The good news kept rumbling on in 2014 when Greg Davies returned to the genius of his BBC3 sitcom adventure in Cuckoo Series 2, which shook things up considerably with a fair few surprises in store for fans of the show. The first of these was bad news, though, as all is far from well at the Thompson household and that things were about to get shook up once again with yet another new addition to the household.
The new series debuted on Thursday the 7th of August 2014 at 10pm on BBC3 and it brought with it the introduction of Twilight star, Taylor Lautner to the cast as the show gets a shake up due to Andy Samberg’s success with Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Fox in the US. Series 2 is made up of six episodes, which air every Thursday at 10pm, giving Davies a new platform to work on following the sad death of Rik Mayall, who he starred alongside in Channel 4’s Man Down last year. There was also a Christmas special which took the total episode count up to seven.
The story picked up with a slightly disconsolate, but rapidly emptying family home as Cuckoo (Samberg) had gone missing in the Himalayas while researching his book, leaving his wife, Rachel, who is also the daughter of the family patriarch Ken (Davies), to fend for herself. After 2 years with no word on his whereabouts he’s been presumed dead and Rachel has been struggling to rebuild her life without him ever since, leading to a new relationship with a well meaning, but ultimately boring lawyer called Ben.
With their son Dylan about to leave for University, Lorna and Ken are looking forward to the possibilities of having an empty nest to relax in as they go through their middle-age suburban married life together. However, before they get a chance at living their own equivalent of halcyon days, a new stranger called Dale appears as if from nowhere to pierce their relative tranquility, looking for Cuckoo and bringing with him just as much crazy as the po-ta-tow philosopher had brought in the first series.
The casting saw Lautner taking on the role of Dale and joining Greg Davies, who picked up a BAFTA nomination for his performance as Ken in series 1, so once again there’s going to be more chalk and cheese comedy as the Neanderthal man abominable snowman hybrid stacks up next to the Hollywood heartthrob. Helen Baxendale (Cold Feet, Friends) returns as Ken’s wife Lorna and Tyger Drew-Honey (Outnumbered) is back in the role of their son Dylan.
With Cuckoo lost in the Himalayas, Andy Samberg only makes a fleeting voice appearance in the new series, and Tamla Kari (The Inbetweeners Film) has been replaced by Esther Smith as the now mourning widow Rachel. Her new feller Ben is being played by Matt Lacey, who you might recognise from the online comedy hit, Gap Yah, if you’ve ever added to the 5 million views it’s clocked up over the last four years.
If you missed it the first time around, you can read our Cuckoo Series 1 review to find out more about the show, but sadly all of the opening episodes are no longer available on BBC iPlayer, so if you want to catch up you’ll need to invest in either the DVD or download them in iTunes.
The series is produced by Rough Cut Television and was directed by Ben Taylor (Cardinal Burns) and produced by Dan Hine (Cuckoo). It’s been executive produced by Ash Atalla (The Office, The IT Crowd) and written by Robin French and Kieron Quirke (Roomies).
