Conor and Jock return on 3 November.
After having a wake for a fridge, stealing a gigantic tuna and witnessing full frontal granny nudity already in the first season, it’s hard to know where Season 2 of The Young Offenders can go.
Well, the answer is anywhere because just as Peter Foott reinvented the characters and story for TV after the success of the movie, the second season of the beloved comedy will continue to break new ground.
In an interview with JOE, PJ Gallagher (Principal Barry Walsh) said that a large amount of the laughs in Season 2 will come from seeing the awkward interactions between the Walsh family and their ‘extended family’ of Mairéad (Hilary Rose), Conor (Alex Murphy) and Jock (Chris Walley).
There’s also the small matter of a baby to deal with as Siobhan (Jennifer Barry) and Jock look set to become the most unprepared parents on Leeside.
Without giving too much away about what the season opener has in store, the plot details for the first episode state that “with a new arrival on the way, Jock is getting anxious and Principal Walsh isn’t helping. But a challenge to Jock brings about surprising results.”
When paired with the recent casting announcement that the producers were looking for babies to feature in the new episodes, it’s clear that things are going to be drastically different in The Young Offenders this time around, not that Jennifer Barry is complaining.
“It was great. It’s exciting,” she told JOE on our visit to the set in Cork ahead of the Season 2 premiere to find out what’s in store.
“Obviously, Hilary and Orla – who plays my on-screen mom – are both parents. They have so much experience as parents and I was listening to all of their horror stories. My hands are sweating even thinking about it! I had them to learn from and I was working with a few babies, which was nice. There was a mutual parental love between us (Siobhan and Jock). It’s a team effort handling the baby but they’re both as bad as each other!”
As fans of the show will know, Jock (Chris Walley) has an extremely complicated history with his parents – his mother died when he was only a small boy, while his father was neglectful and abusive – but after Mairéad took him under her wing, we’re not ruling him out of contention for Father Of The Year just yet.
In terms of playing a father, Chris Walley was more than happy to see this seismic change for his character.
“The babies we were working with were great. It was almost like they were trained because when they were put into a scene, they knew what to do. It’s mad. They were really well behaved and the whole set changes when they’re on set. As fearful as I was holding them, I didn’t have to do much prep. It all came natural to me,” said Walley about his latest and youngest co-stars.
With all this talk of babies, you might be forgiven for thinking that The Young Offenders will essentially become a Cork-set version of Three Men and a Baby.
If you’re thinking this, you’ll be massively disappointed because even though changes are coming, the characters are still as dysfunctional and madcap as before.
“Siobhan is like ‘ah, this baby is grand.’ She just puts it aside and goes off with her friends,” said Jennifer Barry about her character’s newfound parenting skills, while Alex Murphy (Conor) has a more educational take on matters.
“I can hold the baby but as soon as it starts crying, we hand it back to them. We’ve (Conor and Linda) learned from their moment of passion!,” he said.
Speaking of the burgeoning romance between Conor and Linda (Demi Isaac Oviawe), after weeks and weeks of awkward flirting and terrible chat up lines in Season 1, the last episode finally saw the two characters shift.
As the new season approaches, what’s the state of play between Conor and Linda?
“Eh, we’re playing chess!,” said Murphy.
“There’s a lot of Conor trying to figure out the workings of a woman and here’s a spoiler, he never succeeds!” he added diplomatically, while the Mallow actress has a very different way of seeing their relationship.
“In a way, Linda is still calling the shots. She wears the pants in the relationship and that’s a good thing. He’s just like a lapdog… the way it should be!” joked Demi Isaac Oviawe.
Of course, it’s not just the teenagers in The Young Offenders that are all loved-up because love is also in the air between Mairéad (Hilary Rose) and Sergeant Healy (Dominic MacHale).
“Yeah, obviously in Season 1 we get together and like any relationship there are hurdles to get over. It’s tumultuous, I’ll say that. The stuff with Healy is ongoing the whole time, but there’s a couple of really funny road trips that we go on with the boys,” said Rose.
She adds: “With Mairéad, there’s always a battle for something, so it’s either a battle with the lads, Healy, or some other characters that come into it. It’s really interesting because there’s some frenemies that show up too. I can’t say anymore.”
Neither are we.
The first episode in Season 2 of the Young Offenders will be shown on 3 November on BBC 3. The new episodes are also going to be shown on RTÉ shortly after the UK broadcast.
However, a transmission date hasn’t been announced yet but it’s expected soon.
We can’t wait to see what’s in store.
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