The stars of 2point4 Children: Where are they now?

The sitcom belonged in the ranks of shows such as One Foot In The Grave and The Brittas Empire for its surreal and often irreverent humour, which saw a seemingly normal family find themselves in bizarre situations thanks to strange consequences and bad luck.

But unlike many sitcoms of the time, it never got a reboot. Just this year BBC sitcoms Absolutely Fabulous and The Office have made their way onto the big screen, while the likes of Keeping Up Appearances, Red Dwarf, Are You Being Served and Porridge have been revived for the BBC’s comedy season.

But 2point4 Children never has never been given such an opportunity – and the reason for this is in fact very sad.

The series focused on Bill and Ben Porter – played by Belinda Lang and Gary Olsen respectively – and their two children (hence the name of the sitcom, that referred to the average size of a family in the UK at the time, the “point4” being the father Ben).

The last episode was shot in 1999 as Olsen, who was 42 at the time, became unwell. He was diagnosed with cancer, after which he decided to emigrate to Australia with his family. He fought the disease for 10 months but ultimately he lost his battle and he died on September 12, 2000.

He left behind his widow, Australian second wife Jane Anthony whom he married in 1991, and their two children, a son Jake (born 1993) and a daughter India (born 1996).

As well as being an incredibly sad loss, this also brought a definite end to any chance of a 2point4 Children revival, given that Olsen and Lang were the show’s main protagonists.

In turn, this had a knock-on effect on Lang, who, in an interview in 2015 said: “I did a lot of tele in my early 30s. It was one thing after the other that culminated in me being in 2point4 Children for nine years. After Gary Olsen died, nobody offered me a part on TV for a long time. I was very connected to 2point4 Children.”

However, Lang, now 62, appeared on occasional episodes of British TV shows, including appearing as ill-fated business woman, Elspeth Inkpen-Thomas in Midsomer Murders, a 2004 episode of the murder mystery series Rosemary and Thyme, and a couple of episodes of the BBC daytime soap opera Doctors.

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In 2009, she made a brief return to sitcom, playing Margot in an episode of BBC sitcom My Family, and then in 2014 playing Marina Fairchild in Citizen Khan, another BBC series. She now tends to spend most of her time working in stage and radio theatre.

The ups and downs continued for the remainder of the cast of the sitcom, starting with Clare Woodgate who played Bill and Ben’s daughter Jenny in series one and two.

She left the show to concentrate on roles that were more dramatic than comedic, and appeared in the likes of The Bill and Casualty. She failed to get a part in An Awfully Big Adventure after which she went away, disguised herself, returned, re-auditioned and landed the role. She changed her name to Georgina Cates which she is still known by.

She made the move to Hollywood where she appeared in TV series The Closer and met Skeet Ulrich, best known for his role as the killer in Scream (1996). They married, had two children but divorced in 2005.

Clare Buckfield took over the role of Jenny from series three onwards, after which she went on to play roles in Holby City and Doctors, competing in the 2007 series of Dancing on Ice and coming in second place overall.

She dated Declan Donnelly of Ant and Dec for much of her younger career, before they split in 2003. She has since provided the voice for a character on Doctor Who’s spin-off audio episodes.

Nick took part in the 2023 series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! alongside the likes of Nigel Farage, Fred Sirieix and Josie Gibson.

The Pickard brothers both studied at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London before John landed a role in Grange Hill as Neil and Nick secured his Hollyoaks job aged just 20.

Nick has been nominated for numerous awards over the years, including twice for Best Comedy Performance at the British Soap Awards. In 2017, won the award for Outstanding Achievement after 22 years on the show.

Away from his career in showbiz, Nick is the owner of several restaurants in Sheffield.

The plots of 2point4 Children included Bill’s aged aunt getting stuck on a window ledge, one character finding a baby under a bush and the family discovering a frozen body in their freezer. The show regularly picked up large audiences of up to 14 million when it first began airing in 191. Its final episode was watched by 9.03 million people the day before New Year’s Eve 1999.

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