Daniel Roche

Parents-under-siege sitcom Outnumbered is a slow-burning hit that's steadily accumulated both favourable ratings and gongs (it picked up three British Comedy Awards earlier this month). Rightly so, because it's a rare beast: a comedy that captures the chaos of family life without lapsing into sentimentality. This festive episode, then, is a welcome taster for the third series next spring. It's Boxing Day in the Brockman household and, along with Santa, some burglars have squeezed down the chimney. As usual, precocious, pet-obsessed seven-year-old Karen (the remarkable Ramona Marquez) steals the best scenes - she's not only lost the school hamster under the floorboards, but takes it upon herself to make everybody else's New Year's Resolutions, with typical tact. Meanwhile, brother Ben (mop-topped tyke Daniel Roche) wreaks gleeful havoc with a mechanical hand and eldest Jake (the preposterously named Tyger Drew-Honey) is trying to find Awol grandfather Frank (David Ryall). The increasingly senile old goat couldn't be hiding with the hamster, could he? Parents Pete and Sue (Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner) preside over this pandemonium with beleaguered bafflement.

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.

Why Outnumbered's junior rebel is the ultimate kids' hero

It's just possible that the best cult TV hero for under-10s is a curly-haired kid whose work has never been shown pre-watershed, unless you count an ad for Kingsmill bread. A hugely unscientific survey of children of my acquaintance reveals that those who have seen the BBC comedy series Outnumbered, about a flustered but happy middle-class family, all want to be Ben, the seven-year-old middle son, played by Daniel Roche.

Outnumbered lost out to The IT Crowd at the Baftas this year, which wasn't just baffling it was also a real pity, because Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton's winning portrayal of the minor absurdities of family life, and its brilliant, scene-stealing child actors, deserve proper recognition. In a repeat of series two's first episode, the family, including hapless mum and dad Sue and Pete (Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis), is off to a wedding. As always they hover perilously close to being late as violence-obsessed Ben (Daniel Roche) debates if hitting someone who is attacking you with a shovel would be OK, limpid-eyed Karen (Ramona Marquez) locks herself in the bathroom and Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey) worries. It's achingly funny and packed with lovely moments, including Karen's remorseless quizzing of the increasingly unnerved bride, that always end with the grown-ups being outmanoeuvered.

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.

Outnumbered came to BBC One with very little fanfare. There were a few adverts, but it was stuck on at 10.35pm after the News, and shown on consecutive nights over two weeks. Which is unusual to say the least, and I've no doubt that some people missed some episodes if they thought it was a weekly programme.

Yes, quiet and unassuming it may have been, but it was gorgeous. Following a middle-class family in the midst of several crises, Outnumbered proved so special because of the actors' improvisation. To be precise, it was the children who improvised around the adult actors' script, and the result was magical. Five year old Ramona Marquez played the youngest child and is a complete genius - you could see that Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner's reactions to some of the more surreal things she came out with were entirely genuine. The other children, played by Tyger Drew-Honey and Daniel Roche, couldn't be quite so off the wall, and therefore probably actually had to work harder, and were both wonderful.