Helen Baxendale

Radio Times review

The Lichfield love triangle is finally resolved in this delightfully silly special: Rachel is struggling to choose between nice-but-dull boyfriend Ben and the hunky-but-bonkers American who just happens to be the son of her late husband. As always, the real reason to tune in is Greg Davies who plays curmudgeonly dad Ken and inevitably ends up in a Santa Claus suit cussing wide-eyed children.

Meanwhile, Mum - a trilling Helen Baxendale - jumps to the wrong conclusion after suffering a fainting fit. Hang in there for the musical interlude crooned by Outnumbered veteran Tyger Drew-Honey.

Almost two years after it began, BBC Three's Cuckoo is back for a second series. Trouble is, the two actors who formed the central romance of the show are gone; U.S comedian Andy Samberg as spaced-out hippy Dale "Cuckoo" Ashbrick, and Tamla Kari as the young British backpacker who fell for his bohemian charms and dragged him back to live with her middle-class parents in middle England.

It wouldn't have surprised me if creators Robin French and Kieron Quirke had decided to let the show die without Samberg and Kari coming back as the unconventional newly-weds, especially as series 1 ended in a satisfying way with few loose ends. Not many people have been crying out for more Cuckoo, let's face it, and Samberg fans can get their fix now he's the lead in U.S hit Brooklyn Nine-Nine over on E4. However, someone at the BBC obviously thought differently, so Cuckoo returns... and, ironically given the titular bird's thieving behaviour, has two new faces in the nest.

Esther Smith (The Midnight Beast) directly replaces Kari as Rachel Thompson, bringing a slightly geekier feel to the character; but rather than recast Cuckoo they've made the peculiar choice to kill him off (a tragic mountaineering accident, with Samberg providing vocals on a sherpa's radio), and bring in his long-lost son Dale. (I guess Cuckoo wasn't very imaginative when naming babies, and--if my maths is correct--must have fathered Dale when he was 14-years-old. Ewww.)

If you can overlook these weird changes, I'm still not sure it was worth bringing Cuckoo back for seconds. Lautner's best-known for showing his pectorals in Twilight movies, so doesn't have the comedy grounding that held Samberg in good stead. Or the same rapport with Greg Davies, as his step-mother's father. Oh yeah, that's another problem: by making Dale a blood relation of Cuckoo, it's all very yucky that Rachel and her mother Lorna (Helen Baxendale) both fancy him. If the show is still intending to be a comedy romance, at heart, this could get very uncomfortable indeed... but perhaps Lautner's character will just become more of an oddball lodger? To be fair to him, Lautner wasn't objectionable in this first episode--he just didn't leap off the screen, playing a slightly quieter character. I just wonder if drawing the Twi-hards is beneficial to Cuckoo, because at least the first series attracted discerning comedy fans aware of Samberg's work on Saturday Night Live, and with comedy group Lonely Island.

We'll have to see if Cuckoo II develops its own identity and memories of Samberg's presence melt away, but I have doubts the chemistry can be replicated. Not that the first series was a diamond, but it could have been polished with a proper return, whereas now it's back to square-one. It doesn't help that laughs were few and far between, either, but maybe future episodes will do better now this awkward transition is over...

The offbeat sitcom returns minus a key element following the exit of Andy Samberg's titular hippy. This season two opener sees things pick up a few years on from Cuckoo's disappearance. With life moving on for Rachel (Tamla Kari) and Dylan (Tyger Drew-Honey), parents Ken and Lorna (Greg Davies and Helen Baxendale) are preparing for an empty nest. That is, until a mysterious figure from Cuckoo's past arrives. Will Twilight's Taylor Lautner be able to fill Samberg's role as the new oddball on the block?

Three episodes into the series, and Cuckoo is settling down nicely. The premise is exploited to the full, the scripts are consistently amusing, and the performances of Greg Davies, as the bumptious, blustering dad, and Andy Samberg, as the pseudo-spiritualist slacker son-in-law, complement each other perfectly. Plus, any show featuring Helen Baxendale is a good thing by definition.

