Lucy Punch has revealed she was too scared to read reviews for the BBC series Amandaland, as it marked her first leading role. The 47-year-old actress admitted to having 'a lot of fear' about how the spin-off from Motherland would be received.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Punch said she expected disappointment from fans missing the original characters. 'People love to hate Amanda. Putting that character front of centre, would it work? Would people care about her? I genuinely had a lot of fear about how it would be received,' she explained.
When Amandaland launched in February, Punch was too nervous to read reviews. Only after positive feedback did her agent share some with her. She described the spin-off as a 'huge deal' and felt 'so grateful' it had happened.
The BBC recently released a trailer for the Amandaland Christmas special, which sees Amanda (Punch), her mother Felicity (Joanna Lumley), and friend Anne (Philippa Dunne) visiting aunt Joan (Jennifer Saunders) at her country house. The special follows the first series, which aired earlier this year.
Amandaland is written by Holly Walsh, Helen Serafinowicz, Barunka O'Shaughnessy, and Laurence Rickard. It is a spin-off of Motherland, which ran from 2016 to 2022.
