I wish i was a PERFECT mother

L cy Punch on why she’s not a million miles away from the motley bunch o f mums in her hit show Motherland

She may be a beautiful platinum blonde with an enviable figure and a successful career spanning both Hollywood and British TV, but Lucy Punch feels it too – that niggle at the school gates that other mums are doing everything better than she is. They’ve discovered the secret to having it all, it seems, while she feels like she’s dropping every ball she’s juggling.

It’s that sensation, familiar to so many mums, along with cringeworthy laugh-out-loud moments, that have helped catapult BBC2 comedy Motherland to success. Created by Catastrophe’s Sharon Horgan and now back for a second series, it examines the jealousies, rivalries and insecurities among a group of mums at a typical school, with Lucy cast as acerbic Alpha Mum Amanda, who has the biggest house, largest car and best-behaved children.

When we speak, Lucy has just dropped her own four-year- old son Rex at pre-school. He was just a baby when she f i r st appeared in Motherland in 2016, but now she’s a regular at the school gates. ‘The show is so relatable and familiar to everyone who’s ever been there,’ she says. ‘There’s all the juggling with work and childcare, and there’s always that perfect mother – often there are one or two. I secretly wish it was me. They’re perfectly turned out with perfect children, but no one can really be like that, without any flaws, can they?’

She admits that even as she was filming the series, she was living an imperfect life. ‘My home’s in America, but when I was filming I stayed in London with my son and enrolled him in a different school,’ she says. ‘He was jet-lagged and not sleeping, so I was rattled and exhausted. I was in the perfect mood for the show. I’m fascinated by how other working mums do it and look so normal.’

In this second series Amanda’s getting divorced after her husband Johnny (Terry Mynott) suggested an open marriage.

It’s a completely amicable conscious uncoupling, however, and he’s even agreed to bankroll her new business, a home furnishings store. But the joy of Motherland is that no one is a winner. All the characters – including Amand a’s d e fa c t o deputy Anne (Philippa Dunne), permanently frazzled Julia (Anna Maxwell Martin) and single mum Liz (Diane Morgan) – are flawed and unhappy.

‘Amanda has split up with her husband but she’s still trying to pretend her life is perfect,’ says Lucy. ‘It’s quite admirable that she’s trying to get on with things and reinvent herself, but she’s very controlling and needs everything to be just so, which is something I think you have to let go of as a working mother.

‘Amanda has the furthest to fall of all the characters, which makes it so satisfying when that does, inevitably, start to happen. She slowly disintegrates as this series progresses.’

People often stop Lucy in the street to tell her how much they love to hatete AmandaAmanda. ‘The show has a very British feel because it’s an “ugly” comedy, where none of the characters are particularly likeable,’ she says. ‘In the States comedy characters tend to be nerdy, while British characters are more dysfunctional. What’s great with Motherland is that all these characters are stuck together whether they like it or not. Once your kids start school you’re thrown back into all those dynamics you thought you’d left behind you when you left. You find yourself hanging out with people you’d never choose to spend time with, having to fit in all over again. And you have to make it work because you’re stuck with these people until your children leave the school.’

Lucy, 41, who refuses to name Rex’s father, relishes playing characters everyone loves to hate. ‘I enjoy playing baddies, which is lucky as I think my beady little eyes and squishy little face help,’ she laughs. ‘There’s something in my physicality that lends itself to looking scary. As an actor you’re limited by your appearance, and I obviously look nasty. But I like to think it shows I’m a good actor because I don’t think I’m nasty in real life.’

Raised in south-west London, she first fell in love with the profession at her private school and soon found work in the sitcom Let Them Eat Cake, followed by episodes of Poirot and Midsomer Murders and a role as a receptionist in Doc Martin. In 2006 she moved to LA to work on a TV show, The Class, but when that was cancelled the work dried up. She was contemplating giving it all up – her mother had suggested becoming a chiropodist – when Nicole Kidman dropped out oof Woody Allen’s 22010 film You Will MMeet A Tall Dark S tranger and Lucy wwon her scene-stealinng role of a prostitute. T he phone ha sn’t stoopped ringing since.

‘Because I work all ovver, I’ve become preoc cupied with how woomen manage,’ she sayys. ‘I’ve just bought a houuse in LA with my partnerpartner, but for tthe first few years of my son’s life I was travelling a lot. I didn’t want to get a nanny – it was just me, my partner and my mum. Sometimes I think if I’d stayed put, or got some permanent help, that would have been better but you’re constantly figuring out how to do it best.

‘ I think that’s the thing that redeems the parents of Motherland. It’s admirable to try to be a present parent and maintain a career without going to pieces. Even though the characters are flawed, they’re all, like most of us, just trying to do their best. Quite often they get it wrong, but even when they get it right they swiftly mess it up again. There’s probably relief for people in seeing the reality of parenting. Everyone is failing!’