Amandaland begins, in time-honoured Motherland fashion, under pressure on the school run. Except we’re not in Chiswick – we’re now in south Harlesden, Amanda is driving a Tesla for ever on the brink of running out of battery, and Georgie and Manus, who aren’t so little any more, have been forced to move school after the collapse of Mummy’s ruthlessly Hygge-Tygge’d life. Cue a pep talk by the worst, by which I mean the best, Motherland mother of all. “I’m a people person,” says Amanda. “And historically our people are people people. So get out there and find your people!”
Ah, it’s good to be back in hell. Spin-offs are always a risk, but Lucy Punch’s Amanda was a sure bet. Sorry, team Liz, but she was the best character in Motherland: the ideal Sharon-Horgan-sharpened instrument for impaling the worstexcesses, blind spots and hypocrisies of the posh, white, west London middle classes. By the end of the third and last series, Amanda had perversely become the cruel heart of the show. I felt actual compassion for her when she did that dance at the PTA fundraiser that got 400 TikTok likes. Weird, I know, but that’s what satire at its most skewering can do. It makes you care.
