Oh no! The cutest sitcom on TV has been ruined by stroppy teenagers
Shirley Temple syndrome has set in. Now that the adorably funny children of Outnumbered (BBC1) are grown up, the cutest sitcom on TV has lost its charm.
more than two years after the previous series, nothing has changed for the Brockman family, except that Karen, Ben and Jake are no longer littl ’ uns. They are adolescents, with all the stroppy gracelessness of typical teens. And that is not appealing.
The princess of hollywood in the Thirties, Shirley Temple, was dropped by the studios when she hit young adulthood. The Beeb should have done the same with this once magical comedy.
Back for a fifth season, Outnumbered revisited all the jokes from its very first episode in 2007, including well-worn routines about checking the school-run traffic (now with a laptop, not via Ceefax) and the children doing their homework while ‘multi-tasking’ (i.e. sending text messages and watching TV).
But the innocence had gone and we were left with an unfunny family who weren’t often likeable.
hugh Dennis as the dad, pete, hates his job and is grumpy, frustrated, resentful and fitfully aggressive. in earlier series his only attractive quality was the loving patience he showed his children. We had no doubt they were the best thing in pete’s life . . . and now they’re turning out as disenchanted with life as he is. That’s not funny, it’s sad.
his sons had learned to avoid him, or lash out verbally first. But it was Karen ( ramona marquez) who seemed to be suffering most. her pushy, highly strung mother, Sue (Claire Skinner), had sent her to a different secondary school from her brothers, believing she was too bright for an ordinary education. Karen was hating it, and seemed depressed.
Compare that to the blithe innocence of the first series, when five-year- old Karen was trying to persuade her mum that they had room in the back garden for a giraffe. That’s what we loved about Outnumbered, the imagination and playfulness of the three children.
As the writers revisited favourite topics from earlier series, all the improvised sweetness of the original has been lost. every line now sounded scripted.
Only boisterous, affable Ben ( Daniel roche) retains any childishness, but at 13 he is built like a rugby forward and towers over his mum. Outnumbered has never been scared of tackling difficult family storylines. The children’s grandfather, played by David ryall, slipped into dementia and, at the start of the third series, died in hospital.
But the show’s ability to lift the spirits has always been in the children’s magical honesty. They said directly what they thought, and often left the adults looking petty, hypocritical or silly.
Kids are not kids for long. That’s part of the wonder of childhood . . . and it has evaporated from Outnumbered.
The Brockman siblings are different ages, of course. There’s a reason why twins are uncommon on TV. it’s hard to tell them apart.
lapel badges, or hats, or even colour-coded shirts might help — but Chris and Xand van Tulleken, 36-year-old doctors presenting a horizon special, went out of their way to make sure we had no idea which was which.
The idea behind Sugar v Fat (BBC2) was sound. Chris and Xand are identical twins, so their metabolisms are closely matched. if one ate nothing but protein and fat for a month, and the other had only carbs and sugar, we could learn a lot about which diet was healthier.
But confusion set in quickly. At the beginning, Xand had a stubbly beard: that was a helpful clue. Then he shaved, and Chris grew a full beard: that was unhelpful. Then they both shaved: this was getting ridiculous. Then they both grew stubble: now they were just taking the mickey.
it’s a safe bet that, when they were boys, they would trick their teachers by claiming to be each other. perhaps even their mother couldn’t tell them apart. Are they quite certain themselves who is who?