Two years after the becoming BBC Three's most-watched comedy series launch ever, the BAFTA-nominated Cuckoo is finally back for a second series.
Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. For those of you who missed the first series, Cuckoo is set in Lichfield where Ken and Lorna Thompson (Greg Davies, Man Down, Helen Baxendale, Cold Feet) live.
The first series begins with them picking up their daughter Rachel, only to find that she has returned from a gap-year with a husband, who goes by the name of Cuckoo and is played by Andy Samberg, best known for being part of The Lonely Island. Cuckoo is an American hippy who doesn't have a job and loves taking drugs, not exactly the kind of guy Ken, an over protective father, and his wife Lorna had hoped her daughter would marry.
So what's new in series two? Well, the biggest change has to be the departure of Andy Samberg who doesn't return to play Cuckoo, however I'm sure many teenage girls won't be disappointed with his replacement - Twilight star Taylor Lautner. There's been a lot of buzz recently on Twitter amongst the Twilight fans at Taylor's arrival and having not seen him in anything before, I was very impressed.
I think Taylor is a welcome addition to Cuckoo and it's not long before you start forgetting Andy Samberg was even in it! One thing to make clear though is that Lautner does not play the part of Cuckoo, the role Samberg played. Instead, Dale, who comes to England searching for his father. After a run-in (quite literally) with Lorna and Rachel, he ends up staying with them and on meeting Ken believes he is his father.
After a bit of confusion, it's revealed that Dale is in fact Cuckoo's son (yeah I know, took me a while to get used to it too). However the trip doesn't exactly end how Dale had hoped as it's up to the Thompson family to reveal the news to Dale that his father is indeed dead.
So there you have it, that's how the second series begins, and that's why the show is able to continue be called Cuckoo despite the man himself being killed off.
Lautner isn't the only addition to the cast, as the part of Rachel is now played by a different actress. In the first series, the part was played by Tamla Kari (The Inbetweeners) and now the part is played by Esther Smith. Whether deliberate or not, there's a moment when Ken and Lorna are sat on the sofa talking about Rachel, and Lorna says "It's like she's been a different person since Cuckoo left", is a great nod to the fact that there is a new actress playing the part of Rachel.
With Rachel about to move out with her new boyfriend and Dylan (Tyger Drew-Honey) about to go to University, Ken and Lorna decide it's time to stop becoming parents and we see Ken go for a vasectomy. Of course what he doesn't know, is that far from not becoming a father again, he's about to inherit a new grown-up son. Sure, Dale isn't actually his, but with Cuckoo no longer here, he has no choice but to become a father figure to Dale.
Cuckoo is definitely a stand out BBC Three sitcom, and one that when the channel moves to BBC iPlayer, could and should be saved. Think about the amount of new comedy the channel has had over the past decade, and for this to be the most successful comedy launch ever speaks volumes. It's not your traditional BBC Three sitcom and could've worked just as well on BBC Two, or even BBC One. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the series progresses now that Cuckoo is no longer around, but judging by the first two episodes, it seems we have nothing to worry about.