Outnumbered

Outnumbered, 2007

Originally airing in 2007 Outnumbered initially ran for four series totalling twenty five episodes and a Christmas Special.

The series is unique in that rather than the children learning scripts they are encouraged to improvise, thus giving far more realistic and funny performances.

The brainchild of Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin (of Drop The Dead Donkey fame).  In fact Outnumbered was their first collaboration since Drop The Dead Donkey.  originally a twenty minute pilot episode was filmed and presented to Executive Producer Jon Rolph.  He liked the idea and immediately commissioned a series of six episodes, the rest, as they say, was history.

The show has won a clutch of awards:  “British Comedy Guide Editors’ Award” in The Comedy.co.uk Awards 2007 and the “Best Returning British TV Sitcom” in The Comedy.co.uk Awards 2008.  In 2009 it won Royal Television Society Award for “Scripted Comedy” and two Broadcasting Press Guild Awards in the same year: “Best Comedy/Entertainment” and the “Writer’s Award”.  It also picked up Best Sitcom, Best British Comedy and Best Female Newcomer for Ramona Marquez, at the 2009 British Comedy Awards.  In 2012 it won the National Television Award for Best Comedy.

At the end of series four in 2011 it was announced by the writers that there would be no further series as they felt that the child actors were now getting too old.  After a deluge of complaints producers agreed to a fifth and possibly a sixth series.

Outnumbered did indeed return in the way of many popular sitcoms: The Christmas Special.  Two new specials were screened in 2011 and 2012.  Two years later in 2014 series five hit our screens.  It would be the final series, although the show made it’s final appearance in December 2016 as a Christmas Special.

Summary

The action centres on the fictional Brockmans, a middle class family living in South London, whose two parents are “outnumbered” by their three, somewhat unruly, children.

Clips

 

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Cast

Hugh Dennis
Claire Skinner
Tyger Drew-Honey
Daniel Roche
Ramona Marquez
Samantha Bond
David Ryall
Rosalind Ayres

Details

Channel: BBC1
Written and Produced By:
Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin
Executive Producer: Jon Rolph
Original Transmission Dates: 28th August 2007 – 26th December 2016