Graham Linehan

Essentially Mumsnet: the sitcom, an utterly hysterical and bracingly honest look at the messy business of motherhood. Diane ("Cunk") Morgan, Lucy Punch and Anna Maxwell Martin are by turns chaotic, uber-competitive and Not Coping Very Well ("I really want the children to be brought up like I was - by my mother") in this delicious one-off from the combined writing talents of Graham and Helen Linehan, Sharon Horgan and Holly Walsh. Fingers crossed for a series.

King & queen of comedy: Sharon Horgan & Graham Linehan

If they were musicians, they'd be forming a London Irish supergroup. Sharon Horgan is co-creator and star of the savvy, groundbreaking comedies Pulling and Catastrophe. Graham Linehan is the grandmaster of surreal farce, most of all in Father Ted and The IT Crowd. Together they have merged their talents in Motherland, a new comedy pilot directed by Linehan about the horrors of daytime parenting.

Mumsy stuff gives me the boak. Reading about this new comedy I was immediately left cold and queasy: a sitcom about the stresses of "middle-class motherhood"? No thanks. And then I watched it and loved it, because the glorious, furious, stressed-out mother in this is clearly also nauseated by the horrors of motherhood.

Anna Maxwell Martin plays Julia, a frantically busy working mother who goes through hell trying to take the brats to school, only to find it's closed for half-term. Her mum is refusing to babysit any longer and Amanda, the soulless blonde Queen of the Alpha Mummies at the trendy cafe admires Julia for being able to hold down a job and simply "switch off" her family. Oh, I would just "hate myself too much", she simpers with silky poison. I was surprised at how much I loved this, given the recent glut of miserable sitcom pilots, but this one is written by Graham Linehan and Sharon Horgan. Enough said.

TV preview: Motherland, BBC2

How kind of the BBC to save the sitcom pilot with the most potential until last.

Why studio laughter has no place in modern sitcoms

From Friends to Father Ted, some of the greatest sitcoms of all time have had laughter included on the soundtrack. But audiences have grown more sophisticated - and TV needs to follow their lead.

10 people you almost didn't recognise in The IT Crowd

Happy 10th birthday, IT Crowd! Do you remember these actors appearing in Graham Linehan's geeky sitcom?

Graham Linehan on how IT Crowd found its giggles

On its ten-year anniversary, Graham Linehan and the cast discuss the impact of The IT Crowd (including the controversial American version).

Peep Show: sitcom for a rootless generation

When Peep Show first arrived on our screens in 2003, it put off some who thought it too 'zeitgeisty' - too Channel 4. First developed as a kind of live-action Beavis and Butt-Head, where two graduates would trade sarky observations about TV shows, its inner monologues and POV perspective struck many as a gimmick cooked up by TV execs. But, as Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan later said, he hated Peep Show 'right up until the moment I actually watched it'.

Helen & Graham Linehan campaign for abortion in Ireland

Father Ted writer and wife describe termination of foetus that had no chance of survival - an act that could have led to prison had it taken place in Ireland.