If getting a second series ahead of the last episode of the opening series wasn’t impressive enough, creator and writer Stefan Golaszewski has topped it by getting a third series before the air date of the second installment of the popular BBC 2 sitcom. With the second series still to arrive, the details for Mum Series 3 were pretty slim on the ground when it was first announced by the BBC, but it’s a huge achievement for the team behind it.
Mum Series 2 arrived in February 2018, despite being confirmed way back in mid-2016, when the opening series was coming to a close. It left a lot of questions for the future of the Bradshaw family, so there are even more unknowns for the third series. It’ll be made up of another six 30-minute episodes with filming taking place in summer 2018 and an air date initially planned for later that year on BBC 2. However, it has now been rescheduled for 2019.
The show is essentially about Cathy Bradshaw, whose life was turned upside down at the start of the opening series by the death of her husband. What followed was a chronicle of her first year alone, or at least as alone as it gets with the rest of her family, who rally around in their own way to support her.
It’s laden with pathos, unconventional conventional family values and a lot of wit, which helped to make Series 1 such a stand-out success. It features Leslie Manville (Long Day’s Journey Into Night) as eponymous mum Cathy and Peter Mullan (Ozark Series 2) as her will-they-won’t-they friend Michael.
Things didn’t quite come together for the two of them by the end of the opening series, with so many family distractions and the weight of Cathy’s grief. We’ll have to wait for Series 2 to get underway to see what direction Golaszewski will be taking things in for them. With a third series now on the cards, there’s a lot of space to develop the characters and their relationship.
The show also stars Sam Swainsbury as Kathy’s son Jason and Lisa McGrillis plays his new girlfriend Kelly. The two had a rocky time of things in Series 1 with Jason’s impending move to Australia, but he decided to ditch Oz in favour of giving things a go with Kelly, so their romance is bound to be a big part of the story of the later series.
Ross Boatman plays Cathy’s brother and Dorothy Atkinson is his snooty, better-than-you other half, while Marlene Sidaway and Karl Johnson play Cathy’s parents Reg and Maurine. We’re expecting them all to stick around long enough for Series 3, but with emotive sitcoms like this you can never tell.
Mum is the best comedy series I have seen in years, up there with the best. Long may it continue, well done all concerned. Five stars.