BBC Outnumbered creator responds after fans issue same complaint about Christmas special

The creator of Outnumbered has responded to criticism after some viewers labelled the Christmas special as "depressing". The festive edition of the BBC show aired yesterday, with the original cast all returning for one final episode.

The Brockman family, including Sue (Claire Skinner), Pete (Hugh Dennis), and their children Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey), Ben (Daniel Roche), and Karen (Romana Marquez) returned after several years, with significant changes in their lives since the BBC programme last aired eight years ago. The children had all moved out, and even brought grandchildren with them for the festive period.

But the show also tackled a serious issue as the special featured an emotional moment as Pete gathered his children to tell them about his prostate cancer diagnosis. Some fans found the storyline "depressing", with one commenting: "Pete having cancer, I f****** hate this," and another questioning: "Why did they bring it back though just for it to have a depressing storyline on boxing day."

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Another viewer added: "I wasn't expecting Pete to have cancer. 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."

The creator of the show, Guy Jenkin, has now explained the reasoning behind including such a heavy storyline in the festive episode. Discussing the decision, Guy stated: "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."

He further commented: "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."