Shows from Johnny Vegas, Sharon Horgan and Graham Linehan

BBC Two is to showcase five new comedy pilots this summer, including comedies from Johnny Vegas and Graham Linehan and Sharon Horgan.

The announcement was made as part of the BBC's landmark sitcom season marking 60 years since Hancock's Half Hour transferred to television.

Motherland is a comedy about navigating middle-class motherhood, directed by Linehan and co-written with his wife Helen, plus Horgan and her regular writing partner, stand-up Holly Walsh.

Last month Linehan told US broadcaster Ken Plume that while he found it harder to work with other writers, 'that's not to say we haven't had success.

'I'm working on something at the moment with Holly Walsh and Sharon Horgan and my wife called Motherland that's going very well, we've written a really good first draft and that's turned out nice'.

Walsh recently joined her co-writers in becoming a parent and parenting has been a recurring theme in Horgan's recent television work.

In 2012, she made the Channel 4 documentary How To Be A Good Mother, while in the same year, she and Walsh collaborated on the US pilot Bad Mom, in which she co-starred, about a woman who offloads her children for her mother to raise.

The London-born Irish writer is also developing a sitcom with Aisling Bea for Channel 4 about a woman trying to find her real father.

And last year's acclaimed second series of Catastrophe, which she co-wrote and co-starred in with Rob Delaney, began with them adjusting to starting a family.

Motherland is a co-production between Linehan's Delightful Industries and Horgan's Merman Films and will be produced by Richard Boden, who previously worked with Linehan on Count Arthur Strong, The IT Crowd and The Walshes.

Vegas stars in Home From Home as a family man who has long cherished the dream of buying a lodge in the Lake District.

When he finally achieves his ambition, the years of scrimping and saving all feel worth it. Until that is, he meets his neighbours.

Co-starring Gavin & Stacey's Joanna Page with Emilia Fox and Adam James, Home From Home is written by Coronation Street scribes Chris Fewtrell and Simon Crowther and produced in-house at the BBC by Rebecca Papworth, with Gregor Sharp executive producing.

Details of the other three pilots have yet to be disclosed.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 10 Mar 2016