BBC Three's Cuckoo was my pick of the week not long ago, but I never got around to reviewing it. The premise has middle class couple Ken (Greg Davies) and Lorna (Helen Baxendale)-from the Midlands, just to further stress how intermediate they are - discovering their beautiful daughter has married an American hippie calling himself "Cuckoo" (Andy Samberg) while on vacation. From there it runs through the expected culture clash comedy check list: dad hates that his baby girl's married a New Age loser; mum's initially concerned but grows to like her daughter's exotic other half; and Cuckoo is oblivious to the division he's causing in this close-knit suburban family.

The premise doesn't feel like it will last long before exhausting itself, and the first few episodes weren't particularly funny, but there are things Cuckoo has that rescues it from the doldrums: like a fantastic cast and oodles of charm. Samberg (a major star in the US, best known for appearing on Saturday Night Live) lights up the screen whenever he's around, and overcomes the fact Cuckoo's a rather thin caricature of modern-day hippies; while Davies is doing a superb job as the exasperated father desperate to get rid of his son-in-law without breaking his daughter's heart in the process. Davies had a memorable role in The Inbetweeners as the sociopathic teacher Mr Gilbert, but Cuckoo feels like it's truly announcing him to the world of sitcom. He's really good and has a fantastic dynamic with Samberg, which was largely responsible for the brilliant third episode where Ken and Cuckoo finally managed to bond thanks to recreational drugs.

I just wish Cuckoo was a touch funnier without relying so heavily on the performances of Samberg and Davies to raise smiles and pull it through, but I'll keep watching because it's well-made and has undeniable heart.

The plot of Cuckoo revolved around Rachel - an 18-year-old who initially had a touch of the Saffy-from-Ab-Fab about her - who returned from her gap year married to our eponymous hero after meeting him at a Full Moon Party.

Hearing your daughter wed a hirsute hippy in a 'genuine Thai ceremony on a beach' and that you could have known about it earlier, if only you'd checked your Facebook messages, is not exactly every parent's dream. In fact, it's something of a nightmare. The reaction of Greg Davies and Helen Baxendale's characters was a little off in this sense, as you'd imagine the revulsion of such involved, middle-class parents at such a situation would be slightly more hysterical than the script seemed to allow for.

But generally, this inaugural episode was pretty hard to fault. It wasn't side-splitting at all times, but as amusing, smart and inventive comedies go, it worked. Tamla Kari as Rachel was the weak link here, but that's fine, because despite her story being at the centre of Cuckoo, it's not Rachel who is the point of this series; it's her parents and her new husband.

And by the looks of things, the strong performances by Samberg, Davies and Baxendale will be enough to carry this amusing effort throughout the entire series.

Greg Davies interview

6ft 8in Inbetweeners actor Greg Davies is starring as husband to Friends and Cold Feet beauty Helen Baxendale in a new sitcom. 'Me married to Helen Baxendale? Like THAT would happen in real life'.

Cuckoo is an American hippy who spends his days sleeping, meditating to whale music and spouting new age nonsense. Imagine the horror of Ken and Lorna, a very conventional couple from Lichfield, when their darling daughter returns from her gap year with a ring on her finger and this dreadlocked idler on her arm.

Stand-up comedian Greg Davies (best known as the vindictive headmaster Mr Gilbert in The Inbetweeners) plays Ken and is a joy to watch: all boggling eyes and flared nostrils. Helen Baxendale is more restrained as Lorna, Outnumbered star Tyger Drew-Honey plays the petulant younger brother and US actor Andy Samberg, a former Saturday Night Live regular, is brilliantly barmy as Cuckoo. This first episode takes a while to find its feet but the final scene is a corker.

Helen Baxendale joins funnymen for new comedy role

Helen Baxendale spoke to BBC News about showing a less serious side in her new role as Lorna Thomas - wife, mother and peacemaker.