This brilliant sitcom remains incredibly well-observed

Though it's not as laugh-out-loud funny as it once was, I still feel that Outnumbered remains one of the more well-observed sitcoms on British television.

The cutest sitcom on TV has been ruined by stroppy teen

Kids are not kids for long. That's part of the wonder of childhood... and it has evaporated from Outnumbered.

Lovely return of a family favourite

When Outnumbered does leave our screens it will leave a hole in need of filling by another suburban sitcom, and that hole will be harder to fill than perhaps we thought.

Series five of Outnumbered got off to a very solid start with an episode that skilfully wove together such diverse threads as swimming galas, missing hamsters, school plays, malfunctioning printers and even Jimmy Savile.

The serial child abuser and former BBC employee provided the basis of one of the show's funniest exchanges, sending a signal to the rest of the comedy world that sufficient time has passed for open season to be declared on the peroxide pervert.

Outnumbered is still one of the finest and funniest sitcoms on TV, maintaining a very high standard in both performances and writing. But at the risk of sounding ageist, the kids are getting on a bit. Much of the show's early charm derived from the wildly inappropriate, painfully precocious and gleefully uninhibited utterances of the young cast, particularly cute but caustic Karen.

There is still comedy to be mined from adolescence, of course, but it is a wildly different beast - and a stroppy, self-conscious one at that.

A fifth and final series for Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin's enduring sitcom. Modern life proves as irksome for Sue and Pete as ever: tempering the expectations of an increasingly gravelly voiced Ben ahead of his audition for Spartacus the Musical, guiding Karen through troubled times at school and dealing with a freshly inked-up Jake. The formula of Cute Kids Saying Cute seems slightly incongruous with a trio of t(w)eenagers chez Brockman, but they've earned this final furlong of hurrahs.

Locating a hamster under the floorboards is just one among the parental crises tackled by Sue and Pete (Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis) as they return for a fifth - and final - series of the sitcom that makes a virtue out of being out-manoeuvred by your offspring. The kids are no longer cute youngsters, their barbed teenage backchat more sullen than sparky. Except for the now strapping Ben (Daniel Roche), who has high hopes of landing a part in his school's production of Spartacus: The Musical.

Radio Times review

It's now possible to measure the passage of time not just by how your own children have grown up but by the way the Outnumbered kids have changed. And it's frightening.

Little Karen has started secondary school and is almost unrecognisable with her dark, swishy hairstyle, while 14-year-old Ben is much bigger than older brother Jake, who's got a tattoo, sideburns and is learning to drive. Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner look exactly the same, though.

It's gently entertaining but somehow the cheeky dialogue that made us laugh when delivered by cute yet precocious children back in 2007 doesn't sound so funny coming from teenagers.

Gallery - Outnumbered: how the stars have changed

A photo gallery of how the cast of Outnumbered have changed.

Outnumbered kids reflect on life in the spotlight

The Outnumbered kids are growing up! Here's what they have to say about their on-screen parents, siblings and their plans for the future.

Review: Outnumbered, BBC One

As the Brockman family returns for a fifth and final series of Outnumbered, some viewers will find their hackles standing to attention at the family's extraordinary distillation of middle-class characterstics.