Outnumbered

Outnumbered (BBC1) is a new family comedy by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, who wrote Drop the Dead Donkey. The novelty is that the parents are scripted but the children are improvising. Think traffic. The parents, being cars, obey the rules. The children, being cycles, go where their fancy takes them. The chances of road rage are, therefore, promising.

It's not the most earth-shatteringly original set-up, I'll grant you - mum, dad and three kids living the kind of comfortable middle-class London existence that comedy script-writers feel at home with.

But compared to the ridiculous carry-on of My Family, it's much more low-key and realistic. In fact it's so low-key, nothing actually happens, which could well be a nod to Seinfeld - the touchstone of all great sitcoms.

The getting ready for school chaos is like Supernanny: The Movie only with nicer children. It's also taken a leaf out of Curb Your Enthusiasm's book with large chunks of improvisation - although the strongest language you'll find here is 'ponk'.

Ramona Marquez who plays their angelic daughter Karen is adorable and letting the kids make up their own dialogue results in the kind of off-the-wall comedy grown-ups couldn't make up if you paid them.

Weirdly, the BBC have decided to schedule this on consecutive nights with three episodes this week and three episodes next week, so keep an eye out for it.