With the year flying by, we’ve got to be getting closer to the air date for Mum Series 2, which was confirmed this time last year at the end of the first series. While news is fairly thin on the ground at the moment for the Big Talk Productions show, it seem like a good opportunity to look back on the story from Series 1 to find some clues about what to expect from the second series, which is due out later this year.
However, before we get to that, we’re going to throw in a little speculation about the air date, which is now gone beyond the arrival of the debut of the series back in May 2016. While it initially looked set for a late 2017 air date, it has now been confirmed by the BBC for early 2018.
With that in mind, you’re probably looking at a late winter or spring air date with the potential for it to be one of the big Christmas shows on BBC2 a distant memory. It’s starting to look like we’ve got another six months to go until we find out what happens next with the Bradshaw family. Although, the news that the show has already been picked up for a third series should be enough to warm the cockles of your heart.
Cathy and Michael
Surely the biggest draw will be the “will they won’t they” relationship between recent widow Cathy (Leslie Manville) and her long time friend Michael (Peter Mullan). It seemed to come to a head on New Year’s Eve when Cathy finally gave Michael his Christmas present, but in the end things fizzled out as the memory of Cathy’s husband slowed things down.
The second series will inevitably pick this up with them still cautiously close, and more than likely continuing to keep us just one step away from something happening right the way through until the last episode. However, we’d be keen to see the show break the mold and genuinely tackle the ups and downs of the relationship.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks along the way for the burgeoning romance has been Cathy’s family, which takes up a lot of her time and effort, leaving little space for anything else. It had looked like she was going to be getting a little more freedom when her son Jason (Sam Swainsbury) was planning to move to Australia, but with his change of heart to give things a go with new girlfriend Kelly (Lisa McGrillis), Cathy will be called on as much as ever to help out with their relationship dramas.
Jason and Kelly
We’re expecting the newfound commitment between Jason and Kelly to be a big part of the storyline for Mum Series 2, taking a little bit of inspiration from the production team’s previous efforts on Him And Her. With Jason’s decision not to go to Australia to see how things work out with Kelly, it’s set the scene for things to develop throughout the series.
There’s bound to be a few bumpy patches along the way, but maybe as the year goes by we’ll see things getting more serious between the young couple, despite their ditsy approach to life. The question is really how much this is going to impact Cathy and Michael and whether or not there are any more significant blips still to come.
The wider family
While the rest of the family act as mostly support characters for the main story of Cathy and Michael and the developments between Jason and Kelly, they’re still a pretty important part of the show. The biggest contender to become more of a significant story in itself in Series 2 is the relationship between Cathy’s brother Derek (Ross Boatman) and his snooty partner Pauline (Dorothy Atkinson).
It could just continue to be a bit-part performance for the two characters who, along with Cathy’s in-laws Reg (Karl Johnson) and Maureen (Marlene Sidaway), make up a big part of the comedy in the show. However, it might be funny to see them facing their own trials and tribulations or maybe even a bit of just deserts for Pauline with her better-than-you real fur coat and stuffy newspaper choices.
Finally, there’s Reg and Maureen who are the oldest members of the family. They were very funny in the first series of mum and we’re expecting them to be back in a similar way for Series 2. If they do feature in the story a little bit more, the obvious choice would be ill health and old-age, but it would be way more interesting to see something more fun like a late-in-life crisis with Maureen running off with a younger man, or Reg getting a fancy red sports car to impress the girls. Fingers crossed.
