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.

Andy Hamilton & Guy Jenkin Interview

The Independent meets Andy Hamilton & Guy Jenkin. If a show has ever made you laugh, these two probably wrote the script. They gave us a rare interview for Red Nose Day, which this year includes an episode of their hit comedy Outnumbered.

In Outnumbered (BBC1, Saturday), I get the strong sensation that Ben and Karen have been mixing with rough children behind the camera. Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, who write, direct, produce and generally lead astray, have been seen whispering to them between takes. Hence the angelic Karen's reproach to her father, "You're spending all the money on salads and beer!" and her comment on her grandfather's smell, "When you're old you have a special smell so you know when they're near." Grandfather, having incipient Alzheimer's, is also a child but going in the opposite direction. Well worth embroidering on a couple of cushions is his sound advice to his grandson, "Don't ever invade Russia!", and to his son-in-law, a history teacher, "There's no future in history."

In Outnumbered, I get the strong sensation that Ben and Karen have been mixing with rough children behind the camera. Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, who write, direct, produce and generally lead astray, have been seen whispering to them between takes. Hence the angelic Karen's reproach to her father, 'You're spending all the money on salads and beer!' and her comment on her grandfather's smell, 'When you're old you have a special smell so you know when they're near.'

Grandfather, having incipient Alzheimer's, is also a child but going in the opposite direction. Well worth embroidering on a couple of cushions is his sound advice to his grandson, 'Don't ever invade Russia!', and to his son-in-law, a history teacher, 'There's no future in history'.

The best sitcom currently on TV has to be Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin's Outnumbered, which succeeds in being both charming and funny in equal measure.

Hugh Dennis and Clare Skinner star as the parents to three young children. That's about it, concept wise, and the plotlines are equally uncluttered. This week the family were delayed at a foreign airport and pass the time by playing games, crashing luggage trolleys, teasing police dogs, terrorising a passenger on crutches and trying to explain to a four year old child why religious fanatics might want to blow their plane up.

Apparently much of the younger cast members' dialogue is semi improvised, which accounts for the stunningly spontaneous performances and some unexpectedly bizarre lines. For the grown ups there is a terrific script to deliver, packed with intelligence, wit, subtlety and imagination. Dennis and Skinner make the most of it, and also manage to generate considerable screen chemistry that holds the whole show together.

You could argue that Outnumbered ploughs a familiar comic furrow. It is, after all, about besieged middle-class parents dealing with three children, and it has antecedents that stretch all the way from Joyce Grenfell to My Family. But familiarity is irrelevant when the scripts - written by the Drop the Dead Donkey team, Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin - are as acutely observed and as funny as this. The absence of a laughter track frees it from the straitjacket of gags, allowing it to veer off into unexpected directions. And best of all, there are the performances by the young actors. If you haven't seen them yet, you're missing something remarkable.

Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin Interview

A short Q&A interview with the writers of the show conducted during the build up to the second series.

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.