Apart from its bad language, this is an old-fashioned cute-baby comedy. Jack's wife (Imogen Stubbs, briefly impressive) dies in childbirth, leaving Jack (Richard E Grant) to go off on a month's drunken bender, before returning to grandparents who decide that literally handing him the baby will sort him out. As it does. Sort of. Appalled by a succession of tyrannical applicants for nanny, Jack clutches at straws and hires a friendly American waitress (Samantha Mathis) who has just lost her job. Now you can write the rest of the story as easily as director Tim Sullivan. Grant lacks likeability and Mathis charm, but there are juicy roles for Ian McKellen as a tramp Grant takes on as a manservant, and Eileen Atkins and Judi Dench as the doting grans. 'Do let us in, darling,' huffs Dench impatiently, turning up unannounced. 'The neighbours will think we're Jehovah's Witnesses.'

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