We are so excited to have you back at 10, Shaun! What was it about Parents’ Evening that was appealing to you?

It seemed like a nice show to do. A sweet show. A bit gentler than my previous intergenerational celebrity panel show. Does anyone remember the OG TAYG? Plus, I owe Channel 10 for rescuing me from obscurity (Newstopia on SBS, 10.10pm Wednesday nights) way back in 2009. And, of course, the chance to work with my son Gabe who has moved out of home recently and I don’t get to see that much.

The show relies on parents predicting what their children know. What makes that such a good recipe for comedy?

Parents do rather overestimate how well they know their children. They are often completely wrong. The child sometimes knows a lot more than the parent anticipated or disappointingly less, It’s a reckoning of sorts – and what better place to do that than on national television. 

You’ve spent decades working in television. What has it been like having Gabe step into that world alongside you?

He’s virtually my carer on this show.

What do you think viewers will enjoy most about seeing well known Australians alongside their parents or children?

I think the fun of the show is seeing celebrities lower their guard. It’s hard to pretend you’re smart or cool when your family are around. They know   what you’re really like and you know they know. And they know you know they know. Etc. The same thing will happen with me (not that I’m a celebrity). I can’t pretend with Gabe sitting there, ready to set the record straight.

If you and Gabe were contestants on Parents’ Evening, who do you think would let the team down first?

Oh, there’s no way I’d go on the show. He’d have talk his mother into it.