People are always asking: how do I look so stylish?” trills pristine uber-mum Amanda, played by Lucy Punch, in the second season of chaotic parenting sitcom Motherland. “Where do I get that amazing thing, this amazing thing?” she adds, emphasising each question with a flick of her immaculately coiffed blonde hair, the sort of creamy shade that requires regular upkeep and a Goldilocks approach to purple toning shampoo (not too much product, not too little, just the right amount).
She sounds insufferable, but she’s also entirely correct. Because when this episode aired, all the way back in 2019, my immediate thoughts were: where did Amanda get that navy blue high-necked blouse with the polka dots? And what about the provenance of the chunky knits she wore earlier in the series? What colour reference does she give to her hairdresser? More than five years on and Punch’s character has her own spin-off show, Amandaland, on BBC One. She’s now divorced, dealing with life as a single parent to a pair of teenagers, trying to carve out a career as “the face and brains and body and hair of a rapidly growing Instagram startup” – and I regret to report that she is still the best-dressed woman on TV.
