Father can never be quite the same! (6)
I believe the answer is:
thames
'father can never be quite' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'the same' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'same' is 'ames' which is present in the answer.
A single letter 'h' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for thames that I've seen before include "River of southern England" , "River at Lechlade" , "The Isis at Oxford" , "River at Windsor" , "The Ma's in London" .)