I REVIEWED this when the series started and was less than impressed.

Outnumbered did not seem a particularly bad programme, it was just that its characters, especially the children, were all so middle class and smug, and the whole programme came across like a collection of snippets from Children Say The Funniest Things with a very slight storyline attached to it.

But, like I said in the above piece, you tend to take your eye off the quality control, so I persevered and watched Outnumbered again — and discovered, to my pleasure, that it’s taken something of a much-needed dark turn.

This week it emerged the dad (the likeable Hugh Dennis) had been having something of an affair with someone known to the family.

His indiscretion was discovered by a misplaced text (whoops!) that came just as his wife’s (Claire Skinner) sister was visiting with her new bloke, annoying American therapist Brick.

The kids overheard the heated discussion, which spilled over into the restaurant where they were “enjoying” a meal, and Brick was not all he originally appeared to be.

It didn’t all end happily ever after either, which, to a miserable sod such as me, is a good thing.

Let’s have more dark and disturbing comedy — I’ve had enough of silly, smiley TV.

So much so, that I may just throw my telly out of the window.