Outnumbered

Episode #3.6 - S3-E7

Question: The final episode of the third series sees a discussion between Ben and Jake with regards to the news on the telly. After Ben comes out with "That can't be the Pope, because the Pope wears barbed wire pants and kills anybody who knows that Jesus had children", Jake says that this is from a film. Does anybody know what film this is from please?

Neil Jones

Chosen answer: Angels and Demons.

Show generally

Question: In the third episode of the first series the family visit the farm for Karen's birthday treat. This means that her birthday must be September, being so the evenings still seem light. But jump to the fifth series when Karen starts comprehensive (year 7), it is often mentioned that she is 11. If her birthday is in September, shouldn't she have turned 12 already?

Answer: Acording to all online sources, her birthday is 30th August 2001. It's also documented that in Season 5 she is in year 7 and 11 years old. If her birthday is 30th August, she will start year 7, 2 days after her 11th Birthday so this is correct.

Ssiscool

Episode Four - S1-E4

Other mistake: Jake is sitting at the kitchen counter top and is watching TV whilst doing his homework. You can see his red pencil case labelled 'Jake Rowlings'. Many times throughout the series the parents have been recognised as Mr and Mrs Brockman - not Rowlings. The children also have been referred to as Karen Ben and Jake Brockman. (00:13:40)

mbarogers

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Throughout the series, the Brockmans (specifically Pete and Sue) seem very ashamed of their family. In the first episode they tell Jake to give people Grandad's address. It doesn't seem out of character at all for them to tell Jake to give people a false surname. Also, Harry Potter came out at the same time so Rowling would be a very easy surname to choose. This isn't out of character for the parents at all if you look at the rest of the series.

The reason they tell Jake to give his Grandad's address is so he can fall under the catchment area for a better school (as Pete points out to Karen), not because they are ashamed of their family.

The family's surname is not mentioned (other than on the pencil case) at any point in the first series. Likewise, the grandad is not named in the first series either. Sue even says she doesn't know anyone called Frank Morrison during Series 1 when Pete mentions a colleague of that name. This creates continuity errors when the family are given the name Brockman and Sue's father is established to be called Frank Morrison from Series 2 onwards.

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