One of the (many) great things about the original Outnumbered was that it confounded my belief that children and comedy don’t mix. Stand-up comedians instantly become far less funny the minute they start banging on about their kids, just like Not Going Out did when it started giving the children actual lines. But Outnumbered scuppered that theory, with the children being the funniest part — especially the magnificent, adorable Karen (Ramona Marquez).
Letting them improvise their lines meant their exhausted parents (Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner) had to react in the moment, subverting the conventional, scripted norm. What we got, magically, was authenticity — how young children really speak rather than, as the writer Andy Hamilton said, a scriptwriter’s idea of it based on memories