Cuckoo

A stint on Saturday Night Live is the TV equivalent of an Oxbridge degree. Successful alumni are expected to bring Hollywood to its knees, not crash-land straight into a BBC3 sitcom set in the Midlands. It's odd, therefore, to see one of its brightest stars of recent years, Andy Samberg, playing hippy doucheboat Cuckoo in the first episode of this of this gentle comedy. When gap-year student Rachel marries layabout traveller Cuckoo in Thailand and brings him back to the family home, he ends up doing for dad (Greg Davies) what Mike did for Alf Garnett - eating his food and making him look like a buffoon. The Inbetweeners star is forced to play it straight while Samberg effortlessly steals every scene. There's potential here, but anyone hoping for some SNL gold dust will be disappointed.

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New sitcom starring giant actor Greg Davies as patriarch Ken who is introduced to his new son-in-law Cuckoo for the first time in the arrivals lounge on his daughter Rachel's return from her gap year in Thailand. It's an understandable shock, particularly as Cuckoo is a colossal bellend. This travelling hippy (Andy Samberg) has spiritual psychobabble up the wazoo and hopes to loaf around his new family home while he writes a book. All but Ken and his son Dylan (Tyger Drew-Honey) are taken in by his cod philosophy, even his wife Lorna (Helen Baxendale); it's a pretty promising start.

British and American humour clash head-on in Robin French and Kieron Quirke's comedy which, on the evidence of the opener, manages to be both funny and annoying. When Rachel (Tamla Kari) arrives home from her gap year in Thailand, she surprises her doting, quirky parents, Ken and Lorna (the excellent Greg Davies and Helen Baxendale), by introducing them to her new husband, Cuckoo (American actor/comic Andy Samberg), claiming she told everyone about the wedding on Facebook. "I don't do Facebook, I'm 45," replies her dad. Cuckoo describes himself as "part teacher, part visionary, part firebrand". Needless to say, Ken isn't exactly enamoured with the goonish Cuckoo and wonders how her new man is going to support his impressionable daughter.

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