehall stripped to his Calvins being blasted by red light in the hope of discovering the secret of eternal youth will stay with me for a long time. At one point he declares "RIP Jack the lad, long live Jack the dad." But judging by Fatherhood with my Father there’s still plenty of Jack the lad to come.
