Residents of a prestigious street in North London have voiced their frustration after the production team behind the new comedy series altered the appearance of their neighbourhood to resemble a less affluent part of the city.
The show is a spin-off from the famous sitcom Motherland. In it Lucy Punch returns as Amanda, the competitive and overbearing mother from the original series.
In Amandaland, Amanda goes through a big lifestyle shift after her divorce, trading her comfortable life in Chiswick for South Harlesden – an area with a reputation for crime and social issues.
While attempting to rebrand her new surroundings, Amanda dubs the area ‘So-Ha,’ saying in the first episode, “I’m done with W4. I’m all about So-Ha.”
Meanwhile, her mother Felicity () is far less tactful, quipping, “Quick, let me in before I get stabbed,” and complaining that the area “smells of buses.”
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The residents of Ferntower Road have complained about Amandaland (Image: BBC)
However, the filming for the series did not take place in Harlesden, but on Ferntower Road in Islington. This is an elegant street lined with trees and properties on it are valued at up to £2million.
In order to achieve the rundown aesthetic they were aiming for, the production team strategically placed shopping trolleys and rubbish bags along the road, which annoyed local residents.
Laura Cain, 31, a long-time resident, expressed mixed feelings, sighing: “I loved Motherland, but I haven’t watched Amandaland yet. It’s a bit of a joke that they used our lovely clean road to make it look like Harlesden.
“It’s actually very posh around here and quite middle class. A lot of people weren’t happy when filming was taking place because it caused a lot of nuisance. And now people are annoyed at the way they’ve portrayed our road.”
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The production team made Ferntower Road look worse for filming purposes (Image: Threads)
Lorna MacFarlane, 50, who has lived in the area for years, found the ’s choice of location misleading. She hit out: “It’s a bit cheeky of the to present our road as if it’s in Harlesden. I used to do outreach work there many years ago for a drug rehabilitation project, and I can assure you that it’s nothing like that around here.”
Lorna added, “Our road was made a lot grubbier during filming, and to be honest, the whole thing was a pain in the neck. Not only did they cause a lot of mess, but they also took up all the parking spaces.”
Number 48 Ferntower Road served as the exterior of Amanda’s new home, while interior scenes were shot in a separate nearby property. The resident of number 48, who wanted to remain anonymous, shared their thoughts, saying: “I saw Motherland and loved it, and we’re very happy that the outside of our home was filmed for Amandaland. But I don’t understand why the programme wasn’t filmed in Harlesden if it’s set there.
“It just doesn’t make sense. I’ve never been to Harlesden, but it can’t be that dangerous and I’m sure it’s very nice, although probably not as nice as around here.”
Another local resident, a pensioner who wished to remain anonymous, was unimpressed by the show’s depiction of their street. They said: “It’s silly and a load of nonsense to make our road out to be Harlesden. Why didn’t they just go and film there in the first place?
“But that’s TV for you, they can make anything appear to be real. I watched Amandaland the other night, recognised some of the houses on my road, and just thought what a load of old rubbish so I switched off after ten minutes. I’m too old for that kind of nonsense.”
However, long-time resident Thandie Keet pointed out the irony of the complaints, noting that Ferntower Road itself has undergone significant gentrification in recent years. She told interviewers at the : “I’ve been here all my life and 30 years ago more than half of Ferntower Road was made up of council houses. Now you’ve got £2million properties here. We had a lot of social problems and crime, but all that’s changed now.
“If people are complaining about our road being made to look like Harlesden, then that’s just Islington snobbery for you.” She suggested that the production team may have chosen Islington for practical reasons, saying: “They probably thought it safer to film here than Harlesden and decided to mess our road up.”