IF you have got young kids then you are bound to grin and groan in equal measure at Motherland.

The BBC Two show is the new sitcom by Graham Linehan about the parental politics, mum group cliques and the general chaos that ensues around having one or more little ones running around breaking everything.

Graham Linehan is behind some of Britain’s best loved comedies like Father Ted, Black Books and The IT Crowd so you know you are in safe hands. And he collaborated with his wife Helen, the sister of actor Peter Serafinowicz, on this project to bring their authentic experience to the table of bringing up two children.

You do tend to wonder what viewers without kids will make of it.

But, from the daily struggle of getting kids anywhere on time to to the hell of pre-school parties, there is a lot of insight here.

You can imagine the collective sigh of relief from thousands of parents that, yes, many other people are going through the same thing. Anna Maxwell Martin is great in the lead role as flustered working mum Julia whose support network does not really exist.

Her husband is never really present and her mum does not want to know because she is enjoying her retirement too much.

And so Julia struggles to win the approval of the ‘alpha mums’ including the shallow, judgemental comedy gold character that is Amanda (Lucy Punch).

For all the dads reading this do not worry because we get a look in too through the insecure eyes of Kevin, the stay-at-home dad who is always trying – and failing – to impress everyone.

Liz (Diane Morgan, from Charlie Brooker’s Wipe series) on the other hand has given up trying to impress anyone – or get on the alpha mum table – and has resorted to cope with parenting anyway she can.

It may be a gentle sitcom by Linehan’s standards but for parents Motherland has bucketloads of home truths and comes recommended.

All episodes of the first series of Motherland are currently on BBC iPlayer