Lucy Punch

Motherland, episode 4 review

It's become increasingly clear that Julia is not a heroine but an irritant.

Are these the most dislikeable women on TV?

In a British comedy landscape where truly immoral protagonists are overwhelmingly men, Motherland stands out.

Motherland / Detectorists, review

From fundraising cash to buried treasure, these sitcoms are comedy gold.

Motherland, episode 2 review

Magnifying a very special hell in this messy mom-com.

After the pilot, it was obvious Motherland would return

Creators Sharon Horgan and Graham Linehan mine middle-class motherhood for comedy. These aren't your ordinary middle-class mothers though: they are Mumsnet types that live in large houses in suburban London.

Why Motherland may be a perfect depiction of parenting

Whereas Catastrophe hilariously captured the minutiae of married life, Motherland does the same with parenting.

You should enjoy Motherland, which features the brilliant Diane Morgan (though not here in her usual faux naive alter ego Philomena Cunk), Anna Maxwell Martin and Lucy Punch in a comedy of middle-class manners and mores - think of it as Mumsnet with a more pronounced sense of self-irony. Punch plays the character and anti-hero Amanda, an intensely annoying alpha mum who is a mash-up of Nigella Lawson, Joanna Lumley and Rachel Johnson (by which I mean the worst bits of all of them). Not the funniest thing on the telly, but pretty good satire, and worth catching.

Review: Motherland, episode two, BBC2/iPlayer

If you are or you've been a parent you'll love it, but you'll be watching it through your fingers.

Motherland's achievement: its near universal appeal

Both parents and the happily child-free will enjoy this borderline revolutionary BBC Two comedy.

Motherland: a brutally honest depiction of parenthood

Expect terrifying alpha-mums, chaotic childcare and party politics, says Johanna Thomas-Corr.