Outnumbered creator defends Christmas special as fans fume it's 'depressing'

The creator of Outnumbered has responded to some viewers who described the Christmas special as "depressing".

The festive edition of the beloved BBC sitcom aired yesterday and marked the return of the original cast for one more appearance. The Brockmans came back with Sue, Pete, and their children facing new life changes years on.

Claire Skinner reprised her role as Sue and Hugh Dennis as Pete, with Tyger Drew-Honey, Daniel Roche and Ramona Marquez playing their children - Jake, Ben, and Karen. This time around, besides being parents, Sue and Pete also took on the roles of grandparents.

Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton, creators of the series, wrote and directed this one-off episode, which addressed a significant issue alongside its traditional humour. It was disclosed that Pete had prostate cancer, setting a more serious tone amidst the laughter.

Although his condition was manageable, Pete's concern centred on breaking the news to his children, especially as complications arose when Ben couldn't make it home in time. Eventually, the family found healing in humour, with Pete relieved at their positive response, reports the Mirror.

Yet, not all fans appreciated the sombre narrative thread; one viewer wrote: "Pete having cancer, I f***ing hate this," while another questioned the reasoning behind reviving the show only to present such a bleak plot on Boxing Day.

A third viewer said: "I wasn't expecting Pete to have c*ncer. They seriously put that in the Christmas special? ! And all the stuff with Jane being depressed and Jake being so tired he can barely function and the neighbours being noisy... This isn't Christmasy at all."

In response to these concerns, the show's creator, Guy Jenkin, shed some light on the reasoning behind incorporating the cancer narrative into the special.

Guy explained the choice to tackle serious subjects head-on, sharing: "People often remember Outnumbered for the delightful children, but it always dealt with quite serious things: dementia, death, homophobia. We dealt with that through how parents explain it to their children and this is the same except that the children are considerably larger.

"There's still a stigma attached to the word cancer, and we just wanted to show how very, very normal it is, as well as how the Brockmans dealt with it with warmth, love, and especially humour, because that's a very British way of dealing with that sort of stuff."

*Outnumbered is available to catch up on BBC iPlayer.