Andy Hamilton (I)

In Outnumbered (BBC1, Saturday), I get the strong sensation that Ben and Karen have been mixing with rough children behind the camera. Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, who write, direct, produce and generally lead astray, have been seen whispering to them between takes. Hence the angelic Karen's reproach to her father, "You're spending all the money on salads and beer!" and her comment on her grandfather's smell, "When you're old you have a special smell so you know when they're near." Grandfather, having incipient Alzheimer's, is also a child but going in the opposite direction. Well worth embroidering on a couple of cushions is his sound advice to his grandson, "Don't ever invade Russia!", and to his son-in-law, a history teacher, "There's no future in history."

In Outnumbered, I get the strong sensation that Ben and Karen have been mixing with rough children behind the camera. Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, who write, direct, produce and generally lead astray, have been seen whispering to them between takes. Hence the angelic Karen's reproach to her father, 'You're spending all the money on salads and beer!' and her comment on her grandfather's smell, 'When you're old you have a special smell so you know when they're near.'

Grandfather, having incipient Alzheimer's, is also a child but going in the opposite direction. Well worth embroidering on a couple of cushions is his sound advice to his grandson, 'Don't ever invade Russia!', and to his son-in-law, a history teacher, 'There's no future in history'.

You could argue that Outnumbered ploughs a familiar comic furrow. It is, after all, about besieged middle-class parents dealing with three children, and it has antecedents that stretch all the way from Joyce Grenfell to My Family. But familiarity is irrelevant when the scripts - written by the Drop the Dead Donkey team, Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin - are as acutely observed and as funny as this. The absence of a laughter track frees it from the straitjacket of gags, allowing it to veer off into unexpected directions. And best of all, there are the performances by the young actors. If you haven't seen them yet, you're missing something remarkable.

Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin Interview

A short Q&A interview with the writers of the show conducted during the build up to the second series.

An odd piece of scheduling for a brilliant comedy. I hope this doesn't turn into another Trevor's World of Sport for co-writer Andy Hamilton, because the second series of this insidiously clever piece of work deserves an audience. Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner return as parents Pete and Sue, constantly trying (and generally failing) to corral their brood of three boisterous children. The beauty is in the fact the kids are rarely working from a script, with a lot of the comedy coming from just letting the child actors get on with it and see what happens. Cracking!

Once the middle classes were obsessed with cars, cats or gardens. These days, it's kids. Car seats? Baby on Board? Is this the nation that produced Stirling Moss?

I expected to hate Outnumbered, but was pleasantly surprised. This family sitcom is deliberately underdone with mundane settings and a loose improvisational style. And the humour is mild and wry rather than savage or out there.

Admittedly, it'd happily watch even Big Brother if Claire Skinner were involved. But Hugh Dennis is nicely lugubrious and the writing (Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton's first collaboration since Drop The Dead Donkey) is typically skilled.

Even the fact that one of the child actors is called Tyger Drew-Honey didn't put me off. Not much, anyway.

There's good news for fans of Outnumbered. The unconventional family sitcom - which uses some improvisation - will be returning for a second series on BBC One at the end of September.

Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner work well together as the hard-pressed parents of three small children. The kids themselves - Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey), Ben (Daniel Roche) and Karen (Ramona Marquez) - are terrific.

Written by Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton (who created Drop the Dead Donkey), the improvisational sections work surprisingly well, especially the off-the-cuff lines delivered by the kids. The lines are so good that at times Dennis and Skinner have to suppress their own wry smiles. In addition, Dennis is a gifted comedian who can also improvise, so it's a winning combination all-round.

The series became quite essential viewing last September, despite the BBC's bizarre idea of stripping it in two bunches of three consecutive episodes across a fortnight. This sort of show works much better with a more conventional regular weekly spot. Let's hope the BBC gets the scheduling right for the new series.

Old Harry's Game I regard as one of the best-written comedies around, sustained over its 12 years on the air by brilliant performances and production.

Its commentary on man's inhumanity to man, as Old Harry (more commonly known as the Devil) surveys it across the ages, is very funny indeed. It is satirical, philosophical, inventive, topical yet timeless. What's to dislike?

Could it be because last week's episode mentioned the Bible? This often upsets people. But look at the context: there's a new arrival in Hell, an academic, played by Annette Crosbie. She can't understand why she is there. Old Harry (Andy Hamilton) makes her an offer. He will investigate why if she writes a biography of him which tells the truth. He sees the truth as being favourable to him. She sees it as something arrived at by due historical process, the examination of evidence, the comparison of texts.

She asks for a Bible. Variants on biblical accounts, for instance of the Adam and Eve story, then ensue. I found them very funny. Is this to do with Christianity? I am a Christian, but still laughed my socks off.

The sitcom Old Harry's Game is back for a new series. Having finally rid themselves of the Professor, who used to make the afterlife unbearable with his questions and his moralising, Satan (Andy Hamilton) and his sidekick Scumspawn (Robert Duncan) find themselves facing a new challenge. There is so much sin in the world, and so much slaughter, that hell is overflowing with the freshly damned. Great fun, despite the deafeningly over-amplified laughter track.