TORONTO – It was a lack of handyman skill that Kyle Bornheimer suspects helped him nab the role of a bumbling repairman on the sitcom “Family Tools.”

The comedy centres on a prodigal son who returns home to take over the family repair business when his overbearing dad is forced into early retirement by a heart attack.

Bornheimer joked that he scored the part due to his lack of hammering know-how.

“There will be a lot of physical humour involving me messing up certain repair jobs, so that fits nicely with what I do in life, which is mess things up and not really repair things very well,” Bornheimer said at a promotional event last summer at CTV headquarters.

“That might be why I was an OK candidate for this role.”

Bornheimer plays Jack Shea, who returns home after being kicked out of a seminary for trying to change the Bible.

J.K. Simmons plays his crusty pop, Tony, who doesn’t trust his son with the business. Leah Remini plays an aunt who arrives to take care of Tony, while Edi Gathegi is his father’s troublemaking assistant, Darren.

“Everything I do my kids are always joking: ‘Are you the dad or are you the boss or are you the bad guy?'” Simmons said in an interview earlier this year to promote his sci-fi thriller “Dark Skies.”

“And in this, I’m the dad and the boss and, in a way, sort of the bad guy. … Basically I’m sort of hen-pecking my idiot son, as I refer to him, and lots of other fun characters.”

The single-camera series follows Jack and Darren as they head to job sites, meet different clients “and basically destroy their homes,” said Bornheimer.

It’s based on the British TV series “White Van Man,” which focuses more specifically on the misadventures of two handymen in a van.

This version — featuring a pilot penned by “My Name is Earl” and “Raising Hope” scribe Bobby Bowman — melds those workplace laughs with family dysfunction, said Bornheimer.

“Family Tools” debuts Wednesday on ABC and CTV Two.