{"id":484563,"date":"2026-05-14T16:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484563\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T16:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:22:11","slug":"amandaland-creators-on-making-bbc-show-different-from-motherland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484563\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Amandaland’ Creators On Making BBC Show Different From ‘Motherland’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe BAFTA-winning creative team behind Amandaland<\/a> have revealed secrets behind separating the hit BBC<\/a> spin-off from its origin series, Motherland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking at the BBC Comedy Festival<\/a>, co-creator Holly Walsh<\/a> said the secret lies in the characters, especially the lead, played by Lucy Punch in a performance that has been hailed far and wide. In Motherland, Amanda was sharper and more cartoonish than the version that leads her own show, which won the BAFTA over the weekend for Best Scripted Comedy and had three of its stars nominated.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe broadened her out and warmed her up,\u201d said co-creator Laurence Rickard<\/a>. \u201cShe is a woman who cares about her friends and family, and is also just immensely shallow and awful. So we needed both of those things. You get the best comedy out of her when she is terrible but behind the veneer is a genuinely nice human being.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tWalsh said Amanda was the \u201ceasiest\u201d character to spin off as you can \u201cpunch up.\u201d \u201cYou can make so many more jokes about someone who thinks she\u2019s better than you,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\n\tRickard said there was a \u201cwarmth and broadness\u201d in the pilot that was \u201cslightly different from Motherland.\u201d The critically-acclaimed Motherland, which was co-created by Graham Linehan and Sharon Horgan amongst others, ran for three seasons. Amandaland has so far run for two and yesterday was commissioned for a third <\/a>after becoming one of the BBC\u2019s most-watched comedies of the decade. Paul Feig attempted to remake Motherland in the States <\/a>but the ABC pilot didn\u2019t make it to series.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to just do Kevin again\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Motherland\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBBC\/Merman<\/p>\n

\n\tThe secret to separating the spin-off also lay in the ensemble, Walsh added. \u201cWe had to create a new ensemble of people who hadn\u2019t been in Motherland,\u201d she added. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to just do Kevin [Paul Ready\u2019s character in Motherland] again. We had to really dig deep for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe pointed to characters like Mal and JJ, played by Samuel Anderson and Ekow Quartey, who play a dad and step-dad of the same teenager who \u201care a parenting couple, and we wanted that to be the dynamic,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cIt felt like a really fun angle,\u201d she added. \u201cWe were trying to find different approaches through parenting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe team were speaking at the Comedy Festival after James Corden and Ruth Jones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking at the BAFTAs last week, Walsh said her dream Amandaland guest<\/a> is Melania Trump. \u201cShe\u2019s America\u2019s Amanda,\u201d joked Walsh on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BAFTA-winning creative team behind Amandaland have revealed secrets behind separating the hit BBC spin-off from its origin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[211889,3412,211890,18,117,211891,19,17,211892,211893,211894,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-484563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-amandaland","9":"tag-bbc","10":"tag-bbc-comedy-festival","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-holly-walsh","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-laurence-rickard","17":"tag-merman","18":"tag-motherland","19":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116573854295842901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}