Sharon Horgan

Motherland review

Sharon Horgan and Graham Linehan's slapstick sitcom shows the fullblown apocalypse of child-rearing.

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.

Motherland has realities of school run down to a tee

Modern parents will recognise themselves - and cringe - in this pilot comedy from Catastrophe's Sharon Horgan and Father Ted's Graham Linehan, says Ben Dowell.

Motherland preview

Frenetic, stressy and trying to juggle several balls at once... the whole tone of Motherland has a lot of parallels with the chaotic realities of parenthood, which it represents so well.

BBC Landmark Sitcom Season: the pilots review

In my last post I looked at three of the sitcom revivals that the BBC have produced but alongside these pieces, this new season also includes five new sitcom pilots. Over the next two weeks, all five of these shows will air and in this article I will pass judgement on them all.

Motherland - review

It's straight to the naughty step if the BBC declines to commission a full series.

TV preview: Motherland, BBC2

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

Blame sitcom remakes on the public, says Sharon Horgan

Horgan and fellow comedian and writer Frankie Boyle reflected on the state of the industry at this year's Edinburgh Television Festival.