There was a time when Sky were content with simply buying up the rights to all the big US dramas and comedies, much to the annoyance of terrestrial viewers.

But since their remit to invest in home-grown productions, Sky have hit the ground running with remarkable success.

Many of their new shows, such as Starlings, Sinbad, The Cafe and Trollied can not only compete with the output of the Beeb, ITV and Channel 4, but in many ways surpass much of their domestic output. And as far is Spy is concerned, it's a show that any of the big channels would dearly love to be airing themselves.

Being a single dad can be a strain at the best of times, but with Marcus (Jude Wright) as a son, Tim (Darren Boyd) has got his work cut out for himself. The problem isn't just that Marcus is far smarter than the average nine-year-old, he's actually ridiculously smarter than Tim himself.

Marcus simply doesn't respect Tim in any way; and working for seven years in Computer Galaxy hasn't helped. In a bold move, Tim decides to quit his job in an attempt to have Marcus change his lowly opinion of him.

The job centre send him for an interview with the civil service for a data inputting post. After some wandering around the building, Tim eventually finds the room where the test is taking place. Not only does it turn out that it wasn't as difficult as he first thought, he actually aces it.

The Examiner (Robert Lindsay) later tells Tim the good news and offers him a position, but it's not the one Tim thought he was applying for. The Examiner is actually recruiting spies for MI5, and despite the mix up, wants to hire Tim anyway.

Although it's initially great news, it soon dawns on Tim that his new vocation has one drawback – he's not allowed to tell anyone, including his son. Still, that's not to say that the job won't just give Tim some self esteem back, but it might just give him his son back too. But as Tim soon discovers, that's a very big might.

With Spy writer and creator Simeon Goulden has pretty much updated Inspector Clouseau for the 21st century, but has added a twist of making him a divorced dad.

Much of the success of the show is owed to some superb casting. Darren Boyd manages the slapstick element of the show with a real, natural unease that Miranda Hart would be proud of.

Boyd is also happy to be upstaged at every possible moment by his on-screen son, played by Jude Wright. Wright gives an incredible performance as the precociously intelligent Marcus; so much so that he leads you to believe that there must be some kind of trickery involved, like he's actually not a child at all but a 46 year old actor with truly remarkable skin, or he's completely CGI like a school boy Yoda.

That would be it for most shows, but not Spy. Dolly Wells (who plays ex-wife Judith) and Tom Goodman-Hill (who plays her new partner Philip) certainly don't hold back playing for laughs, which is also the case with Rosie Cavaliero playing therapist-with-issues Paula.

There is also Rebekah Staton as the love interest spy Caitlin, who does well to stay noticed considering how many larger-than-life characters there are in the show. Talking of which...

And then there's the legend that is Robert Lindsay; thankfully with that damp squid of a show My Family finally over, Lindsay has a ball playing the old fashioned spy character, The Examiner. It's probably just down to the relief in playing a comic character in something that is actually funny again.

The show itself deservedly walked away with one BAFTA (Best Male Performance in comedy to Darren Boyd) and two British Comedy Awards (again Darren Boyd for Best Actor and Simeon Goulden for Best New Comedy Programme), which is pretty impressive for a new show.

Spy offers the perfect balance between slapstick comedy and quick-witted humour. It's not embarrassed by its silly premise, instead it waves it in its audiences' face and shrieks 'ave it!'.

If you haven't discovered this gem yet, it's definitely worth investigating.