Home, episode 1, review: Gentle variation on the sitcom

Rufus Jones' unobtrusive comedy follows a family who accidentally takes a refugee home from their holiday

(Channel 4)

Home (Channel 4) is a rather gentle, unobtrusive variation on the sitcom theme – but one that is built on a quite a bizarre premise. The twist is that a family who returns to Surrey from a holiday touring around France discover a Syrian refugee stuffed in the back of their SUV. Not only that, but, after a few moments of blind terrified panic about a suicide bombing, they eventually adopt him like he’s stray cat that’s just wandered in.

In its way, Home reminds me somewhat of the 1980s children’s sci fi series Alf (“alien life form”), which starred a puppet extra-terrestrial with a heavily ridged snout and a neat line in wisecracks. (That was in the pre-Trump era when middle-class Americans might be happy to offer shelter to an illegal immigrant). Home might also be compared, more recently to the recent hit Paddington Bear movies. Or ET: the Extra-Terrestrial come to think of it. Funnily enough, like ET, the stowaway’s sole request of his new hosts is to “phone home”, to see if he can find his now lost wife and son, separated from him during their time with the people smugglers.

It is just as well, then, that writer Rufus Jones, who also stars as the step-father figure Peter, recognises his debt to such past classics in this first episode. In a frank exchange with the others of the family, being sensible girlfriend Katy (Rebekah Staton) and sarky step-son John (Oakless Prendergast), Peter points out that their new guest is not Paddington Bear, he doesn’t eat marmalade sandwiches and he is here illegally.

Youssef Kerkour is excellent as Sami, a Syrian schoolteacher who seems remarkably neat and tidy given his harrowing journey across Asia Minor, the Mediterranean and through Calais. He is a language teacher – like Katy – and so his English is exceptionally good. He jokily hints that his pupils have “all gone truant”, but because of Assad’s barrel bombs rather than on an unauthorised trip to Laser Quest. Like Alf, the Alien Life Form, Sami’s grasp of the vernacular is sufficient for him to be able to appreciate and craft the odd punning line or two (like offering his new friend Peter “a date”).

And so we settle down to some jolly unwanted guest japes, starting with Rufus’s two-hour enforced stay with the immigration authorities after Sami, falling short of his usual high linguistic standards, tells a Border Force officer that “he owes Peter a lot”.