Andy Hamilton (I)

Andy Hamilton on the secret to Outnumbered's success

Outnumbered is no ordinary family sitcom. Writer Andy Hamilton tells us the little trick that makes it so funny - and so true to life.

I missed Stephen Fry's explanation of what "gallimaufrey" means, but it's apparnetly "a motley assortment of things", which basically means this edition of QI wasn't constrained by a strict topic. It made me wonder: is QI's alphabetical adherence to topics in its best interest? I know it gives the show structure and order, but there must be times when the behind-the-scenes "elves" are tearing their hair out trying to think of compelling subjects/trivia with a vague connection to the year's particular letter. God help us when we get to "Q" or "X"...

The guests this week were again rather restrained. Hugh Dennis and Andy Hamilton are both intelligent people, which can help push the show onwards without it getting bogged down in too much toilet/sexual humour, but they can also make it feel a little plodding. Still, I always like it when the guests throw in their own "quite interesting" facts, such as Hugh's story about a communist state altering their highway code so "red" meant go and "green" meant stop, but forgetting to change all the traffic lights.

Phil Jupitus continues to have a very odd presence on this show, looking half-embarassed to be there, or unsure of himself in some strange way. Alan Davies was okay, but it always bugs me when he bludgeons a joke to death with repeated play - this week, his impression of German car inventor Mr. Bentz writing his own driver's license. Funny once, not so funny the fourth time.

A painfully revealing episode of Radio 4's The Reunion in 2005 shed a bright light on some of the darker recesses of one of television's best-loved topical comedy shows. In this look back, producer and driving force John Lloyd talks again of the backbreaking effort that went into Not the Nine O'Clock News, first shown 30 years ago: "My memory was that it was a nightmare of overwork. I mean, everything was stressful. We used to be green with exhaustion." Not Again looks at a show that launched some great British comic performers, and also Richard Curtis, Clive Anderson and Andy Hamilton, who contributed to the scripts.

One of the many great things about Outnumbered is that it's lovable without being nauseating; the humour is warm, but not cloying. Everything gels. There are great scripts from Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, and a super cast: Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner as sweetly exasperated parents Pete and Sue, and a trio of astonishing child actors.

In normal years, The Royle Family would be the sitcom special to be most keenly anticipated, but after last Christmas's aberration, "The New Sofa", judgement should be reserved on Caroline Aherne's latest reunion, "The Golden Egg Cup" (Christmas Day, 9pm BBC1). For unalloyed excitement, the 'Outnumbered Christmas Special' has me slathering at the chops. It's Boxing Day, and Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin's recognisably modern metropolitan family, the Brockmans, has been burgled - and I don't mean harassed parents Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner getting every scene stolen from under their noses by the improvising child actors, Tyger-Drew Honey, Daniel Roche and Ramona Marquez.

The use of props to add colour to a show that is, let's face it, better suited to Radio 4, is understandable. It doesn't stop the programme from being both amusing and informative, certainly. So it's just a shame that the toy horned helmets worn by Andy Hamilton, Reginald D Hunter and guest scrutineer Martha Kearney don't really support Julian Richards's theory that the Vikings were a force for good. Then again, a Viking shield might have helped ward off the spiky quips from Dr Peter Thompson, who believes our eyes don't tell us what's really out there.

You need to watch QI. I don't know if you know it at all, it's been around for a while in England. Stephen Fry's the host, Alan Davies is the permanent guest star and there's a rotating panel of famous people whose qualification for being on is they're amusing. Or Quite Interesting, which is what QI stands for. It's really just people talking shit. Tonight they're Rob Brydon, Andy Hamilton and Charlie Higson. I only really know Rob Brydon, and I love him. He's in Gavin & Stacey at the moment, it was on UKTV last night, he plays Bryn, Stacey's uncle. The topics on QI are letters from the alphabet, we're up to the Fs at this point, a fair way into the series. But it's a loose half hour. Tonight includes James Bond's job, Mick Jagger's walk, Bert Ward's post-Batman and Robin career in porn, and flags. Quite a lot about flags - extremely entertaining and mindless, just what you need during stressful times of (insert source of personal worry here). Even the buzzers are good - Andy Hamilton's is the Captain Pugwash music.

It's Only a Theory has Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter as resident hosts and together they discuss the relative merits of various scientific theories. The pair have starkly contrasting comic styles, but they nevertheless work well together and the banter they produce is consistently intelligent and amusing.

My only gripe with It's Only a Theory is that it's actually a radio show. The producers haven't even bothered to dress the set. Shut your eyes and you will miss absolutely nothing. There is a shredder, to which rejected theories are dramatically consigned, but even that makes a perfectly recognisable shredder noise.

"Nowadays, it seems like experts give birth to a new theory every few minutes," said Andy Hamilton at the beginning of It's Only a Theory. I don't know about that, but if so they're at least matched by comedians pupping new comedy-panel shows, most of which, sadly, are doomed to be tied in a sack and dropped into the swiftly flowing river of television oblivion. I'm guessing that It's Only a Theory isn't going to make it to adulthood, because it's very difficult to work out what it's for or how it's meant to work. A panel of two gag merchants (Hamilton and Reginald Hunter, who can both be funny) are joined by a celeb guest (it was Clare Balding this week) to offer peer group review on the theories of scientists and experts who quite like the idea of being on telly. They then say whether they've been approved or rejected, though it isn't clear on what basis they arrive at this decision and nobody gives a damn anyway. Last night, they batted around the ideas of a gerentologist who thinks the first 1,000-year-old person has already been born and a psychologist who believes that we shouldn't medicalise sadness - these two topics provoking a meandering and underwhelming blend of flippancy and bland earnestness. It isn't that the machinery doesn't work, it's that they completely forgot to put the machinery in. I can only hope it isn't distracting Hamilton from writing more episodes of Outnumbered.

We always welcome more TV time given over to Reginald D Hunter. Unfortunately, the format's a bit clunky in this new series, which sees Hunter teaming up with Andy Hamilton and special guests to chew over a new theory posited by an expert in their field. Still, Hunter does roll out some gems, with tonight's highlight being an argument between himself and Clare Balding over the virtues of Colin Firth. You can probably guess who wins.