THE CUCKOO - mon to thur ch5 9pm - TV PACE. NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

Another new drama wirh good old ch5

50/50 if will be good or cheese 😂

The Cuckoo is a four-part series will start on Channel 5 at 9pm on Monday April 8 2024, with episodes running across the week from Monday to Thursday April 11 at the same time.

Episodes will also arrive on streaming service My5 (https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/best-channel-5-dramas-all-the-must-see-tv-shows-to-watch-on-my5)

The Cuckoo kicks off with married couple Nick (Lee Ingleby) and Jessica (Claire Goose) having just bought the house of their dreams, a grand doer-upper in the country town where Jessica grew up.

But as the financial crisis hits, the couple fall on hard times and risk losing their beautiful home. With no other choice, they take in lodger Sian (Jill Halfpenny), who very quickly begins to start trouble in the family, flirting with Nick, borrowing Jessica’s clothes and building an inappropriate rapport with their adopted daughter Alice.

Jessica soon realises something dark and twisted is going on, and before long the pair must fight for one another and to save their own lives.

The Cuckoo is a tense Channel 5 thriller series starring Jill Halfpenny as a lodger who forces her way into the lives of her host family.

She plays Sian, a beautiful but mysterious woman who moves in with hard-up couple Nick (Lee Ingleby) and Jessica (Claire Goose) and their adopted daughter.

But as she oversteps the boundaries time and time again, Jessica starts to wonder if there’s more to Sian than meets the eye...

Jill Halfpenny says: "Viewers will know quite quickly what Sian wants, but I think the show then becomes about whether she manages to succeed — that’s the thrill of it.

Nick and Jessica have already made their worst move letting Sian into the house. The minute she’s inside, she can start messing with their minds. People will be shouting at the telly!"

I think that's why is called The Cuckoo.

Plus cuckoos steal other birds eggs

Cuckoos turf an egg or eggs out of a viable nest and lay one of their own, leaving it to hatch and be reared by a host bird who fails to realise it’s not their own offspring. Often you see really small birds raising a chick that’s much bigger than the attendant adult. It’s audacious but also kind of clever and gave raise to the phrase about the cuckoo in the nest I.e. someone who doesn’t really belong and who’s there under false pretences.

I hope that Jessica LTB, I was distracted by what an irredeemable git the husband/father was!

He really was a misery. And so rude to Sian, even before he found out she was unstable

I didn't like the daughter. She was very cold, and there was no mother and daughter relationship whatsoever, and seemed to dislike her mother immensely.

Yes, Jessica was undoubtedly the very best of a bad bunch.

This was so predictable. Really tedious but we saw it out. The decor was more interesting than the story.

I agree, if they hadn’t had Aunty May mention the year, it would have been much more believable (in the context of batshit dramas, that is) and also more likely that Sian was able to find more than one girl called Alice with a birthday of 7 September, without needing access to the confidentiality of full d.o.b.

I was expecting a scene in the caravan where Alice carefully asked Sian how old she was when she had her baby, and that being the moment she realised 100% she couldn’t be Sian’s daughter because the maths didn’t add up, but it never came.

I think it should have substituted half the caravan "peril" nonsense for flashbacks to Sian in her youth there and the circumstances leading up to her smothering her Alice, if I've understood it right.

@SoundTheSirens that would have been a far better ending, if Alice had explained she was way too young to be Sians daughter and the truth had finally dawned on Sian that her own daughter had died etc

When Jessica and whatshisname realised Alice was gone, why did it take so long for her to go "oh hang on, you have an app that should show her location"? I'd be astounded if she'd never used the app before, with having a moody teen 🫤

Yes @Twonewcats I'm straight on our app if their bus is five minutes late!

I’ve just finished it, bit more watchable than the last one I saw, Love Rat, but overall not exactly edge of the seat stuff.

Is Jill Halfpenny commissioned to Ch5 or something, she seems to be in everything!

They do get quite big names for their dramas which pulls me in, but I do generally find all the Ch5 ones a bit lame - definitely quantity over quality IMO.

@Back21970
”Is Jill Halfpenny commissioned to Ch5 or something, she seems to be in everything!”
It’s either her or Sally Lindsey! I don’t know that they have actually appeared together in anything though.

What a load of old bollox that was.
6 hours I'll never get back.
Was that really how it ended. What a cop out

Jill is in a drama starting on alibi wed next week

Bloody hell that was awful 🤣 was the daughter half asleep all the time? I'm getting very tired of Jill Halfpenny! I think that's the worst drama I've seen this year.

I must admit I am getting a bit bored of every drama having either Jill Halfpenny or Sally Lindsay in it. It would be nice to see someone else for a change- it's always them!

The daughter's acting was awful- she spent the entire time gurning

I said about her face gurning as well

I know right? it started to really irritate me half way through.

I did wonder if that was her being artistic.

Why is everything Jill Halfpenny, Sally Lindsay or Sheridan Smith.

Like say the same about ant and dec always being on itv

I thought the recent one with Kara Tointon was rubbish. The story line was far fetched and the acting all round was terrible.

I agree re the kara tointon one. But Allen Leech is gorgeous at least