Outnumbered

Tyger Drew-Honey says co-stars are like a real family

Tyger Drew-Honey, star of BBC comedy Outnumbered, reckons that his co-stars Daniel Roche and Ramona Marquez, who play his sibling Ben and Karen, have become like a real family to him.

Its days are numbered, but for now it's still funny

Outnumbered launched series three with an episode that was as snappy and fast-paced as usual.

Another chance to catch the first episode of series three of the delightful family sitcom starring Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner. Gran takes the Brockmans on an outing to London. Needless to say it's an agonising day: daughter Karen (Ramona Marquez) thinks modern art is rubbish; Ben (Daniel Roache) plays "spot the chav" and stabs one of the Trafalgar Square lions with a ruler; and older brother Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey) suffers serious trauma when he is unable to send a text message. A fourth series is slated for later this year.

Another chance to catch the first episode of the third series of the family sitcom that reinvented family sitcoms. We rejoin the Brockmans on a sightseeing day out in London. Scarily precocious Karen (Ramona Marquez) is grumbling that she wants to go somewhere 'more World War Two-ish', while uncontrollable Ben (Daniel Roche) is climbing on one of the Trafalgar Square lions and stabbing it with a ruler. "Die!" he shouts. "Die, Aslan, die!" Throughout, dad Pete (Hugh Dennis) wears his fixed expression of pain and confusion, like a baited bear. As a portrait of parenthood, it's terrific, even when the plotting, which includes a weary old joke involving a disabled loo, lets the side down. And the dialogue is as sharp as ever. "Look, mummy," says Karen, "I used to believe in wishes and all this nonsense, but then my wish about Ben and the hyenas didn't come true."

Outnumbered returns!

Still recovering from Pete's little indiscretion in the last series of Outnumbered? Us too. Good news. It'll all be put in the past when The Brockmans return in Series 4...

How Ben Elton almost killed Outnumbered

Outnumbered has become one of the BBC's biggest sitcom hits, but its creator has revealed that it almost didn't get made - thanks to Ben Elton.

Ugly Betty star Ana Ortiz joins 'Outnumbered' US remake

Ana Ortiz has signed up for the lead role in the American remake of Outnumbered.

Fox orders family-comedy pilot 'Outnumbered'

Fox has ordered a family-comedy pilot inspired by a hit U.K. sitcom.

The Brockmans are the most convincing sitcom family since the Royles. The last episode in the latest series of Outnumbered was, as usual, perfectly pitched between exquisite gag-packed comedy and fleeting moments of unsentimental family drama.

But even when dealing with Pete's drunken indiscretion with another woman, or little Karen's road accident, writers Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin never lost sight of their comic intent. Instead, Karen expressed disappointment that dad had broken his wedding vows - "the vicar's going to be furious" - before harassing a kindly nurse with tacit threats of legal action if her jab hurt more than just "a tiny bit" as promised.

The subtly touching closing scene, in which the realistically reunited parents left hospital with a bandaged Karen, as she wittered on delightfully, said more about enduring family ties than any number of schmaltzy homilies.

Although the youngest kids in Outnumbered are exasperating, they're also unaffectedly charming and clearly far funnier and more real than any other children in sitcom history. Partly improvised by child actors Ramona Marquez and Daniel Roche, their skewed righteousness, ruthless inquisitiveness and semi-logical flights of fancy appear to be an endless source of inspired comedy. I just can't work out whether it's a good thing or not that one of the funniest comedy performers in Britain is a partially scripted nine-year-old girl.

Outnumbered just didn't do the funny business

TV review: Our reviewer was outnumbered by the number of his friends who liked sitcom Outnumbered, but they didn't change his mind...