They were the recognisably chaotic family that made you feel better as a harassed parent. A decade on from the last full season of Outnumbered and eight years since the last Christmas special of the BBC hit, the Brockmans were back this year.
Pete, Sue and their three out-of-control young children were first introduced to viewers in 2007. The humour mined from the craziness of family life, filmed almost as a fly on the wall documentary, was new and refreshing then, but does it still hit the spot in 2024?
Fast forward and Jake, Ben and Karen, now in their mid twenties, are home for Christmas. The comedy value of poking fun at family life feels less refreshing, largely because little kids are a richer source of laughs than twenty-somethings. For the latest TV & Showbiz news, sign up to our newsletter
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But this Boxing Day screening was still a fun watch and gentle enough to doze off to in front of in between the last mince pies and the Quality Street. Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey), who was 11 when the show started, is now a harassed young dad himself, Ben (Daniel Roche), an exasperatingly mad eight year-old, has morphed into a sensible young man giving health and safety advice at work and Karen ( Ramona Marquez). who was six, is now a capable 23-year-old sorting out the family idiocy. How the Outnumbered children have changed in the 17 years since the show first aired
To add a bit of tension, though not too much, Outnumbered creators Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton added in a dark side that never quite got dark. Pete (Hugh Dennis) and Sue (Claire Skinner) open proceedings by fretting over how to tell the kids that Pete has prostate cancer, but that it’s all going to be OK.
The kids, of course, are that grown-up kid come home mix of child-adult still vying for their place in the sibling order and the family unit. Told there is something important their parents must tell them they cry “are you going to stop paying for our phones?”.
But then the kids successfully out-adult the grown-ups. Karen gets rid of her parents’ irritating friend who has outstayed her welcome, Jake reassures mum and dad when the festive dinner is accidentally ruined and all three try to get repressed Pete to talk about his cancer.
Of course all the old tropes are there, but it’s what makes Outnumbered a reassuring comedy watch all these years on. Pete is the archetypal dad who won’t discuss his feelings but lets his angst out hurling next door’s parcels over the fence while Sue is so long programmed to please others she just can’t stop.
And of course, even though they are grown and one is now a parent himself, the Brockman children are still kids at heart and want their parents to be parents. The jokes are recognisable, the band is back together and all the warm cliches of coming home for Christmas are there.
The replacement bus service threatens to make Jake late, there’s a dysfunctional family Facetime session with wonky wifi, misdelivered parcels, the friend who refuses to leave and the secret which must be revealed. It is these recognisable elements which always gave Outnumbered its appeal. The irritants, ordinariness and ups and downs of family life, which can turn us all crazy at times, are gently robbed of their power by comedy.
This is Outnumbered’s winning formula, the ability to say that yes, kids and parents can be infuriating. Yes, as parents you may feel like hostages in your own home at times and, yes family life can be exhausting, dark, and infuriating, but stick it out, stay together and you will make it through.