Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jill Halfpenny, Lee Ingleby, Claire Goose, Freya Hannan-Mills, Marjorie Yates, Barry John Kinsella, Colleen Keogh, Maeve Fitzgerald.

We allow people into our lives on the unspoken rule that they will not harm us, that once they cross the threshold of our home they are subject to a premise of decency and courtesy; and if we require them to leave because a tension has become unbearable then they do so with a timely departure lest their welcome turn irrevocably broken.

Like vampires though sometimes the wrong person crosses the threshold of the home by accident, unknown to us of their evil intent, the absolute sense of harm they wish upon us, and given the opportunity will tear our lives apart to such an extent that we do not recognise that which we become.

The Cuckoo is a creature of despicable means, and one to whom should not be trusted within the nests built in the trees that surround our homes and our lives. It is also the perfect analogy in nature of the aggressive stance taken by some who will infiltrate another’s home in order to spread chaos in their pursuit of a goal, namely in this case of a self-fulfilling prophecy of disillusion, the prospect of being reunited with a child they believe they gave up years before.

The four part series can find itself at times to be jarring, almost disconnected from itself, and yet it adds to the drama in such a way that it allows the viewer to be completely ill at ease in a difficult situation, and with Jill Halfpenny in the role of Sian Gregson that reminds the viewer of the immense talent that has been regretfully allowed to bubble under the surface for too long.

The Cuckoo is a warning of magnitude, to vet carefully those you allow into your home. The dangers that strangers pose, and that often their agenda does not affect us right up to the moment our lives are shattered by their design and natural conflict. A study in inner violence, a myopic view in domestic hostility.

Ian D. Hall