Ken, Lorna, Dylan and Rachel are back and while the list might sound like some kind of bizarre British reboot of Friends, they’re actually the four members of the sightly deranged Thompson family who will be joining forces once again in BBC 3’s Cuckoo Series 3. However, the big question is whether or not Dale, played by Twilight‘s Taylor Lautner, will be making his way back to their little house in Litchfield, Staffordshire and with imaginary drum rolls unfurling we can confirm that… yes, yes he will.
Air date
The Beeb took their sweet time about confirming details about the air date for the show, which will probably mean it doesn’t quite get the uptake it deserves, but it has now confirmed that episode one will be available on iPlayer through BBC 3 from today (16th February 2016). It will also be going out on BBC 1 on the 22nd February 2016. The timings are a bit unusual on BBC 1 though, so don’t let it catch you out. It’ll be on at 10:45pm for the majority of us with the exception of Northern Ireland, which will air at 11:15pm, and BBC 1 Wales, which will be going out at 11:45pm, so you’ll a good lie-in on the 22nd to prepare for staying up for a bit of a late one.
We’d originally used out Sherlock inspired powers of deduction to guesstimate the air date in advance of the BBC announcing it officially. However, our predictions didn’t come to pass. The first series of Cuckoo started to air on the 25th September 2012 and Series 2 went out from the 7th August 2014, so el numero tres should have gone out at the end of summer or early autumn 2015, but it looks like things have been delayed for some reason as it didn’t get an air date until February 2016.
Story
The story picks up just a short matter of six months after the climactic ending of Series 2‘s Christmas special, which saw (spoiler alert for anyone that hasn’t seen it yet) Dale and Rachel finally get together, before being shook apart once again as Dale ran off. Rachel is devastated once again and missing Dale – the long lost son of her dead husband, Cuckoo, who she got it on with in the last series – but has managed to sort of get on with things and strike up a friendship with Ben, after jilting him for Dale. However, as in the last two outings, the relative order is knocked off its Greg Davies sized pedestal when Dale returns with a glint of reconciliation in his eyes.
It’s not the only drama planned for the third series either, as Ken and Lorna have got to get to grips with the concept of having a baby in the twilight of their mid-life family anarchy. Although there is a little good news for Ken as son Dylan gets set to head off to university, but if thirteen episodes have taught us anything it’s that Ken rarely gets things his own way, so there’s bound to be some complication to make matters worse for the long suffering dad.
Cast
All of the core cast members from Series 2 will be back for the third installment, including Greg Davies (Man Down) as Ken, Helen Baxendale (Friends) as Lorna, Tyger Drew Honey (Outnumbered) as Dylan, Esther Smith (Black Mirror Christmas Special) as Rachel and Taylor Lautner (Twilight) as Dale. Matt Lacey plays Ben and we’re expecting Kenneth Collard to return as Steve Chance, Selina Griffiths as his wife Connie and Holly Earl as their heartless daughter Zoe.
Production
Cuckoo Series 3 has been written by creators Robin French and Kieron Quirke, with producer Emma Lawson, and executive producers Dan Hine, Ash Atalla, and Chris Sussman. It continues to be a collaboration between BBC3 and Rough Cut TV. This time around Doctor Who and Death In Paradise director, Paul Murphy, will be taking over the hot seat from Series 2 director, Ben Taylor.
First impressions
Having been big fans of both of the first two series for the BBC 3 break-out comedy, we’re massively looking forward to the third outing for the show. It’s a little disappointing that the air date has taken such a long time to be confirmed, but now that we know it’s going to land in February 2016 we can start to look forward to seeing Greg Davies, AKA the Moby Dick of the comedy world, getting into more crazy adventures with free running mentalist Dale.
