Amandaland: Beauty Tips, Humor, and Heart!

AMANDALAND: Wednesdays, BBC1 

Rating: Five out of five stars 

I was a big fan of the sitcom Motherland, in which starred as Julia, the harried working mum whose husband was forever absent from the parenting coalface. 

Written by Sharon (Pulling, Catastrophe) Horgan, Graham (Father Ted, The IT Crowd) Linehan, Helen Serafinowicz and Holly Morgan, it was not only stuffed with excellent characters and great one-liners but even had a few semi-profound things to say about Modern Families. 

For three finely tuned series it was, however, mostly (and most importantly) a dying breed of sitcom because it was very funny.

Yet despite knowing all of this I came late to its spin-off, Amandaland. 

While I'd loved Motherland's ensemble cast I felt that silly, competitive, vapidly glam 'Alpha Mum' Amanda (Lucy Punch) was the show's least interesting character. 

My favourite was Diane Morgan's sardonic, eye-rolling 'slummy-mummy' Liz, largely because Morgan has an enviable ability to evoke laughter by doing almost nothing – as the most recent series of Amazon's Last One Laughing revealed she doesn't even need a script.

So, when I first heard about Amandaland I'm afraid I was slightly dismissive. In fact, it was my partner who, while channel-surfing, saw it and gave it a good report: 'Watch it, you'll like it - it's very funny,' he said. So I did... and blow me down if he wasn't right! I mean sure, that does happen – though obviously I'm meant to be the one dishing out the recommendations.

I do have a bit of form with ignoring spin-offs, at least until they become impossible not to fall for. I even did it way back, with Frasier! Now revered as One Of The Greatest Sitcoms Of All Time (1993-2004 RIP, ignore the 2023 revival!) it's easy to forget that Kelsey Grammer's Seattle talk radio host character, psychiatrist Dr Frasier Crane, had originally been sitting around in that Boston basement bar Cheers (another great sitcom).

Amandaland works for the same reason Frasier did: a fully fleshed-out supporting cast and fantastic writing. 

There's plenty to enjoy with Joanna Lumley as Amanda's mum Felicity, Philippa Dunne as Amanda's loyal, put-upon friend Anne and Samuel Anderson as her thoroughly sensible downstairs neighbour Mal (with whom Amanda has sufficient chemistry we're inevitably hoping for a final series Happy Ending, whenever that may be). 

However, it was arguably the Christmas Special reveal of Jennifer Saunders as Amanda's Aunt Joan that made Amandaland one of 2025's TV highlights.

Now Amanda's back, still navigating life post-divorce in un-chic 'So-Ha' (South Harlesden), trying to become an influencer while avoiding becoming a laughing stock.

'I'm not wearing make-up! Some days I just want to be my 'authentic self',' she tells Anne, before admitting, 'it's nude make-up! Just because you can see it doesn't mean it's there. It's not.' 

Beauty tips, bathos and big laughs – what's not to love?