If you are expecting absurd farce, sexual innuendo and frantic attempts to cover up something perfectly harmless, then this week's British Airways Playhouse offering at the Conrad from Derek Nimmo Productions, Alone Together, is going to be a disappointment.
If, on the other hand, you enjoy your comedy sweet, with plenty of well-timed one-liners, coming from a family half-way between the Waltons and your own whimsically dysfunctional relatives, this show has plenty to offer.
There is really only one joke in Alone Together, the same joke that serves in television sitcoms like the American Empty Nest and British Butterflies - adult children and the way they never really seem to leave home.
In this particular family, George and Elaine Butler have raised three sons, and as the show begins, the youngest, Keith, is literally out of the door heading for college, and his parents are looking forward to privacy, sex with the door open or even on the sofa, and being able to eat the entire contents of their fridge - all those little things couples without children take for granted.
But inevitably Keith's older brothers are both back within hours, one escaping career anxieties and the other a vengeful wronged wife.
Two hours later, a lot of crafted if cliched wisecracks on, and the dramatically unnecessary but amusing arrival of Keith's friend Janie, the boys realise it is time to grow up, and there is a lot of hugging and 'I love you' 'I love you, too' schmaltzing.
