User Reviews

In this, the opening episode of this long running and well-loved series, we get to meet the middle-class Brockmam family - catching them on a busy morning at home on the first day of the new school term. The familiar gentle chaos we will associate them with is present and correct here - it's oldest son Jake's first day at high school, and he's feeling quietly nervous; younger brother Ben is happily hyperactive and quizzing his parents with his usual ridiculously bizarre questions; and young Karen just wants to be a fairy - albeit, one with a nit problem!

Long-suffering parents Sue and Pete (beautifully played by Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis) maintain an air of calm resilience and respectfulness among all the crazy goings on - and you trust them to make things right by the end.

This episode introduces us well to the very natural, almost fly-on-the-wall feel of the stories - the children's dialogue often ad-libbed by the young actors themselves to enhance the feeling of reality. Young Ramona Marquez in particular is wonderful as youngest child Karen, making for a genuinely charming and endearing centre to the show.

It's an episode that's fun and easy to watch, and anyone out there who is (or has been) a parent to young children will easily relate to the Brockman's imaginatively comical dilemmas. All in all, it's a good strong start to the life of this sitcom where we literally watch the family grow up before our eyes.

Looking back at the opening episode of Outnumbered you are struck by how young the children when it started.

History teacher Pete Brockman and his wife Sue who works part time have to deal with their three inquisitive children and the first day of term at secondary school for their eldest, 11 year old Jake who is nervous about the new school.

Seven year old Ben appears to be more mischievous wanting to take his dad's power drill to school and 5 year old Karen asks questions about everything anything, sometimes even the awkward ones.

Everything is chaotic for the first day at school like trying to find the car keys and Jake gets more worried.

The show was a mixture of scripted comedy and instructed improvisation from the children which Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner had to react to. Easier for Dennis as he started out as a comedian.