Tyger Drew-Honey says co-stars are like a real family

Tyger Drew-Honey, star of BBC comedy Outnumbered, reckons that his co-stars Daniel Roche and Ramona Marquez, who play his sibling Ben and Karen, have become like a real family to him.

Another chance to catch the first episode of series three of the delightful family sitcom starring Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner. Gran takes the Brockmans on an outing to London. Needless to say it's an agonising day: daughter Karen (Ramona Marquez) thinks modern art is rubbish; Ben (Daniel Roache) plays "spot the chav" and stabs one of the Trafalgar Square lions with a ruler; and older brother Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey) suffers serious trauma when he is unable to send a text message. A fourth series is slated for later this year.

Outnumbered's spot-on portrayal of middle-class family mayhem is the very thing that can tip it towards the irritating. Over its three series, the joke has remained resolutely the same: given the right socio-economic background, precocious children will say the funniest things. And while there's always enjoyment to be had from the eccentricities of the Brockmans, there's now no escaping the faint whiff of the formulaic. In the final episode of the series, Pete (Hugh Dennis) deals with the fallout from his drunken infidelity and Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey) embarrasses himself with the baby-sitter. And there's a rare moment of tenderness when Sue's (Claire Skinner) latest obsession leads to Karen (Ramona Marquez) having an accident. "I've nearly killed the kids loads more times than you have," comforts Pete.

The family-centred improv' comedy has been a bit patchy of late but this episode is a corker. Tonight it's not just the kids who have been misbehaving, as Sue (Claire Skinner) discovers when she checks Pete's (Hugh Dennis) mobile for messages. But there's no time for a heart-to-heart when the kids are about.

If it's not Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey) turning the garden into a watery war zone, it's Karen (Ramona Marquez) asking if it's ever OK to hit a classmate.

Meanwhile, Pete's worried about the impending clash as Sue's sister Angela (Samantha Bond) turns up with her new husband (Douglas Hodge). While the adults struggle to remain civil, the children call a spade a spade - or, in Jake's case, reel off 18 names for a part of the male anatomy. Nudity and toilet habits also feature - but that's kids for you.

Indeed, some families might see this comedy more as a documentary. A funny one, mind.

Last Night's TV: Outnumbered

Some feel that the charm of Outnumbered is fading as the children get older and more knowing. I disagree, but it is interesting to see the older boy, sarcy Jake (played by Tyger Drew-Honey, poor chap) subside into adolescent taciturnity.

'Outnumbered' star wants drunk scenes

Outnumbered child star Tyger Drew-Honey has joked that he would like to film "drunk" scenes on the show.

What I love about being in Outnumbered

I'd have to say my favourite scene of series three was one featuring myself and Kelly, a young good looking waitress that Jake has his eye on.

If only because it centres so much on the precocious (yet, for the most part, just the right side of annoying) younger members of the cast, there's an obviously limited shelf to this series, centred on the chaotic everyday life of a middle-class south London family. So, who knows, this may well be both the first and last Outnumbered Christmas special.

If it is, it's comfortably up to the standard of the two full series we've enjoyed so far, as we descend upon the Brockman family - Pete (Hugh Dennis), Sue (Claire Skinner) and their unruly offspring Ben, Jake and Karen (Daniel Roche, Tyger Drew-Honey and Ramona Marquez) - on a less than blissful Boxing Day.

Parents-under-siege sitcom Outnumbered is a slow-burning hit that's steadily accumulated both favourable ratings and gongs (it picked up three British Comedy Awards earlier this month). Rightly so, because it's a rare beast: a comedy that captures the chaos of family life without lapsing into sentimentality. This festive episode, then, is a welcome taster for the third series next spring. It's Boxing Day in the Brockman household and, along with Santa, some burglars have squeezed down the chimney. As usual, precocious, pet-obsessed seven-year-old Karen (the remarkable Ramona Marquez) steals the best scenes - she's not only lost the school hamster under the floorboards, but takes it upon herself to make everybody else's New Year's Resolutions, with typical tact. Meanwhile, brother Ben (mop-topped tyke Daniel Roche) wreaks gleeful havoc with a mechanical hand and eldest Jake (the preposterously named Tyger Drew-Honey) is trying to find Awol grandfather Frank (David Ryall). The increasingly senile old goat couldn't be hiding with the hamster, could he? Parents Pete and Sue (Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner) preside over this pandemonium with beleaguered bafflement.

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.