As Motherland fans gear up for the show to return for a Christmas special, they can\u2019t wait to find out what their beloved characters have all been up to.<\/p>\n
Motherland: Last Christmas<\/a> is set to be one of the most-watched specials over the festive period when it airs tonight.<\/p>\n To get fans excited for the new episode, read Radio Times magazine<\/strong>\u2018s exclusive interview with Diane Morgan and Paul Ready, who play Liz and Kevin respectively.<\/p> We love the mums in Motherland because they aren\u2019t perfect, they are authentically flawed\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Diane Morgan:<\/strong> Every day when I\u2019m walking the dog, I\u2019ll bump into mums on the school run and they\u2019ll all say, \u201cMotherland is so true to life. I know all those characters. They exist. They stand at the school gates every day.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Ready:<\/strong> It\u2019s a comfort for the Kevins of the world.<\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> The Kevins are finally represented. But it\u2019s really nice. I think there\u2019s a comfort in it, isn\u2019t there? Mums are always meant to be perfect. And we show that it\u2019s fine not to be.<\/p>\n Diane, do people assume you have children because of the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> I think I\u2019ve been fairly open about not having kids and never wanting kids! I get these two lovely lads in the show, who play my sons, but I can\u2019t imagine having kids. It just feels so alien to me. Hopefully it doesn\u2019t come across on the show!<\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> It doesn\u2019t come across. I\u2019m always a bit like, \u201cOh, God, I\u2019d quite like a bit of Liz\u2019s parenting style.\u201d<\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> Yeah. Throw a pound coin into a living room, for five minutes\u2019 peace. Apparently, people started doing that.<\/p>\n What can you say about the Christmas special?<\/strong><\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> Very little. I\u2019ve almost forgotten everything that happens. My brain\u2019s completely deleted everything. So bear with us.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> Hang on, didn\u2019t we film it last week?<\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> Yes, but it\u2019s still gone!<\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> Kevin\u2019s living in a hotel. He\u2019s trying to sort through his divorce and he\u2019s looking forward to having a Christmas eating turkey crisps from the vending machine. But luckily Julia [Anna Maxwell Martin\u2019s character] invites him around for Christmas dinner.<\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> Which is what I do. Everything\u2019s sort of gone badly with Liz\u2019s life, so she ends up at Julia\u2019s as well \u2013 with hilarious consequences.<\/p>\n This kind of big blended Christmas sounds intense \u2014 have your own family Christmasses ever resembled that kind of Motherland chaos?<\/strong><\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> Not really. It\u2019s quite boring for me. You visit your relatives. You do a few days at your partner\u2019s family. It\u2019s never been as mad and blended as this Motherland special. The real question is: who gets Christmas Day?<\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> That\u2019s a nightmare.<\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> It is, isn\u2019t it? Because you feel a bit snubbed if you don\u2019t get Christmas Day.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> Whatever you do, you can\u2019t win. To be honest I would quite happily spend Christmas with Di and Anna instead!<\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> We should have just done that.<\/p>\n Diane, you often play slightly blunt characters like Liz, while Paul, you\u2019ve played a few beta males like Kevin. Do either of you worry about being typecast?<\/strong><\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> Actually, my fear when I started doing Motherland [in 2016] was about being boxed into a particular kind of character. I think I\u2019d stop acting if I was always playing a similar part.<\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> I remember seeing Paul turn up at the very first read-through we did of Motherland, and I couldn\u2019t believe that they\u2019d cast him as Kevin, because I\u2019d only seen him play a murderer in Utopia [below]. And I thought, \u201cHow is he going to play Kevin? He\u2019s really miscast.\u201d And now I think, \u201cHow did he ever play a murderer? He\u2019s Kevin!\u201d I think you\u2019ve proved your range, Paul.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> I can play murderers, or Kevin.<\/p>\n Paul, you come from a theatre background, and Diane, you\u2019re from comedy. Do you learn things from each other?<\/strong><\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> Obviously Paul\u2019s learnt a lot from me.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> I have learnt a lot from you.<\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> I do feel that working with Paul and Anna \u2013 I hate to say this in front of them \u2013 they\u2019re so good that I hope that by osmosis, I\u2019m taking some of it in.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> One of the things that Anna does, which took me a while to get used to \u2013 and it\u2019s good to talk about her while she\u2019s not here because I can get a few things off my chest. One of the things she does is talk right up to the call of \u201cAction\u201d.<\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> It\u2019s so interesting, that, isn\u2019t it? Because she does do that. And I\u2019m often thinking, \u201cI\u2019m trying to remember the line! What is it?!\u201d But she can just go \u201cBabble-babble-babble\u201d. Then it\u2019s \u201cAction!\u201d and she\u2019s right into it.<\/p>\n Are you happy watching yourselves when the show airs on TV?<\/strong><\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> I can\u2019t bear it. Because if I see something I do that I hate, there\u2019s nothing I can do about it. Watching yourself \u2013 I don\u2019t know what you\u2019re like, Paul \u2013 I always think, \u201cGod, why did I do that? What am I doing with my hand? I must stand up straighter.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> Do you say it out loud as you\u2019re watching?<\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> Absolutely. There should be a version you can have where, if you press the red button, you get our commentary over the top of it.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> When I watch things back, I go, \u201cThat\u2019s not what I thought I was doing. Why didn\u2019t somebody tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n How will you know when it\u2019s time to bring Motherland to a close?<\/strong><\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> I\u2019d hate to have us watching ourselves age on-screen. That\u2019s my main fear. I\u2019m very shallow. I\u2019ll come back in series eight, having had some work done, but it went a bit wrong.<\/p>\n Paul:<\/strong> I think it does have a shelf life. As the kids age, for sure.<\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> It\u2019s always tempting to have things go on and on and on. But if it did end, I\u2019d want it to end on a high, rather than dragging it out for years and years.<\/p>\n Motherland is getting an American remake, courtesy of Bridesmaids director Paul Feig. Who do you think would be a good fit to play your characters?<\/strong><\/p>\n Diane:<\/strong> Do you think they\u2019ll be slightly better-looking versions of us? They always are, aren\u2019t they? Less grubby, better hair, but I love that. Like the American Office. There\u2019s something so mundane about where it\u2019s set in Slough, in an ordinary office. I didn\u2019t get that from the American version. It still looks like quite a nice place to work. That gloss sort of spoils it for me. I like for comedies to be a bit grubby and mundane. For me, it just makes them funnier.<\/p>\n Looking for something else to watch? Check out more of our Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Christmas double issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0<\/strong>Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n By Huw Fullerton Published: Friday, 23 December 2022 at 12:00 am This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. As Motherland fans gear up for the show to return for a Christmas special, they can\u2019t wait to find out what their beloved characters have all been up to. Motherland: Last Christmas is set to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27704,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/motherland-has-a-shelf-life-says-kevin-star-paul-ready-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/motherland-has-a-shelf-life-says-kevin-star-paul-ready-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/motherland-has-a-shelf-life-says-kevin-star-paul-ready-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/motherland-has-a-shelf-life-says-kevin-star-paul-ready-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/motherland-has-a-shelf-life-says-kevin-star-paul-ready-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/motherland-has-a-shelf-life-says-kevin-star-paul-ready-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/motherland-has-a-shelf-life-says-kevin-star-paul-ready-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Huw Fullerton Published: Friday, 23 December 2022 at 12:00 am This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. As Motherland fans gear up for the show to return for a Christmas special, they can\u2019t wait to find out what their beloved characters have all been up to. Motherland: Last Christmas is set to…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/05\/22375812-high_res-motherland-series-3-529902f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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