Outnumbered (BBC1, also tonight and tomorrow, 10.35pm, and Mon/Tues/Wed next week) is a low-key comedy looking at middle-class parenting. We know it’s low-key because there’s no theme tune (classy, you see). There are many clues when it comes to the middle-class thing: much of the action takes place in a spacious kitchen/diner, they talk about missing the walking bus, and the phone not being in its cradle becomes a major issue.
Unlike, say My Family, though, this show’s middle-class-ness is integral; Outnumbered wants to explore the anxieties -and often absurdities – of middle-class parenting. Are they under-parenting, or over-parenting? Is it really Bring Your Granny To Work Day? Should I bribe my kid to get into the car?
Sue (Claire Skinner) and Pete (Hugh Dennis) play the parents who over-think every single decision, and as such, get a lot of them wrong. But then, two of their three kids aren’t exactly the easiest to parent.
Jake is the oldest and very much the wisest (probably of the whole family, mum and dad included). He’s the ultimate 21st century early teen: tech savvy, smart, lazy, perceptive and cheeky. In a well-appointed town-house devoid of order, he is an ocean of calm… well, slightly grumpy calm. If only his younger siblings got those genes. Middle child Ben is an absolute nightmare who lies at every possible opportunity, and decides that a cordless drill is a suitable subject for Show And Tell, which, he lies, has been changed to today.
And then there’s the youngest, little Karen, who is just a little too good at picking up on other people’s conversations, and who likes to ask questions about absolutely everything. Karen is played by Ramona Marquez and you just have to see her. Marquez provided pretty much every single laugh last night – I don’t know whether she was closely following a script, or improvising along with the rest of the cast but either way she is still a tiny genius.
As her mum combed the nits out of her hair, she asked whether she could keep one as a pet. Then whether she could keep it in her hair so it could start a Nit Town. When that was shot down, she moved onto other animals. “Could I have a giraffe? (No, a giraffe’s a bit big) Could I have… a lion? (No, that might be a bit dangerous) Could I have………….. a puffin?” The reaction on Skinner’s face suggests that Marquez came up with this on her own. See what I mean? Genius.
Overall, this might not be a masterpiece, but there were some great lines along the way, as we would expect from the writers of Drop The Dead Donkey, and the performances are all pleasingly natural and believable – possibly Skinner aside, who I found rather annoying. But please, you have to watch Outnumbered just to see this kid Ramona Marquez. She’s a star.
My review of the series as a whole can now be found here.
[annawaits]
