The creators of TV’s Outnumbered rehash their popular frazzled-parents-and-precocious-kids formula to diverting effect in this uneven but sporadically charming tale of internecine family bickering. David Tennant and Rosamund Pike are the squabbling mum and dad attempting to keep their separation secret from 75-year-old grandpa Gordie (Billy Connolly) for fear that it will ruin his birthday party. Yet despite terminal illness, Gordie is more resilient and insightful than his children expect, closer in spirit to the grandchildren whose honest language he speaks.

There are plenty of close-to-the-bone belly laughs as the estranged McLeods hit the road for Scotland, after which an unexpectedly morbid twist takes us into altogether darker territory, somewhat at odds with the genial everyday humour. Tennant and Pike are nicely convincing as the (un)loving couple, and Ben Miller goes for broad laughs as uptight brother Gavin, but Amelia Bullmore steals several scenes with typically angular precision; isn’t it time this finely tuned performer top-lined a movie?