Motherland, a critically acclaimed one-off comedy about the competitive and crazy side of having children, is to return as a series on BBC2.
Written by an award-winning writing team including Graham Linehan, who also directs, and Sharon Horgan, Motherland attracted a consolidated audience of 2 million viewers when it appeared as part of the New on Two strand of the Landmark Sitcom Season.
Linehan, responsible for hit comedy Father Ted, said: “I’m delighted to be working with such a gifted team. This is a world that seems to be brimming with comic possibilities and yet somehow under-explored.”
Horgan, recently nominated for an Emmy for Channel 4’s Catastrophe, said: “I am thrilled and relieved to have finally found a good use for my 13 years of mothering. Apologies in advance to the brave women and men of the school run.”
The planned six 30-minute episodes will star Anna Maxwell-Martin, Diane Morgan, Lucy Punch and Paul Ready.
The BBC also announced that it has commissioned six episodes of the Porridge reboot that also aired as part of its Landmark Sitcom Season.
Written by the show’s original creators, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the BBC1 series stars Kevin Bishop as Nigel “Fletch” Fletcher, grandson of Ronnie Barker’s iconic character Norman Stanley Fletcher.
Clement and La Frenais said: “We’re in a state of disbelief that Porridge is coming back after all these years but Kevin Bishop is a worthy successor to Ronnie Barker. So even though we feel like recidivists, we’re more than happy to go back inside.”
BBC3’s A Brief History of Tim, written by and starring Tim Renkow, and co-written by Stu Richards, is to return for four episodes.
Renkow said: “I’m very excited to be working with the BBC. I just hope I can beat my old employment record of two days.”
The BBC controller of comedy commissioning, Shane Allen, said the Landmark Sitcom Season had been “a big, celebratory moment for BBC comedy”, adding: “The audience reaction to the season has been overwhelming with well over 50 million viewers tuning in across the run, so I’m very pleased to announce three series commissions coming out of it, which demonstrate the range, ambition and quality of BBC comedy.
“With Porridge we have two writing legends putting a modern spin on their masterpiece, proving that their fingers are very much still on the comedy pulse. In Motherland we have the wish list writing powerhouse giving us a painfully accurate yet fresh take on the relentless emotional carnage of child-rearing.
“Comedy on BBC3 has to really stand out, so A Brief History of Tim – with so many taboos it’s in no danger of being easily ignored – walks the tightrope of where the line is drawn for comedy.”
