5 MINUTES WITH...
Sharon Horgan, 47, who co-wrote the very excellent Motherland on BBC2, which is back for a full series following last year’s pilot success…
Motherland is a M (brilliant) sitcom all about navigating the trials and traumas of middle-class parenthood… The BBC told us it was OK to show bad mothering on screen, and that it would be funny! I’ve been asked, “What about Fatherland?” but, generally, unfortunately it’s still an area populated by women. Although we all moan about the fact that there aren’t enough dads on the school run, and when they do show up we’re like, “What the f*** do you want?!” The comedy surrounds the “tribe” of Julia [played by Anna Maxwell Martin], Liz [Diane Morgan] and Kevin [Paul Ready], versus the “alpha mums”… It’s kind of like a school situation where you’ve got the “cool gang” and you need to find your tribe. Our tribe have found each other, and they can’t get in with the more successful mums. It’s nerds versus jocks. You have two daughters; did you find your “tribe” with the mums at school? I was as nervous turning up for my kids’ first day as I was for my own first day at school. But then you find your “tribe”, and two of the best friends I have are the mums that I found. How is the school drop-off for you? I’m scared to drop off! The day after the [Motherland] pilot came out [in September 2016] I went scurrying in under a cloak of darkness, and then I remembered I wasn’t in it and no one was going to associate me with it any way. Since then – because I told them that I’d co-written it – some mums specifically think some storylines are about them. They all want to be Liz. I’d love to be a Liz, but I’m definitely a Julia… Is Motherland quite close to your own life? Well, recently it was the autumn party at my daughter’s school and a mum texted me going, “I’m on the door, so if you want I can drop your kid back at your house afterwards.” I was going, “Could you go one better? Can they stay over?” I think, just push your luck. But always pay back. Keep it in the bank and then it will work out.