Review of the Brockmans' return after eight years

It was never going to trump the Gavin and Stacey finale , but the return of Outnumbered after eight years was still a low-key pleasure. Even if that’s an odd adjective to use for a show in which cancer was a key storyline – a bold choice for a Christmas special, and not an entirely popular one with viewers, if social media’s to be believed.

Pete (Hugh Dennis) has prostate cancer, we soon learn. Caught early, good chances and all that, but perhaps enough to concentrate the mind on the importance of family – a reality addressed with deft subtlety by writers Guy Jenkins and Andy Hamilton.

The news is to be broken to the now-adult Brockman children over Christmas dinner, which Sue (Claire Skinner) frets intensely over. It – like so much in this sitcom – is a scenario a lot of families will relate to. Meanwhile, all her festive prep, including covering every free surface of the house in tinsel, sets up a great reveal gag.

Pete’s diagnosis might add a sombre undertone, but doesn’t quite overwhelm the comedy. In the true middle-class British way, no one’s quite comfortable addressing it directly. ‘We’ll know they are OK when they start taking the piss,’ Pete says of his kids handling the news, and, sure enough, it’s not too long before they are. 

Even without this plotline, the revised Outnumbered is a different Beast from its heyday more than a decade ago. 

The technique that made it groundbreaking is no longer relevant, of course: the children being allowed to improvise to make them sound naturalistic is not such a feat when the Brockman ‘kids’ are in their 20s, and much of that freewheeling chaos is gone.

However, Pete and Sue have now been given a grandchild to maintain the tradition, at least in small doses, and the utterly delightful Aurora Skarli as three-year-old Zara, pretending to be a hyena or a dinosaur provided much of the old charm. As well as yet another opportunity for Dennis to wheel out his excellent velociraptor impression, for which he needs very little excuse.

Zara’s dad Jake (Tyger-Drew Honey) is now a wan shadow of a man, thanks to sleep-deprived parenthood. The once destructive  Ben (Daniel Roche) is now so grown-up he can lead a health and safety course. And as for the cute Karen (Ramona Marquez), she’s now an intimidating blunt-talker reminiscent of Joy Merryweather in Drop The Dead Donkey, Jenkins and Hamilton’s breakthrough show. Oh, and of course she wants to change her name given the connotations that now come with being a Karen.

Outnumbered’s comedy now comes less from the chaos of young family dynamics but from the wry, cynical comments traded between people who know each other too well. Although more overt comic beats come from the obliviously self-absorbed Jane (Hattie Morahan) imposing herself on the family.

Cancer aside – and that’s a big proviso, admittedly – the show now charts the downsizing for empty-nest parents. Of life, not just property. On one level the biggest concern the Brockmans now have is the constant irritation of the neighbours’ parcels clogging up the hallway. It’s a small step from this to full-on Victor Meldrew obsession with petty irritants, and true enough Pete fancy lets his pent-up rage erupt.

While the weary but loving chemistry between Dennis and Skinner – who became a real-life couple since the last Christmas special – is very appealing, something is undoubtedly missing from the show now the kids are grown up.  Yet it’s still nice to spend time with them.

Review date: 27 Dec 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett