Amandaland has finally arrived on BBC iPlayer. (Image: BBC)
The eagerly awaited Motherland spin-off, Amandaland, has landed on iPlayer two years after the beloved sitcom was quietly cancelled following its 2022 Christmas special.
The six-episode series follows snobby ‘alpha mum’ Amanda (played by ) as she navigates life as a divorced mum of two teenagers.
Amanda has left behind her big house in leafy Chiswick and downsized to South Harlesden, or “So-Ha” as Amanda has rebranded it.
Her children, Manus (Alexander Shaw) and Georgie (Miley Locke) have been taken out of private school, and she is forced to spend more time with her unsympathetic mother, Felicity, played by the exquisitely cast .
Reminiscent of Joanna’s iconic role of Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous, Felicity is a former supermodel who is living in constant denial of the ageing process. Sadly, she is now riddled with osteoarthritis and tormented by her carer, who is not-so affectionately dubbed “Kill Joy”.
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Lucy Punch and Joanna Lumley star in Motherland spin-off, Amandaland. (Image: BBC)
The episode opens with Amanda dropping her kids off at their new “bog standard state school” and bumping into her long-suffering minion, Anne (Philippa Dunne).
The comedy is in full swing from the off as, in true Amanda fashion, she plonks her Tesla outside the school steps and responds to a rebuke from the teacher with a cheery “Thank you!”
She gets the lowdown on the mums-about-town and forces her kids onto the local football team so she can mingle with the area’s highflyer, Della (Siobhan McSweeney), an acclaimed chef who runs hotspot restaurant, Shin.
While Amanda is desperate to be Della’s new “mum chum”, the chef’s disdain for her is palpable, particularly after she boasts that “they shot one of the scenes from A Chocolate Orange” in her kids’ school playground.
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Lucy Punch is hilarious in Amandaland. (Image: BBC)
Other new additions to the cast include Line Of Duty’s Rochenda Sandall as Della’s free-spirited partner, Fi, and Samuel Anderson (Gavin and Stacey, The History Boys) as Amanda’s hunky neighbour, Mal.
Like many Motherland fans, I went into the series with the apprehension that it would never live up to the beloved original.
While viewers are bound to miss the leading trio of Julia (Anne Maxwell Martin), Liz (Diane Morgan), and Kevin (Paul Ready), Amandaland is packed full of the laugh-out-loud comedy Motherland fans have been waiting for.
Amandaland airs Tuesdays at 9pm on One, or you can watch all six episodes on iPlayer now.