Sue (CLAIRE SKINNER) & Pete (HUGH DENNIS) in the 2024 Outnumbered Christmas special. (Hat Trick (ON) Ltd/Adam Lawrence)

Outnumbered Christmas Special: The Trailer Has Landed

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The Brockman family is bigger and their new house is smaller – what could go wrong?

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Outnumbered Christmas Special: The Trailer Has Landed

Sue (CLAIRE SKINNER) & Pete (HUGH DENNIS) in the 2024 Outnumbered Christmas special. (Hat Trick (ON) Ltd/Adam Lawrence)

It wouldn’t be boxing day if you weren’t gathered around the TV with a glass of Baileys and a leftover turkey sandwich, scrolling through every channel for something to watch. The BBC’s Outnumbered Christmas special is a strong candidate, the perfect way to appease your post-Christmas blues – and the trailer just dropped. Here’s everything we know.

Ben (DANIEL ROCHE), Karen (RAMONA MARQUEZ), Pete (HUGH DENNIS), Jake (TYGER DREW HONEY) & Sue (CLAIRE SKINNER). (BBC/Hat Trick (ON) Ltd/Adam Lawrence)

What Is Outnumbered?

If you were born after, say, 2014 you might be wondering what Outnumbered even is. Running for five seasons from 2007 to 2014, the BBC comedy followed the trials and tribulations of the Brockmans, a middle-class family from Chiswick, London. The cast included parents Pete (Hugh Dennis) and Sue (Claire Skinner) and their children Jake (Tyger Drew-Honey), Ben (Daniel Roche) and Karen (Ramona Marquez) who were 10, six and five years old respectively when the show began.

With numerous improvised scenes and funny, heartwarming moments, the series has been praised for its authentic portrayal of family life. So authentic in fact, that the on-screen parents – Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner – struck up a real-life relationship after the show ended, in 2017.

Now, after eight years (and a Christmas special in 2016), the Brockman crew are gathering once again for Christmas. They’re all grown up and more than a few things have changed…

,Jake (TYGER DREW HONEY), Rani (KERENA JAGPAL), Ben (DANIEL ROCHE), Karen (RAMONA MARQUEZ) in Outnumbered

,Jake (TYGER DREW HONEY), Rani (KERENA JAGPAL), Ben (DANIEL ROCHE), Karen (RAMONA MARQUEZ). (BBC/Hat Trick (ON) Ltd/Adam Lawrence)

Outnumbered Christmas Special 2024: Plot, Cast, Release Date

Written and directed by Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton, the 2024 Outnumbered Christmas special episode has been in the works since May 2024 when the BBC revealed the news. ‘Outnumbered is one of the crown jewels of British sitcoms,’ Jon Petrie, director of BBC comedy, shared on the news. ‘We’re so grateful to Guy, Andy, Hat Trick, and the cast for dusting it off and putting it back on display.’

What Will Happen?

The BBC teases for the episodes as follows: ‘In a moment of adversity, Sue and Pete gather all their offspring, including one grandchild, to try to celebrate a traditional family Christmas. Their new house is smaller, the children are bigger, and within the chaos, an uninvited house guest overstays their welcome.’

The now-adult Brockman children have their own obstacles in the real world, which they bring to the family home on Christmas day. Jake, now a father himself, struggles to manage the energy of his three-year-old daughter. Ben continues to cause chaos by planning a ‘big adventure’ and Karen is trying to cope with frustrating work colleagues and unsatisfactory relationships – something we can all relate to.

The trailer begins with a journey back in time, showing clips from previous Christmas specials in 2007, 2014 and 2016. Then we are given glimpses of the 2024 episode: Jake, collapsed in an armchair with dark shadows below his eyes, his daughter screaming at the doorway, Karen now sporting dark hair and a heavy fringe, Ben hefting Pete over his shoulder. Watch it below.

To share the news of the show’s return, the whole cast made an appearance on The One Show.

‘I think there’s certainly an aspect of Jake having become a dad and suddenly relating to his parents a bit more,’ Drew-Honey shared. ‘I think that allows Jake to see his parents as real people and not just these invincible figures in his life that are there to give him care – but actually he’s about to go through the same chaotic few years as them.’

When asked whether the grown children still challenge their parents, Roche – who played the trouble-making Ben – said: ‘I don’t know, I think it’s quite hard to keep parents on their toes as much as eight-year-old Ben was. It was that level of menace… I don’t know if I could even replicate that.’