OK, I’m putting it right out there. Comedy on TV this year has been about as disappointing as the sagyy jumper I was given on December 24. Guz Khan was too sentimental in Stuffed, Mammoth was so retro I might as well have been watching a 1970s sitcom when comedies were unironically funny. Thank goodness then, that Amandaland saved my Christmas.
This one-off special of the Motherland spin-off starring Lucy Punch as divorced posh mum Amanda shouldn’t, by rights, have worked. It made the textbook error of taking the core cast out of their usual environment (see Frasier) and plunging them into an alien setting. And yet somehow the cast, aided by writers Holly Walsh and Laurence Rickard pulled it off.
It helped of course that there was a brilliant cast as Amanda headed off with mum Felicity – Joanna Lumley – to spend Christmas with Aunt Joan, played by Jennifer Saunders. So there was already the instant thrill of seeing Abfab stars Lumley and Saunders reunited. Bolly all round.
Saunders’ Aunt Joan was the classic eccentric old aristo, living in a crumbly Cotswold pile with a big dog helping itself to food off the dinner plates whenever they liked. There was frosty history of course between sisters Joan and Felicity which gave the show a touch of emotional heft.
Somehow the plot contrived to get other cast members along for the ride. Harlesden neighbour Mal (Samuel Anderson) had been press-ganged as chauffeur, while fellow schoolgates mum Anne (Philippa Dunne) was picked up at Heathrow en route after her plane was delayed. It was a shame that Peter Serafinowicz, Amanda’s boyfriend in the first series, was absent, but, hey, you can’t have everything.
The main plotline was about some mysterious photos surfacing that suggested that Amanda’s dad was Mick Jagger. Suddenly it was obviously true. Amanda was even wearing a flouncy white blouse similar to the one Jagger wore at the free Hyde Park concert after Brian Jones had died.
Was the sordid truth going to come out and spoil their festivities? What would Aunty Joan say? Would Felicity fess up? Meanwhile there was something of a frisson as Amanda tumbled into a Ha Ha (posh word for ditch) and was rescued by manly Mal. I’ve always thought they were a mismatch made in heaven. Maybe it was convenient Peter Serafinowicz’s character was not there.
Amandaland had everything. Wonderful cast, smart lines and gags galore. Apparently there was also something featuring someone called Mrs Brown on BBC One later that evening. Sod that. Amandaland was the magical fairy on top of my personal Christmas tree this year.
Watch Amandaland on iPlayer.
picture credit: BBC/Merman/Natalie Seery
