Noughties sitcom comebacks are very much in fashion at the moment – and a star of Outnumbered hasn’t ruled out a revival of the BBC series.
Hugh Dennis, 63, starred in every episode of the family comedy show since its very beginning – a staggering 18 years ago – and hasn’t turned down the prospect of coming back for more.
Outnumbered followed the everyday lives of the middle-class Brockman family – based in Chiswick, London – with Mum and Dad Brockman ‘outnumbered’ by their three children.
It originally ran between 2007 and 2014 and was praised for its hilariously accurate portrayal of parenting and for its semi-improvisational scripting, which largely came from the child cast.
Two reunions have been broadcast since then, with the first coming in 2016 and the most recent being aired over Christmas 2024, but Hugh has said more episodes will only be made on one condition.
Speaking to Metro‘s 60 Seconds, he said: ‘I don’t know [about a revival] but one of the things that made Outnumbered very good was it was always about a particular stage of life, in which things were happening.’
He added that he would be open to more, but added the caveat that ‘if it were ever to come back, you’d have to find an interesting thing for it to be about’.
In Outnumbered, Hugh played Pete Brockman, a history teacher at a dysfunctional inner-London school, while Claire Skinner starred as Sue Brockman.
The three Brockman children were the sarcastic Jake (Tyger-Drew Honey), the hyperactive Ben (Daniel Roche), and the inquisitive daughter of the family, Karen (Ramona Marquez).
After initially being met with a mixed response from critics, Outnumbered quickly became more positively received and rose to become one of the BBC’s flagship shows.
At its peak in 2010, the show was drawing more than 6million viewers per episode, climbing from its initial average of 2.5m from the first season.
The 2012 Christmas Eve special – titled The Sick Party – remains the most-watched episode of the entire series, pulling in 9.4m viewers that day, despite competition from a Spice Girls documentary on ITV.
Second in the list of most-watched Outnumbered episodes is the 2024 Christmas special, which was watched by 7.4 million people but received a mixed response.
The reaction left one of the show’s stars, Ramona Marquez, feeling ‘sad’ after seeing the team’s work be criticised so heavily on social media in the aftermath.
Posting on her Instagram story, the actress said at the time: ‘Thank you for all your kind messages it means so much to me – someone said there was a lot of negativity over on Twitter.’
She then thanked those who had praised the 2024 special episode: ‘[Hearing about the negative reaction] made me sad, so thank you for the love and support.’
In the episode, Hugh’s character Pete is diagnosed with prostate cancer, which is a storyline he’s had people thank him for ever since the episode went out.
He told Metro: ‘Lots of people came up to me and said, “That was great because I have, or a friend of mine has, prostate cancer. Part of the point was to normalise all that, so it was a very good response.’
Watch episodes of Outnumbered on BBC iPlayer and Netflix.
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