British Comedy Guide

Press clippings Page 4

The fake news in Motherland (BBC2) was that the new mum at the school gates, Meg (Tanya Moodie), was a superwoman.

Apparently an international business consultant, she struck deals in multiple languages on her mobile while raising five well-adjusted children and enjoying a blissful marriage.

Naturally, Julia (Anna Maxwell Martin) loathed her. 'Where's your secret sadness?' she fumed. But this is Motherland, where parenthood is the seventh circle of hell and every day when you haven't strangled one of your little darlings can be counted as a success.

No surprises, then, when Meg turned out to be a raging alcoholic who regarded hijacking a bus and confrontations with the police as ordinary hazards of a good binge.

Even if this comedy is a trifle cynical and earthy for some tastes, it's always worth it for the deadpan world-weariness of Liz (Diane Morgan) -- who reckons the chief compensation for being a single mother is getting ten per cent off at Dorothy Perkins.

Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail, 8th October 2019

TV review: Motherland, BBC2

It was announced just before this second series started that there would be a third series of Motherland. It's be interesting to see how it evolves as there are a few changes in the opening episode of the second run.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 8th October 2019

Middle-class mums are in the not-so-flattering spotlight for a second season of Sharon Horgan, Holly Walsh and Helen Linehan's comedy on parenthood at the school gates. As term starts up, there is fresh blood in the form of high-flying mum of four Meg (straight-talking Tanya Moodie); she has conspicuously moved in opposite Julia (Anna Maxwell Martin), who continues to juggle a hectic career with the efforts of keeping up with the other parents. A gleeful takedown of competitive parenting culture.

Ammar Kalia, The Guardian, 7th October 2019

Motherland review

Parenting comedy returns with sad and angry hidden depths.

Ed Cumming, The Independent, 7th October 2019

Motherland, series 2, review

This astute, spiky sitcom conjures stress so vivid that it's difficult to watch.

Sarah Carson, i Newspaper, 7th October 2019

Motherland, series 2 episode 1 review

Why has it descended into farce?

Michael Hogan, The Telegraph, 7th October 2019

Does Motherland need to pit women against each other?

The BBC2 sitcom expertly deconstructs traditional representations of motherhood, only to lazily cast its characters as school-run Mean Girls.

Fiona Sturges, i Newspaper, 5th October 2019

BBC confirms third series for Motherland

BBC Two has ordered a further series of comedy Motherland. The ensemble sitcom's second series begins next week.

British Comedy Guide, 1st October 2019

Shame on us for making Motherland so white

When BBC Two's comedy Motherland launched last year it was garlanded with praise for its warts-and-all portrayal of flustered parents thrust together at the school gates. But co-writer Sharon Horgan says she only belatedly realised they had made one serious oversight. 'We thought it was really fucking white,' she now admits, realising the narrow scope of the characters' ethnic mix. 'By the time we came to watch it, we thought, "shame on us".'

Chortle, 1st October 2019

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