Motherland – the highly acclaimed one off comedy from the pens of Sharon Horgan, Holly Walsh, Graham Linehan and Helen Linehan – will be returning for a full series on BBC Two next year.

Following huge ratings for the pilot episode, shown recently to great acclaim, the sitcom about mothers navigating their way through the trials and traumas of parenting will return for six episodes, courtesy of Horgan’s production company Merman and Linehan’s Delightful Industries.

The project reunited Horgan with Holly Walsh, who co-wrote the criminally underrated (and sorely missed) Dead Boss back in 2012, which also starred Sharon, and follows Helen and Graham’s well documented battle against abortion laws in their native Ireland following their heartfelt public disclosures last year.

With a top notch cast, including Diane Morgan, Anna Maxwell Martin (Brian Pern, Free Agents), Lucy Punch (Hot Fuzz, Into the Woods), Paul Ready (Utopia, Pulling), Terry Mynott (Toast of London, Very Important People) and Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Lab Rats, The IT Crowd and many more), and an incredible writing team with Graham Linehan directing for good measure, the pilot was a surefire success and TVO is delighted there’s plenty more where it came from!

Graham told the BBC Press Office: “This is a world that seems to be brimming with comic possibilities and yet somehow under-explored, and I can’t think of better people, behind the cameras and in front of them, to be doing it with.”

Horgan added: “I am thrilled and relieved to have finally found a good use for my 13 years of mothering. Apologies in advance to the brave women and men of the school run.”

The show will return in 2017. We’ll bring you more news as we get it.