If God really does love a trier, he\u2019d absolutely adore Amandaland\u2019s Amanda Hughes. The former owner of west London boutique Hygge Tygge may be in her idea of the gutter \u2013 she\u2019s a single mum recently relocated from a spacious house in Chiswick to a Harlesden maisonette (which she has to clean herself) and currently working in sales for a high-street kitchen company \u2013 but she\u2019s fixated on those stars. Don\u2019t be fooled by the outrageous laziness and negligence she brings to her actual job; when it comes to her true calling of becoming a successful influencer in order to promote her bland lifestyle brand Senuous, she\u2019s really putting the hours in.<\/p>\n
In this sense, Amanda slots neatly into a lineage of British comedy icons; file her next to the delusional, narcissistic, indefatigable likes of Alan Partridge and David Brent. Yet Lucy Punch\u2019s character \u2013 who initially appeared in the modern-classic sitcom Motherland before landing her own spin-off \u2013 gets an easier ride than her peers. At first she was Motherland\u2019s resident antagonist: a smug, slinky blonde securely installed at the top of the school mum food chain who spent her time exploiting her primary acolyte Anne (Philippa Dunne) and patronising permanently harried protagonist Julia (Anna Maxwell Martin). Later, we witnessed her divorce and dysfunctional relationship with her judgmental mother (Joanna Lumley). As the mask fell, her likability ballooned. By the end we were encouraged to think of Amanda as more of a flawed striver than a boo-hiss baddie.<\/p>\n
In her own show, now back for series two, she\u2019s even more pitiful and sympathetic, fruitlessly pursuing a social media following via a series of desperate collabs and stunts. This is one reason why Amandaland is never as delectably spiky as Motherland, but there are a few other factors too. Whereas its impeccably observed predecessor made hay from the surreal stresses of juggling work and family, here the kids are older and child-rearing\u2019s logistical nightmares are largely over.<\/p>\n
If Motherland\u2019s centre of gravity was the school drop-off, Amandaland shifts the parental spats to the sidelines of their teenagers\u2019 football training sessions. Anne remains in the picture, joined by Fi (Rochenda Sandall) and her celebrity chef partner Della (Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney)<\/strong>, who are the mums of Amanda\u2019s daughter\u2019s bestie Morten (Anya McKenna-Bruce). Amanda\u2019s downstairs neighbour Mal (Samuel Anderson) is the footy coach, while his son Ned\u2019s stepdad JJ (Ekow Quartey) \u2013 keep up! \u2013 also makes regular appearances. In this second series, Ned\u2019s no-nonsense mum Abs (Big Boys\u2019 Harriet Webb) becomes a constant presence too.<\/p>\n The social aspect does feel a bit forced now (do Abs, JJ and Mal all really need to watch Ned play or do they have a joint phobia of free time?). And, while there is some spot-on skewering of the sharp-elbowed middle-classes \u2013 Amanda is delighted that her neglected corner of London is finally gentrifying when a trendy coffee shop opens \u2013 the show is increasingly steeped in soothing sitcom artifice.<\/p>\n Amandaland \u2013 whose first series was mostly the work of Motherland writers Barunka O\u2019Shaughnessy, Helen Serafinowicz and Holly Walsh and is now penned exclusively by Walsh and Horrible Histories\u2019 Laurence Rickard \u2013 has become the sort of comedy where you know exactly what everyone is going to say before they\u2019ve said it.<\/p>\n To its credit, that\u2019s partly because the main characters are so firmly established, yet the script is also full of predictable wisecracking and arbitrary plotting. Some of the secondary storylines (Fi buys a new vehicle to facilitate her dog-walking business and promptly transforms into a white-van man; Mal and JJ battle over whether to use gadgets or old-fashioned knowhow when building a shed) may as well have been picked out of an old hat lurking in a dusty cupboard in the BBC comedy department.<\/p>\n Yet other plotlines, such as Anne becoming an inadvertent Instagram phenomenon, are immensely satisfying in the way only a show rooted in tried-and-tested comic convention can be. And counteracting all the cliches is Punch\u2019s mesmerisingly convincing portrayal of Amanda. Lumley is also magnetic as her mother, Felicity, a Sloanier and (slightly) more sober Patsy from Ab Fab. Dunne puts in an equally bravura performance as the beleaguered Anne, whose flustered wittering I could listen to all day. It\u2019s a cliche of popular fiction, but these are characters you genuinely want to spend time with, even if they are doing relatively dull things such as filming themselves jogging or getting an eye test.<\/p>\n As with the first series, in which Amanda eventually rejects her wealthy new boyfriend\u2019s offer to move her and her kids into his Wapping penthouse, this second outing presents our hero with a moral dilemma. It\u2019s part of the show\u2019s continued insistence that beyond the entitlement and snobbery, Amanda does have a heart. Not, perhaps, the most mercilessly funny angle, but an undeniably comforting one \u2013 and Amandaland is worth stepping back into for that feeling alone.<\/p>\n Amandaland series two aired on BBC One and is on iPlayer in the UK and Stan in Australia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If God really does love a trier, he\u2019d absolutely adore Amandaland\u2019s Amanda Hughes. 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