Yonderland, the comedy series set in a fantasy world, is back for a second series. Cue lots of rejoicing across this land and in parallel universes too.

Following glowing audience and press reviews for the first series, the new run has high expectations to meet. The creators have risen to the challenge though and, from this Monday, deliver eight episodes packed with adventures and laughs.

For the uninitiated, Yonderland follows the adventures of Debbie Maddox, a mum who unexpectedly finds herself in a bright and colourful world full of eccentric characters. The buffoonish Council of Elders and inhabitants of the land are soon dependent on her to fix their problems.

The new series - which is again written by and stars Mathew Baynton, Martha Howe-Douglas, Simon Farnaby, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond - will continue from where the last left off. The cast say there's "many more characters, puppets and humans" to meet this time, and they've come up with a "new intriguing storyline".

The new episodes will feature Debbie's nemesis, the evil Imperatrix. She is determined to capture the housewife and destroy Yonderland in the process. The writers hint: "There's some connection between Debbie and Imperatrix. Their backstory is explored in this new series and we learn what Debbie's connection is to Yonderland, and why she is so important over there."

Martha Howe-Douglas, who plays both Debbie and Imperatrix, relished the challenge to play two major characters in the new episodes. "You met Imperatrix at the end of the last series - there's a lot of her in this series. I did get to do multi-character this time, which was nice. I got to dress up - there's an episode called Game Of Crones in which Debbie has to disguise herself. She is disguised as a crone... so I did get my chance to be stupid!"

The new series will air in an 8pm slot on Monday nights on Sky1. The team are pleased with this scheduling as they believe it'll better cement the idea that Yonderland is a show aimed at everyone, not just children. During Series 1 there was perhaps a feeling that some people thought that Yonderland was just a show for a young audience.

Mathew Baynton tells BCG: "We've always tried to kick against that label. There is a sense that, because the first series was put in the 6pm teatime slot, is was very much aimed at families and that perhaps we were alienating adults who don't have kids... as far as we're concerned there's no reason that a guy who is watching it with his kids, that his best mate who doesn't have kids wouldn't like it too. So we were delighted that the timeslot is moving by a couple of hours, and hopefully allow that audience in.

"We've always approached it that we just make comedy that we find funny, with no demographic in mind. However, it just seems it's something that's much more prevalent now, that people have to create distinctions between types of comedy.

"I think the idea of comedy for adults came around in the 1990s, and that it became that 'if you're not swearing then you're automatically a family show' and that has slightly ghettoised stuff that isn't sweary... No one really talks about Blackadder, Python, Bottom or The Young Ones in terms of demographic ... there wasn't a distinction, just 'comedy was on'."

Laurence Rickard admits there may have been a bit of an invisible barrier during Series 1 in regards to getting those without children to tune in too, but when adults did give it a chance they soon took to it too. "It [Series 1] was in that Sunday night teatime slot and it was very bright and it's got puppets in it, so if you're seeing it purely on a ten second teaser or a poster you might have thought 'that's just for kids', but tonally we find as soon as someone sits and watches it for two minutes they go 'ohhh, I get it!'".

Going back to the topic of swearing, he jokes: "You can just sit at home and add your own swearwords if you want!"

BCG is curious about the logistics of how the scripts are created, given the fact there's six writers. Baynton explains: "We start together around a table and sort out storylines. In the process of storylining, a lot of characters get invented and straight up three line gags come out too. We then split up to go and write the episodes, but you're going away with a bag of ingredients so you don't have to invent it all yourself..."

Ben Willbond says the group process is very handy. "It is very nice to be able to do that because you're saying 'ah, I'd really like to do something about a detective', and then all the references that everyone has goes into the melting pot."

Rickard continues the explanation: "So we write the scripts up individually or in pairs and then, at the end of the script process, they're all put back around the table and read again and we give each other notes. So the script process always begins and ends with the gang."

This approach allows the team to generate a series worth of gag-rich episodes quicker than the traditional British sitcom writing process in which one person writes a script alone. Baynton says: "I feel like it's almost a best-of-both-worlds type thing. It's a bit like a writers room, the more American system, but it feels as authored as most British stuff is because our sensibilities are so shared and the tone between us is so consistent. It's a slog trying to write this much material on your own or in a partnership, but as a group it happens so quickly."

Rickard concurs: "As a writing team it's great. There's six very different people and they've got very different sensibilities. There's a definite personality in each script, but they all share the same sense of humour, so you get all the joy of the differences but also the joy of what's the same, which is that we all make each other laugh. It's a really rare thing in a troupe that didn't go to university - we were constructed, put together like an X Factor band, but it worked!"

Indeed the team have been working together as a group ever since being formed on CBBC sketch show Horrible Histories. Martha Howe-Douglas admits that, given they were 'manufactured', it was "very lucky" they all got on together.

"It's a combination of luck and also massive credit to Dominic [Brigstocke], Caroline [Norris] and Cassie [King] for putting together a team that worked as a group. And we really do just get on really well!"

Horrible Histories is currently on CBBC for a sixth series, but now without many of the original cast. BCG bravely broached the subject of whether they have been tuning into the new run. Rickard says: "Speaking personally, I haven't been. It's a little too soon. I don't know how I'd feel about it. When we finished our tenure, our five years, they were so clear about the fact it was finished, so it was so un-expected it was coming back. There's a lot of emotional investment; it was seven or eight months of my life, for five years..."

Baynton chips in: "As Larry says, it was quite a long period of our lives - it was something that we all came into with no expectation which became something career defining. You're lucky in your career if you can find a thing that is successful, that is that loved, and feels like it has any genuine legacy... so when they wanted to bring it back we were all concerned if it could live up to the five series we made...

"It's ended up happening in a form that doesn't involve us all. I watched a bit of one, which I found difficult to bring myself to do, but was really impressed with a lot of the new cast, but it is kind of painful for us."

Whilst the team may no longer be working together on Horrible Histories, they have not only Yonderland now but also a new film. Bill, due to hit cinemas in August, is a movie focusing on how "hopeless lute player Bill Shakespeare left his family and home to follow his dream." It's another comedy project in which they all play multiple roles. Laurence Rickard sums up their excitement about making their first film project. "It's another one of those other things we put in place when we began to realise there'd be only so many series of Horrible Histories. The dream was one or other of these ideas would come off, so to be in a position where we got to make Bill and now do two series (and hopefully more) of Yonderland...!"

It sounds like it might not be the last film from the gang either. They admit to us "We've got a few things on the boil that we're not allowed to talk about."

Yonderland starts on Monday 13th July at 8pm on Sky 1.