Amandaland on BBC review: a surprisingly good spin-off to fill the Motherland void
Amandaland on BBC review: a surprisingly good spin-off to fill the Motherland void
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When Motherland was quietly cancelled after its Christmas special in 2022, a small subsection of people in the UK were very, very angry. Strongly worded tweets were sent. Mumsnet message boards were filled with incensed comments. Diane Morgan, one of the show’s stars, said women with prams kept running up to her on the street to badger if it would ever return to screens. In sad news for the show’s cult following, the answer was: it would not.
Not in Motherland form, at least. Now, in 2025, it has returned via spinoff instead, courtesy of fan favourite character Amanda, played by the most perhaps the most typecast woman in the world, Lucy Punch. But boy, does she make that typecasting work for her. In case you didn’t watch Motherland, Punch plays the resident posh totty, try-hard mum with a barely hidden superiority complex and a blowout so bouncy it could almost distract you from her crumbling personal life. Almost.
Towards the end of Motherland, Amanda gets divorced and forced out of her capacious, spotlessly clean home in Acton, forcing her to consider pastures new. Amandaland picks up a little while after this, once Amanda has settled herself in “SoHa” (South Harlesden) and relocated her kids from private to state school.
Amanda’s bumpy descent to earth brings with it plenty of new faces, as well as the welcome return of two Motherland cast members: Anne, the beloved, bumbling Irish mum of four who acts as Amanda’s lady in waiting, played by Philippa Dunne, and Felicity, Amanda’s cool-but-cruel mother, played (in a feat of perfect casting) by Joanna Lumley.
