2point4 Children

From writer Andrew Marshall who also used to team up and write with David (One foot in the Grave) Renwick comes one of the funniest sitcoms on British television in the 1990s.

The 1990s were not a good time for a lot of situation comedies in Britain more a barren mirthless wasteland. 2point4 children had genuine chemistry between the main characters Bill and Ben (Belinda Lang and Gary Olsen) and the children were not annoying.

The show was blessed with good writing and good acting and also some of the episodes could be far out or slightly surreal with the writer taking risks and it paying off. The best thing to say about the show was that it was consistently funny and entertaining.

The 1990s; The persistence of the nuclear family, The end on Thatcherism, the media-domination of Princess Di and the emergence of the digital age. Yes it's ALL present here in this witty, realistic comedy about the average British family struggling to maintain that status !

Essentially about carnage-obsessed son David, dysfunctional teenage daughter Jenny, semi-juvenile Dad Ben(hence the .4!) and straight- laced Mum and family boss Bill, not to forget UK comedy's mandatory slut-next-door Rona, the 1990s family household was portrayed pretty much EXACTLY as it was in real life, with little exaggeration!

Facing all the contemporary family issues of unemployment (hence the extremely realistic jobcentre interview!), teenage relations, 'controversial' youth culture (that's revolting! My son a metalhead!), NHS faults (We lost him...No no,I mean we literally lost him!) and inadequate banking (I'm your Pers-On-Al Bank-Er),the show gave the British public a good chance to laugh off all the everyday chaos of contemporary society !

Family-friendly yet with plenty of innuendo - "I'm waiting for him to pot the pink"; "Aren't We All!" - a universal audience could enjoy the hilarity of flatulent dogs, Bimbo housewives, Star Trek funerals and (unexplicitly portrayed) strip dancers. Not to forget the gloriously kitsch sing-songs at the end of the Christmas episodes !

All in all, this light-hearted perspective of the complexities of everyday life was witty and entertaining, yet insightful and loosely thought-provoking; if only they'd known back in 1994 that 15 years later 'Electronic Mail' would be mandatory! I give it 9/10 for being ALMOST PERFECT!

Sorry, but I have to disagree with the previous comment that it was absolute rubbish, unfunny and unoriginal. Whoever said this obviously hasn't seen all the episodes.

As for "Unfunny", I think a lot of people would disagree with that! This was a series which got record viewing figures when it was shown. Last night we watched "Porky's", the Christmas Special from 1995. We were in fits of laughter. I've got loads of episodes on tape and have watched them repeatedly. They never fail to make me laugh.

True, some of it wasn't that funny, but it most certainly had originality. It's generally agreed by fans that the first two series weren't as good. And some of the episodes were a bit too surreal to be considered funny. But the series did get better as it went on. Perhaps it wasn't considered funny at the time, but being able to watch this show now and compare it to the sitcoms of today (like The Office) only goes to show just how brilliant this comedy was. 2.4 children could have been a classic sitcom if the BBC had given it more airtime. I only hope it will be shown again, instead of endless repeats of Only Fools and Horses and Porridge etc.

This first two seasons of this comedy series were very strange and they weren't very funny and had a drama element where Bill (the mother) was struggling with all the usual problems in life but that element was a bit depressing and didn't mix well with th comedy elements which is probably why it was dropped. After that it soon became one of the funniest comedy series the BBC have ever made! The chemistry between Bill and Ben's character's were very funny and there was always so many brilliant and memorable sketches in each series. The Christmas specials were hilarious and a real treat for Christmas.

The show came to a stop when the main actor Gary Olsen playing Bill passed away which was very sad because he was a brilliant actor in films such as Up 'n' Under and a very funny man RIP

This underrated show has sadly disappeared from our television screens and doesn't to be repeated that often - Though it does appear on UKTV Gold once in a while but it should be repeated on BBC one or two to show this brilliant Comedy to a new audience

Fantastic cast, wonderful comedy writing (forget comparisons to My family, it's streets ahead of that), original humour designed around many real life situations. Sorely missed especially the Christmas specials. Now 20 years after 2P4C finished we're left with Mrs Browns Boys and Not Going Out. Where did all the talent go? Anyway, you'll love this pocket of 90's humour.