Motherland: Last Christmas, review: the delicious dark heart of festive comedy

“It’s the busiest day of the year for ambulances,” explained the ever-helpful Kevin in the Motherland Christmas Special (BBC Two). “You’ve got your suicides, your hypothermia and your overeating. Then you’ve got your knife wounds, your alcohol poisoning and your burns, not to mention your pre-existing medical conditions.” Cheers, Kev. And God bless us, every one.

The sharply observed school-gates sitcom returned for a seasonal special and was as deliciously dark-hearted as ever. Motherland is co-written by Sharon Horgan, whose creations always walk the tightrope between comedy and tragedy. Here she – along with co-writers Holly Walsh, Helen Serafinowicz and Barunka O'Shaughnessy – repeated the trick in a skilfully paced half-hour which became genuinely affecting in the home stretch.

School was out for the holidays, so parents were competing over gifts for the teachers, while surreptitiously binning the ghastly decorations their little darlings had hand-crafted. Julia (Anna Maxwell Martin) had a full house, with visiting grandparents expecting to be waited on hand-and-foot.

She’d invited Kevin (Paul Ready) – always the most devoted mum in Motherland – to save him from the fellow divorced dads at the local Ibis hotel, aka The Abyss. Kevin also happened to be a one-man Yuletide whirlwind. He loves an “event meal” – remember his pig-in-a-pit during the country cottage episode? – so was soon whipping up a Christmas feast with a Persian twist. As if Julia’s in-laws weren’t flatulent enough.

Spoilers below

Liz (Diane Morgan) joined them after being let down by her useless ex. “I’d Instagram that lunch table, if I was a d---,” said Liz. Over the road, Meg (Tanya Moodie) hit the Bailey’s when her husband bought her a ￡400 hat she hated but which apparently looked good on a "horse-riding Princess Margaret on The Crown”. Meanwhile, alpha mum Amanda (Lucy Punch) spent the day with her smug ex, his secretly pregnant new wife and her pass-agg mother, Felicity (Joanna Lumley, revelling in her villainy). Punch expertly portrayed the fragility behind Amanda’s facade of perfection. When she finally bit back, it was an air-punch moment.

Then came the gut-punch. Julia’s mother, Marion (Ellie Haddington), had quietly died in her armchair – albeit while wearing a VR headset and climbing Kilimanjaro, digitally at least. Weeping in her suddenly incongruous festive onesie, Julia admitted that the last thing she’d said to her was “You ungrateful old cabbage”. Maxwell Martin delivered a perfectly tuned performance, conveying the love beneath the long-suffering snipes.

From flippant gags about Phillip Schofield queue-jumping to heartfelt messages about life, death and how friends become your family, this was a welcome antidote to more syrupy festive fare. Good luck with your own event meal and try not to overload the ambulances.