MOTHERLAND, BBC2, 10pm
MUMSY stuff gives me the boak. Reading about this new comedy I was immediately left cold and queasy: a sitcom about the stresses of “middle-class motherhood”? No thanks.
And then I watched it and loved it, because the glorious, furious, stressed-out mother in this is clearly also nauseated by the horrors of motherhood.
Anna Maxwell Martin plays Julia, a frantically busy working mother who goes through hell trying to take the brats to school, only to find it’s closed for half-term. Her mum is refusing to babysit any longer and Amanda, the soulless blonde Queen of the Alpha Mummies at the trendy cafe admires Julia for being able to hold down a job and simply “switch off” her family. Oh, I would just “hate myself too much”, she simpers with silky poison. I was surprised at how much I loved this, given the recent glut of miserable sitcom pilots, but this one is written by Graham Linehan and Sharon Horgan. Enough said.
THE HAIRY BIKERS’ CHICKEN AND EGG, BBC2, 8pm
EVERYONE loves chicken, the Hairy Bikers tell us, and it’s found in everything from fast food to fancy French cordon bleu. In this new series, the duo set out across the world to find out why we love it so much and to explore the best chicken and egg dishes. They promise us a “finger lickin’ chickeny adventure”.
Tonight’s episode focuses on dishes in Britain, a country which devours 1.3 billion chickens and 120 million eggs a year. But it’s not a place known for culinary splendour and so the Hairy Bikers are forced to trot out dazzling dishes like, er, roast chicken.
They compensate by tagging on lots of chatter and social history which, to be honest, is necessary as this series can’t stand alone on just chicken and egg. So if you watch this you’re watching for the banter between the lads and their pals. “It’s flippin’ lovely so trust us! We’re chicken doctors!”
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