
Motherland
- TV sitcom
- BBC Two / BBC One
- 2016 - 2022
- 20 episodes (3 series)
Comedy about middle-class parenthood and juggling kids, school, and other parents. Stars Anna Maxwell Martin, Diane Morgan, Paul Ready, Lucy Punch, Philippa Dunne and more.
Episode menu
Pilot

Broadcast details
- Date
- Tuesday 6th September 2016
- Time
- 10pm
- Channel
- BBC Two
- Length
- 30 minutes
Cast & crew
Anna Maxwell Martin | Julia |
Diane Morgan | Liz |
Paul Ready | Kevin |
Lucy Punch | Amanda |
Philippa Dunne | Anne |
Ellie Haddington | Marion |
Oliver Chris | Paul |
Margaret Cabourn-Smith | Janet |
Sonita Henry | Sunita |
Terry Mynott | Ian |
Chetna Pandya | Mrs Lawson |
Sharon Horgan | Writer |
Helen Serafinowicz (as Helen Linehan) | Writer |
Holly Walsh | Writer |
Graham Linehan | Writer |
Graham Linehan | Director |
Richard Boden | Producer |
Richard Boden | Executive Producer |
Graham Linehan | Executive Producer |
Sharon Horgan | Executive Producer |
Clelia Mountford | Executive Producer |
Holly Walsh | Associate Producer |
Charlie Fawcett | Editor |
Dennis De Groot (as Dennis DeGroot) | Production Designer |
Sarah Crowe | Casting Director |
Caroline Pitcher | Costume Designer |
Vanessa White | Make-up Designer |
Bill Broomfield | Director of Photography |
Jo Kennedy-Valentine | 1st Assistant Director |
Press
Top 40 TV Shows of 2016: #17 Motherland
Is this a sign 2016 wasn't a great year for comedy? The second highest-ranking sitcom in our list - if you even count Fleabag as a sitcom - was only a one-off pilot episode.
Jack Seale, Radio Times, 26th December 2016Undoubted comedy of the week was Motherland, a terribly truthful exposition of what it means to battle between being the "good" mother - a flawlessly moneyed, pretty, organised and quietly angry Lucy Punch - and the hopeless, exemplified here by Diane Morgan, who lives off frozen food, only gives a forlorn what-the-bugger-now sigh when she severs her finger, and is quietly happy.
Caught in the middle, as I suspect an entire 90% of British mothers are and always have been, is the phenomenal Anna Maxwell Martin as Julia, who makes the one mistake - one! - of lying, once. When asked, by the impossibly kind school to which she ferries with difficulties her two children, whether she had forgotten it was half-term, she opts for a proudly cheerful "No. No?" and so mires herself in a day of tense phone calls, criminal driving, accidental and deliberate snobbery, blood, wine and insane hunger while trying to hold down a job in event management. She's due later in her hellish week to have Peter Mandelson introduce the Women in Construction awards, which deserves an award of its own. As does the terse "I don't have to come to the office for a whole day to watch Elaine print out a press release."
"What time is it now?" she begs Liz (Morgan) as they struggle with their many kids, with prayers for it to be about 4.30pm, or if possible midnight. "Just after midday." "Fucking HELL." It's written by, among others, Sharon Horgan and Graham Linehan, features the most fascinating annoying dad yet written, and is a sure triumph.
Euan Ferguson, The Observer, 11th September 2016Motherland review
Sharon Horgan and Graham Linehan's slapstick sitcom shows the fullblown apocalypse of child-rearing.
Tim Jonze, The Guardian, 7th September 2016Motherland, BBC Two, review
Promising pilot of comedy about middle-class parenting.
Veronica Lee, The Arts Desk, 7th September 2016Essentially 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.
Ali Catterall, The Guardian, 6th September 2016King & 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.
Jasper Rees, The Telegraph, 6th September 2016Motherland 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.
Ben Dowell, Radio Times, 6th September 2016Motherland 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.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 6th September 2016Motherland - review
It's straight to the naughty step if the BBC declines to commission a full series.
Ed Power, The Telegraph, 6th September 2016TV preview: Motherland, BBC2
How kind of the BBC to save the sitcom pilot with the most potential until last.
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 5th September 2016