CLASS WARS (MOTHERLAND, SERIES 1-3)

 

We were late coming to the party when it came to BBC2's sitcom 'Motherland'.

However confined mostly to quarters during the first Covid lockdown, the first two series provided much needed relief as we caught up on the show on the BBC iPlayer.

Set in London and created by Sharon Horgan, Graham Linehan, Helen Searfinowicz and Holly Walsh, this resolutely middle class sitcom derives most of its humour from the front that parents often try to put up in front of other parents at the primary school gate.

The show is about middle class people trying to project themselves as perfect parents, even though it is obvious that they are really struggling to conceal the grim reality of raising kids, sustaining marriages, handling ageing parents and juggling the demands of work against the demands of school.

It is also squeezes humour out of the petty jealousies and rivalries of the parents, their deep insecurities and, quite frankly, out of them all being a bit crap.

Anna Maxwell Martin is Julia, a highly stressed mum with a messy family life that always gets the better of her.

She has a faltering career as an events organiser and a feckless husband, Oliver Chris's Paul Johnson who for much of the three series is only ever seen on the other end of a phone having a good time while he leaves his wife to flounder with the two children.

Julia's mum, Ellie Haddington's Marion also won't play ball, refusing to relieve the pressure on her daughter by categorically ruling out providing a child minding service for her grandchildren.

One of the group of parents Julia knocks about with is Diane Morgan's blunt and witty single mum Liz who split from Nick Nevern's equally feckless Lee and is keeping her neck above water financially.

Liz has an on-off relationship with Tom Meeten's sheep farmer Sam who she met during a camping break with the other parents and their children in series two.

Paul Ready's stay at home, wannabe children's author dad Kevin is a kind hearted, naive, wimpy soul who cycles to school and dresses and behaves like he is still 10.

In the first series, Kevin, Liz and Julia are cast to the margins of the Parent Teachers Association which Lucy Punch's Amanda dominates.

Amanda is the Queen Bee of the primary school parents - always at the centre of extra curricular activities, shallow, vain, expecting praise without ever wanting to be seen to be demanding it and increasingly deluded.

She is the kind of person who had her own "popular group" in school, admitting only those she thought were cool but not cool enough to usurp her, excluding and badmouthing others who wouldn't conform to her world view and always paranoid about someone cooler coming along and stealing her thunder.

Kevin is nevertheless smitten and desperately wants to be in Amanda's gang but is constantly knocked back.

Amanda has a sidekick, Philippa Dunne's Anne, an Irish mammy who does all the donkey work for her, getting little credit for her efforts.

Unswervingly loyal, she's always there with a baby in hand when it comes to organising parent events or helping to get Amanda's ridiculously expensive lifestyle shop, Hygge Tygge off the ground once her marriage to Terry Mynott's Johnny crumbles.

In series two, Tanya Moodie's successful businesswoman Meg comes along and sort of falls in with Julia, Liz and Kevin.

Although Julia and Amanda are both a little rattled at how effortless and unfazed Meg is about juggling a brilliant career with raising kids.

But as amusing as the first two series undoubtedly are, viewers of the third series will feel that it is the one where it really hits its stride.

(SPOILER ALERT)

In this series, Julia resents having her mum living with her because of cardiac issues and is feeling the additional pressure.

She also starts to develop an unhealthy crush on a builder, Robbie Gee's Garry who comes to do some work in their house and fantasises about leaving Paul.

Kevin's marriage is also in trouble, while Liz is contemplating finding work.

When Meg reveals she is battling cancer, Amanda is desperate to show everyone how empathetic she is.

Although there is also a nagging suspicion that she is enjoying Meg's woes and eying up Meg's distraught husband, Anthony Head's Bill as a future meal ticket.

Amanda, however, has challenges of her own, with her business struggling and Johnny involved in relationship that shines a light on her loneliness.

Anne is showing signs too of a growing impatience with Amanda taking her for granted.

With all these storylines bubbling, series three begins with a quite brilliant spoof the Conservative Government Covid press conferences, as the school responds to an outbreak of headlice with a parents information session.

Other episodes tackle the desperation of parents to get their kids into the right post primary school, the different experiences of Mother's Day, the horrors of a school trip and a fundraising night which Amanda, naturally, wants to turn into a celebration of her.

Joanna Lumley pops up as Amanda's ghastly mum, while 'Eastenders' actor Natalie Cassidy also guest stars as an out of her depth teaching assistant.

With Walsh, Searfinowicz and the actress Barunka O'Shaughnessy writing the scripts, the third series of 'Motherland' finally brings to the boil some storylines that have been simmering ove previous series and delivers some very big laughs in the process.

Under Simon Hynd's assured direction, Maxwell Martin, Morgan, Dunne, Moodie, Ready and Punch brilliantly spark off each other and like all great sitcoms, begin to slowly chisel away at their comic personas.

As the US sitcom 'Modern Family' and BBC1's 'Outnumbered' discovered, family sitcom starts to lose their mojo when the children grow up and become wiseass teenagers.

'Motherland' is blessed, however, that its focus is solely on the parents.

So while the parents at the end of series three are beginning to face the prospect of the post primary years, there is plenty to suggest that there is life in this sitcom yet should Walsh, Searfinowicz and O'Shaughnessy wish to pursue it.

Having painstakingly built over three series such an effective comedy vehicle, it would be a shame to leave it languishing in the driveway.

There is more comic mileage to be gained from the British muddle, not middle classes.

And 'Motherland' is the show right now that is best equipped to do it.

(Series three of 'Motherland' was broadcast on BBC2 from May 10-June 7, 2021 with previous series available on the BBC iPlayer and Netflix in the UK and Ireland)