It would help if Trinity knew what it wanted to be: teenage drama, Gothic murder mystery or a comedy about class. But the mix of genres does this eight-part series no favours. Yes, it looks sexy and stars Charles Dance, but the script is woeful and the concept desperately cliched. The setting is an exclusive university which prides itself on being for the rich and powerful. Until now, that is: at the behest of the new warden, Dr Angela Doone (Claire Skinner), Trinity has opened its doors to all classes and incomes. Among the new arrivals is Charlotte (Antonia Bernath), whose father was a don at Trinity but who died in mysterious circumstances related to the university's dark secret, one overseen by Dr Edmund Maltravers (Dance), the snobbish and devious dean.

Outnumbered lost out to The IT Crowd at the Baftas this year, which wasn't just baffling it was also a real pity, because Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton's winning portrayal of the minor absurdities of family life, and its brilliant, scene-stealing child actors, deserve proper recognition. In a repeat of series two's first episode, the family, including hapless mum and dad Sue and Pete (Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis), is off to a wedding. As always they hover perilously close to being late as violence-obsessed Ben (Daniel Roche) debates if hitting someone who is attacking you with a shovel would be OK, limpid-eyed Karen (Ramona Marquez) locks herself in the bathroom and Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey) worries. It's achingly funny and packed with lovely moments, including Karen's remorseless quizzing of the increasingly unnerved bride, that always end with the grown-ups being outmanoeuvered.

A complaint often levelled at television is that there are far too many repeats slotted into the schedules, which can be a highly valid gripe. But when the repeat in question is another go for Outnumbered series two (which gained decent ratings on its previous Saturday showing), we'll let it go. Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin's heavily improvised comedy is a constant delight as Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner play the average couple with three kids - and it's the kids that steal the show every time. In this first episode, Pete and Sue shepherd their brood to a family wedding - with predictably chaotic results. Highly recommended.

Perhaps the best show on the box at the moment, and if you're not watching, then shame on you! Outnumbered is sublime and familiar and laugh out loud funny as Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis attempt to keep their boisterous brood under control. Hugh Dennis is just brilliant, which is a surprise as he's probably best known to a wider audience (outside Radio 4) as a low rent secondary character in My Hero (shudder).

Precocious children are generally funny for about five minutes or so and then you just want them to shut up and go away. So in that sense, child-centric sitcom Outnumbered was a fair reflection on its chosen subject. It was a perfect illustration of the nightmare caused by muddle-headed middle-class parents attempting rational debate with scheming brats.

But as Mum and Dad (sharp performances from Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis) allowed their trio of objectionable offspring to run rings round them without any payback, the effect was aggravating. Crazy child Ben's funny opening about whether it's ever OK to hit anyone first ultimately backfired - by the end, pretty much everyone on Outnumbered, parents and children, could have done with a slap.

An odd piece of scheduling for a brilliant comedy. I hope this doesn't turn into another Trevor's World of Sport for co-writer Andy Hamilton, because the second series of this insidiously clever piece of work deserves an audience. Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner return as parents Pete and Sue, constantly trying (and generally failing) to corral their brood of three boisterous children. The beauty is in the fact the kids are rarely working from a script, with a lot of the comedy coming from just letting the child actors get on with it and see what happens. Cracking!

Once the middle classes were obsessed with cars, cats or gardens. These days, it's kids. Car seats? Baby on Board? Is this the nation that produced Stirling Moss?

I expected to hate Outnumbered, but was pleasantly surprised. This family sitcom is deliberately underdone with mundane settings and a loose improvisational style. And the humour is mild and wry rather than savage or out there.

Admittedly, it'd happily watch even Big Brother if Claire Skinner were involved. But Hugh Dennis is nicely lugubrious and the writing (Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton's first collaboration since Drop The Dead Donkey) is typically skilled.

Even the fact that one of the child actors is called Tyger Drew-Honey didn't put me off. Not much, anyway.

There's good news for fans of Outnumbered. The unconventional family sitcom - which uses some improvisation - will be returning for a second series on BBC One at the end of September.

Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner work well together as the hard-pressed parents of three small children. The kids themselves - Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey), Ben (Daniel Roche) and Karen (Ramona Marquez) - are terrific.

Written by Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton (who created Drop the Dead Donkey), the improvisational sections work surprisingly well, especially the off-the-cuff lines delivered by the kids. The lines are so good that at times Dennis and Skinner have to suppress their own wry smiles. In addition, Dennis is a gifted comedian who can also improvise, so it's a winning combination all-round.

The series became quite essential viewing last September, despite the BBC's bizarre idea of stripping it in two bunches of three consecutive episodes across a fortnight. This sort of show works much better with a more conventional regular weekly spot. Let's hope the BBC gets the scheduling right for the new series.

This deliriously enjoyable family sitcom had the funniest scenes ever between grown-ups and small children. Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner shone as the careworn parents but it was the child actors who were a revelation.

Outnumbered came to BBC One with very little fanfare. There were a few adverts, but it was stuck on at 10.35pm after the News, and shown on consecutive nights over two weeks. Which is unusual to say the least, and I've no doubt that some people missed some episodes if they thought it was a weekly programme.

Yes, quiet and unassuming it may have been, but it was gorgeous. Following a middle-class family in the midst of several crises, Outnumbered proved so special because of the actors' improvisation. To be precise, it was the children who improvised around the adult actors' script, and the result was magical. Five year old Ramona Marquez played the youngest child and is a complete genius - you could see that Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner's reactions to some of the more surreal things she came out with were entirely genuine. The other children, played by Tyger Drew-Honey and Daniel Roche, couldn't be quite so off the wall, and therefore probably actually had to work harder, and were both wonderful.