| Worth seeing: |
| Featuring: | Lucy Punch, Alexander Shaw, Cavan Clerkin, Ekow Quartey, Harriet Webb, Jack Veal, Joanna Lumley, Laurence Rickard, Miley Locke, Philippa Dunne, Rochenda Sandall, Samuel Anderson, Siobhán McSweeney |
| Key crew: | David Sant, Arnold Widdowson, Holly Walsh, Laurence Rickard |
| Channel: | BBC iPlayer, BBC1 |
| Length: | 29 minutes |
| Episodes: | 6 |
| Broadcast date: | 6th May 2026 |
| Country: | UK |
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Still trying to assert her place in society, social media influencer and kitchen sales assistant, Amanda (Lucy Punch) has finally settled in to her new neighbourhood – south Harlesden – after being forced to leave the rather more upmarket Chiswick.
With her mother Felicity (Joanna Lumley) hanging around the house even more than her own children, Amanda tries to boost her public profile with a careers presentation at school, an attempt to promote a local coffee shop and organising a pre-prom party for her daughter’s friends – but, of course, nothing goes to plan.
With her fellow parents having their own problems dealing with their teenagers’ growing pains, the dysfunctional school football touchline continues to provide entertainment – and tension – all around.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
The second season of Motherland spin-off Amandaland gets off to a confident start, with bold storylines and tight scripts, peppered with some of the best throwaway gags you’ll hear on TV this year.
Coinciding with the first season’s victory at the TV BAFTAs, the new series of Amandaland initially feels like compulsory viewing; Amanda herself comes across as being more empathetic, while the show makes better use of its supporting characters, including a near career-best Joanna Lumley, barking such put-downs as “I was having sex before you were born,” with no sense of irony, as Philippa Dunne’s Anne struggles to decode the teenage vernacular.
But after three of the sharpest episodes of contemporary comedy, season two suddenly runs out of steam and hits the buffers. The originality stalls, they veer too far from the core cast and themes and the storylines suddenly feel lazy, as if they didn’t have quite enough ideas to stretch to fill the whole series.