Some of the best British sitcoms over the years have featured creatures who are trapped in a world they’re desperate to leave; Rigsby’s grotty boarding house in Rising Damp, Steptoe & Son’s junkyard, Fletcher’s cell in Porridge, Father Ted’s island and Granville’s corner shop in Open All Hours.

The notion of a person doomed by circumstance and held back by their own limitations offers opportunities to watch them try to break free. And fail. And although these stunted people are often unpleasant, we can laugh at their vulnerability.

But how do you develop this comedy formula in a Scottish context to produce great sitcom? Simon Carlyle and Gregor Sharp both reckoned the answer was to set the series in a caravan park.

“Gregor and I both used to go on caravan holidays with our mums and dads when we were young,” says Carlyle, co-writer of new BBC Scotland sitcom, Happy Hollidays, which stars Ford Kiernan, Karen Dunbar and Gavin Mitchell.

“Every year my parents would tease me with the possibility of going to the Cala Gran Hotel in Cala D’Or in Majorca, but at the last moment they’d announce it was full and that we’d be going to Bobby’s Static Caravan Camp in Appleby instead.

“Like Gregor, I felt trapped and forced to have a good time. The weather was always truly awful for the entire week, except for the day you were leaving, and caravan holidays seemed to be all about stoicism; you’d hire a bike but it would be too wet to use it, there were fishing rods for use, but you’d drown if you tried to go near a river. Or you’d play with old board games that were covered with brown sauce stains.”

The central character in Happy Hollidays is camp owner Colin Holliday, an inward-looking anal retentive who has nothing but contempt for his campers.

“I wanted the boss of the caravan park in the sitcom to be a Hitler type,” says Carlyle.

“He’s angry because he’s contained, and so too are the rest of the employees. But he’s also being bullied by the camp inspector.”

Dunbar plays Joyce ‘The Voice’ Mullen, a broken-down karaoke singer whose best days existed only in her head. She’s long since poured any real hope for the future into the bottom of a vodka glass.

“You can’t help but have fun with these characters in this world,” says Carlyle.

Simon Carlyle had a comedy sitcom success eight years ago with Terri McIntrye: Classy Bitch which he wrote and starred in as the sunbed operator with the darkest,

dirtiest mind. But the 34-year-old doesn’t regret the fact that the writing journey has been protracted.

“Terri happened quickly and I moved to London,” he says. “But nothing happened. Instead I worked as a glass collector and a cleaner. Yet, I don’t regret a moment of that. If I’d found success straight away I’d have become a complete idiot. It’s all about life experience.”

Carlyle has certainly had that. Growing up in Ayr, he recalls with a wry smile, was difficult. “The school was good, the beach was lovely, but I masqueraded as a good boy. I didn’t want to be an academic, or play tennis or golf.

“At the age of 12 I wanted to be in London doing drag cabaret. But you can’t really say that when you’re standing in Ayr High Street wearing a Lyle and Scott jumper, waiting for your mum to come out of the butchers.”

Ayr life changed when Carlyle was offered the chance to model for teen magazines such as Jackie. From there he went on to work as an extra in Taggart. “The next thing I knew was an assistant director said he was looking for someone to wear a pink T-shirt to play a rentboy. I thought; ‘I could do that!’ And I did.”

The light of possibility had gone off in his head. “Suddenly, from thinking I’d have to become an accountant or whatever, here on the set of Taggart, I felt part of this world.”

Carlyle came to Glasgow to study at university but dropped out, finding work on STV’s Wheel of Fortune modelling dishwashers. He progressed from TV research jobs to presenting STV kids’ show, Skoosh. Then came Terri, which became cult viewing. (She’s currently attracting huge hits on YouTube.)

However, the most positive result to come out of the Terri experience was meeting writer Gregor Sharp. Three years ago the odd couple pairing (Carlyle lives in London but flies up to Ayr on Mondays to write with Sharp in his parents’ garden shed) got together to write BBC sitcom Thin Ice, set in the world of amateur ice-skating. (Carlyle was once a professional figure skater.)

The series wasn’t recommissioned but the partnership showed great potential, realised this year with No Holds Bard, the spoof documentary set around a Burns recital competition.

Now there is every chance that Happy Hollidays, made by Ford Kiernan’s production company, effingee, will have the laughter wheels to run. And if HH runs to a second series, Carlyle has lots of real-life tales that could find themselves on the page.

“Still on the theme of confinement, I once worked in Butlins,” he says, in mock flabbergasted voice. “And that had its moments. I started out working at the candy floss counter but was moved to other jobs, such as security guard.

“The supervisor, Lorraine, would take all the money from the till, put it in a bag and chain the bag around my wrist. I then had to walk through the camp to the office with thousands of pounds attached to me. You’ve no idea how exposed I felt.”

Some of the campers felt exposed to. “The cafe was built below the level of the swimming pool so you could see people swimming past through the thick glass. My abiding memory is of watching people sit in their plastic chairs in the cafe eating chips as wee boys swam past, dropping their trunks and flashing folk at the fixed tables.”

So what’s the most horrid story to come out of camp life, Simon?

“I can’t tell you that,” he says, mischievously. “All I can say is that it involved Gary from the sunbeds. But at least I got free tokens.”

Happy Hollidays, Fridays at 10.35pm on BBC Scotland.

Simon Carlyle