The BBC TV comedy that encapsulates the family angst of a generation of overstretched, bewildered middle-class parents makes a welcome return.
Every so often a television programme comes along that deftly sums up the essence of a generation. In the Eighties we were transfixed by the seminal Thirtysomething. The Nineties saw us vigorously nodding in ââ¬ÅThatââ¬â¢s me!ââ¬Â recognition at Cold Feet and the Noughties brought us ââ¬â Outnumbered.
This partly-improvised BBC comedy was so exquisitely, so painfully, accurate that it rapidly became required viewing for every anguished, overstretched, sauvignon-saturated middle-class parent in the land.
For anyone sandwiched between exhausting offspring and ailing parents it offered, if not hope, then a certain bleak consolation, namely; yes your life may be a bloody awful grind, but hey, everyoneââ¬â¢s life is a bloody awful grind.
The fourth series, which begins tonight (stop all the clocks, unplug the phone, donââ¬â¢t answer the door, this is appointment television at its most pressing) underlines the truism that some subjects are so serious one can only joke about them and so it is with the modern nuclear family, beset as never before by existential doubt and a creeping sense of insecurity.
With impeccable timing, episode one coincides with a report from the over-50s newspaper Mature Times that todayââ¬â¢s grandparents secretly believe their own children are too weak-willed to impose proper discipline on their grandchildren and are more concerned with being liked than being respected. Ouch.
Rest of article including video: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...umbered-the-return-of-a-Noughty-pleasure.html
Do any of you watch this?
Every so often a television programme comes along that deftly sums up the essence of a generation. In the Eighties we were transfixed by the seminal Thirtysomething. The Nineties saw us vigorously nodding in ââ¬ÅThatââ¬â¢s me!ââ¬Â recognition at Cold Feet and the Noughties brought us ââ¬â Outnumbered.
This partly-improvised BBC comedy was so exquisitely, so painfully, accurate that it rapidly became required viewing for every anguished, overstretched, sauvignon-saturated middle-class parent in the land.
For anyone sandwiched between exhausting offspring and ailing parents it offered, if not hope, then a certain bleak consolation, namely; yes your life may be a bloody awful grind, but hey, everyoneââ¬â¢s life is a bloody awful grind.
The fourth series, which begins tonight (stop all the clocks, unplug the phone, donââ¬â¢t answer the door, this is appointment television at its most pressing) underlines the truism that some subjects are so serious one can only joke about them and so it is with the modern nuclear family, beset as never before by existential doubt and a creeping sense of insecurity.
With impeccable timing, episode one coincides with a report from the over-50s newspaper Mature Times that todayââ¬â¢s grandparents secretly believe their own children are too weak-willed to impose proper discipline on their grandchildren and are more concerned with being liked than being respected. Ouch.
Rest of article including video: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...umbered-the-return-of-a-Noughty-pleasure.html
Do any of you watch this?
