Cuckoo Series 2 finally made it’s way to BBC 3 earlier this week with a few new faces to replace Andy Samberg and Tamla Kari, but with Greg Davies back as the giant rock of the family and more great writing from Robin French and Kieron Quirke it’s as funny as ever. Bringing in Twilight star Taylor Lautner felt like a risky move for the comedy sit-com, but having had a chance to see it all come together, we can say that it’s worked out well.
The first episode aired on Thursday the 7th August 2014 and almost instantly confirmed the comedy might of the show by skilfully writing out the title character of Series 1 in a stupid mountain climbing accident in the Himalayas featuring the wonder of goats at such high altitudes and Sherpas baffled by Cuckoo’s evident stupidity. This sets things up well for the show to give itself a bit of a shake-up with Samberg being tied up with the success of Stateside hit, Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Considering how much has had to be adapted as a result Samberg’s departure, French and Quirke have done an impressive job of reinventing the series. The main storyline is the introduction of Lautner as a new stranger looking for Cuckoo, but there are a fair few comedy arcs that run in parallel to this, giving the new series a lot to play with, including Rachel’s attempts to get over the loss of Cuckoo and her new relationship with straight laced accountant, Ben, and Lorna’s bid to get Ken to have a vasectomy.
Greg Davis is once again the star of the show as his Yeti-like physiology and comedy might are delivered in equal measure throughout as the father of the household, Ken. Lautner is rather surprisingly a great replacement for Samberg, bringing with him a good amount of crazy comedy timing, combining well with the rest of his new extended family, especially in scenes with Esther Smith, who has replaced Tamla Kari (The Inbetweeners Movie) as Ken’s daughter Rachel.
Helen Bexendale has, if anything, gotten even more funny in her role as mum Lorna, and Tyger Drew-Honey continues to be the git of a teenage son that he’s sort of become type-cast as pretty well. He’s got some good one liners and his Ken-bashing abuse makes for some of the biggest laughs in the opening episode. However, the funniest moment has got to go to Kenneth Collard as Ken’s mate and doctor, Steve, for the vasectomy examination scene.
For anyone that missed it the first time around, you can find out more about the beginnings of the show with our Cuckoo Series 1 review, which you can still catch up on with the BBC iPlayer. The second series continues on BBC 3 on Thursday the 14th August 2014 at 10pm with episode 2, Potato Party, and we literally can’t wait.
Cuckoo Series 2 review: 4.2/5
