Following up on a successful debut, BBC 2 has confirmed that it’s recent sitcom Mum will be getting a series 2, bringing more mini escapades from Cathy and her extended family. You know an opening series has gone well when a channel re-commissions more episodes on the same night it airs the series finale, which is pretty much what BBC 2 did with the show.
It’s an impressive feet for show’s creator and writer, Stefan Golaszewski, who also went on to win the Best Comedy Writer award for the first series at the BAFTA Television awards. However, he’s now managed to top it with the announcement of Series 3 ahead of the air date for the second installment.
Air date
Mum Series 2 began filming in 2016, so we’re getting a little closer to the air date. However, the BBC went on to confirm that it won’t be airing until early 2018, and the official Facebook page has now announced that the new series will be returning on Tuesday 20th February at 10pm on BBC 2.
It looks like it’s been delayed a little since initial filming, possibly due to the schedules for its stars with Peter Mullan committed to a second series of Ozark and Leslie Manville staring alongside Jeremy Irons in Long Day’s Journey Into Night at the Wyndham’s Theatre in early 2018.
It’ll be another batch of 6 x 30-minute episodes for the comedy, and as with the first series you should have another year of highs and lows to look forward to from the British sitcom.
Story
It’ll pick things up with Cathy after the undercurrent comedy genius of the New Year’s Eve party final episode of Series 1, with more drama from her son Jason and his new significant other Kelly. Now that he’s decided not to go to Australia and to go with his heart to make a go of things with Kelly it’s surely going to be a year of escalating Game of Life developments for the couple.
Things moved incredibly subtly throughout the first series, tracing a very tumultuous year for Cathy as she started out having to deal with the death of her husband from the day of his funeral in January, past Valentine’s Day and right the way through to her first New Year’s Eve without him. Each of the episodes are named after key months in the year for the family with everything from a post funeral garage clear-out in May to Cathy’s first dinner with a new male friend in October.
A brief moment between Cathy and her long time friend Michael after she gave him his Christmas present looked like it was going to be significant, but with the memory of her husband still strong it turned into friendly warmth pretty quickly. The “will they, won’t they” burgeoning romance had been building all year, but it looks like we’ll have to wait for Mum Series 2 to see how things develop. However, as with the first set of episodes, it probably won’t all be plain sailing for them.
Cast
Olivier Award-winning actress Leslie Manville (Another Year) returns as Cathy and Peter Mullan (Ozark) stars alongside her as Michael. Sam Swainsbury plays Jason, Lisa McGrillis is Kelly, Ross Boatman is Cathy’s brother Derek and Dorothy Atkinson plays his deadpan sourpuss wife Pauline; Karl Johnson plays Cathy’s mean spirited dad Reg and Marlene Sidaway plays his long-suffering wife Maurine.
Mum Series 2 trailer:
Production
Stefan Golaszuski has penned the second series, following up on the success of the opening six episodes of BBC 2’s Mum with Big Talk Production in charge of the show. The comedy reunited the creative team behind the Bafta award-winning BBC 3 sitcom, Him and Her, including writer/executive producer, Golaszewski; director Richard Laxton, producer Lyndsay Robinson and executive producer Kenton Allen. You can check out the BBC 2 Twitter page to keep an eye out for more details on the production, along with the Big Talk Productions Twitter page for more great comedy series.
First impressions
If the quality, deft humour and pathos of the opening series is anything to go on, Mum Series 2 should be another gem of a sitcom. The production team behind it has proven itself on a number of occasions now and with such a great cast it’s hard to see this being anything but a must-watch comedy when the air date rolls around on the 20th February 2018. Check out the music and cast for the first series for more details.
