Everything you need to know about... Outnumbered

What's the Back Story?

Starring comedian Hugh Dennis and actress Claire Skinner as Pete and Sue Brockman, middle-class parents from South London, Outnumbered is a half-hour BBC1 domestic sitcom with a twist. What sets it apart from outwardly similar BBC1 comedies such as My Family and the recently axed After You've Gone is the use of improvisation to get believable performances from the young actors playing the Brockman children: 11-year-old Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey), seven-year-old Ben (Daniel Roche) and five-year-old Karen (Ramona Marquez). Or as Dennis has commented: "In most sitcoms all the lines for children are written by adults – so they're speaking the words of people 30 years older. You really want kids to have their own voices, and say their own things." Typical dialogue: Pete: "You should never, ever hit somebody." Ben: "Even if they are a murderer and they hit you with a shovel first?"

The Show's Pedigree

From the comedy powerhouse Hat Trick Productions, Outnumbered is the first collaboration between Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin since the much-loved 1990s newsroom comedy Drop the Dead Donkey. Dennis began his career on the Radio 1 sketch show The Mary Whitehouse Experience, alongside David Baddiel, Rob Newman and future regular comedy partner Steve Punt. More recently Dennis has been a panellist on BBC2's topical satire Mock the Week. Skinner has enacted Hamilton dialogue before – as Neil Pearson's estranged wife, Meryl, in Hamilton's 2003 sitcom Trevor's World of Sport. Tyger apparently came to the attention of Hamilton and Jenkin in his school production of Treasure Island, having based his character on Leslie Phillips. "Ooh, I say ... pieces of eight."

Plot So Far?

The current series of Outnumbered is actually the second, a first having begun airing in August 2007, where it was watched by more than four million viewers – a highly respectable gross for the 10.35pm slot. The children's characters have been firmly established now, with the eldest, Jake, being a chronic worrier, middle-child Ben a chronic liar, and the youngest, Karen, in the habit of asking difficult questions. So the opening episode of the current series was based around the wedding of Sue's cousin Julie, allowing "executive bridesmaid" Karen to quiz Julie about her former boyfriends, and Ben to enter a theological debate with the vicar ("Why has Jesus got that sad expression on his face?"). However, it's often not what the child actors say, as much as the totally naturalistic way that they say it. As the show's co-creator Jenkin has said: "You rarely get the feeling that the children in sitcoms are real. They tend to be the same type of character – the smartarse who says adult things – and they are rooted to the spot, staring at the camera, because they've been told to stand in one place and to say the lines."

So is it a Winner?

Outnumbered is a bit of an unheralded, word-of-mouth winner. Reviewing the first episode, The Independent's Tom Sutcliffe felt sad he lacked room "to do justice to the brilliance of Outnumbered, which has deservedly been promoted to a prime Saturday slot". Rod Liddle surprised himself by also praising the show in The Sunday Times, writing: "An exquisitely middle-class, middle-aged domestic situation comedy set in north London – maybe Crouch End or Tufnell Park – and starring one of those bloody stand-up comics who now festoons every network, it really should be hated before it is even seen. So, maybe it's just me, but Outnumbered is very funny indeed." Liddle was right to guess his was not the unanimous view. Kevin Maher in The Times called the show "meretricious", finding "fake pay-offs" and "knowing winks to the wings". But this was a minority view and James Walton from The Daily Telegraph praised the fact it didn't feel contrived. "Outnumbered sticks firmly with the mundane, yet manages to be funny about it. It doesn't avoid the sheer dullness involved in family life either – it happily depicts it with a winning mixture of exasperation and affection." But perhaps the greatest compliment is the fact it is to be remade for US television. A pilot has been made for Fox, and further scripts (by Seinfeld veteran Larry Levin) are being written.

Meet the family: who's who

Pete Brockman (Hugh Dennis)

The long-suffering paterfamilias is a history teacher at an inner city school, who was accused (in the first series) of making a racist comment to a pupil.

Sue Brockman (Claire Skinner)

Sue's daily battle is to get the children out of the house while not feeling belittled by the 'super mum' next door.

Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey)

A persistent worrier who, in the new series, starts being bullied at his secondary school.

Ben (Daniel Roche)

An instinctive liar who has a knack for asking difficult questions.

Karen (Kat Williams)

Karen, the youngest, enacts bizarre games with her cuddly toys (last week she was playing 'Hell's Kitchen').

Angela (Samantha Bond)

Sue's 44-year-old sister and the object of intense sibling rivalry.

Outnumbered is on BBC1, Saturday, 9.20pm