The seventh and final episode of the second series of Outnumbered was shown on BBC One on Saturday, 27th December. My wife and I only discovered this programme three weeks earlier and thereby missed the entirety of the first series, televised last year, and the first three episodes of the second. We were possibly vaguely aware of it but did not watch it owing to a general aversion to television sitcoms of the past few years. Fortunately for us my brother brought it our notice.
Outnumbered is about the problems facing parents bringing up three young children, aged (in the first series) 11, 7 and 5, hence the title. It is consistently funny and original. The originality derives from the fact that the children’s dialogue is partly improvised. As a consequence, what the children say and how they say it is disarmingly natural. Whilst the parents’ dialogue is scripted, the actors, Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis, have to be able to respond to situations where they do not know exactly what the children are going to say. This adds to the naturalness and demands special qualities on the part of the performers. If my understanding is correct, none of the children had acted professionally before. The elder boy, Jake, played by the bizarrely-named Tyger Drew-Honey, is the most sensible member of the family; the second son, Ben (Daniel Roche), is the naughty one and a terrible fibber; and the little girl (Ramona Marquez) has a talent for asking questions, often embarrassing, which her parents find very hard to answer.
Outnumbered is written, produced and directed by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin who were responsible for Drop the Dead Donkey, the satirical sit-com of the 1990s, a great favourite in our house.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this programme, the first series is out on DVD and I expect the second will follow shortly. Hopefully the BBC will commission a third series, if they have not already done so.
Rating: ****
Postscript : 26.11.2009. Both series are now out on DVD. Click here for Amazon product link.
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