Motherland star 'gives up' on learning to drive after 'spending so much money'

Diane Morgan admits she has more in common with Mandy Carter, her BBC alter ego.

After rising to fame as the deadpan and charming Philomena Cunk, starring in Motherland as Liz, Diane Morgan has provided BBC2 viewers with plenty of belly laughs as the quirky Mandy.

Though Mandy is loosely inspired from a character of the same name in Sky's show Rovers, Diane says that, much like Mandy, she's experienced plenty of chaos before kicking off her acting career. Diane often draws from personal experience - especially when Mandy’s day jobs go spectacularly wrong.

“A lot of them are inspired by things that have happened to me. I’ve had a number of jobs that I’ve been fired from,” Diane says. “Some I haven’t even lasted an hour in. Acting’s about the only job I’ve lasted more than a week in. So I have to stick with it.”

Even Mandy’s lack of driving skills mirrors Diane’s own. “I haven’t passed my driving test. Although I have done 1000s of hours of lessons. I just don’t think I’m one of nature’s natural drivers,” Diane says. “I’m waiting for self-driving cars to kick in now.”

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Diane, 49, has made no secret of her trouble with driving - she has yet to pass her driver's license. Back in 2020, she revealed she'd spent a whopping amount of money to pass her test.

"I've been learning to drive for about a year now," she told the iPaper at the time. "Automatic not manual, obviously." She added: "I've spent so much money learning to drive I could have got a private chauffeur by now."

In 2022, she even took to X to ask her fans for advice, writing: "Serious question: can anyone recommend an intensive residential driving course? (for automatic not manual). It’s for me so they need to be very patient!" But it may be a while until she's finally behind the wheel.

In the meantime, Mandy's newest season features more of its gloriously unhinged heroine, Mandy Carter, stumbling through yet another round of ill-fitting jobs and baffling life choices.

“There’s more of the same Mandy madness,” Diane Morgan says. “She’s still being forced to do jobs she doesn’t like and isn’t good at.” It’s a formula that’s struck a bizarre chord with viewers - and unexpectedly sparked lifestyle changes.

“I’ve heard that at least four of them have turned vegetarian after watching an episode of the last series where Mandy gets a job in an abattoir,” Diane says. “So that’s good. Especially for cows.”

Why does Mandy connect so deeply? “I suppose it’s always nice to see someone have a worse time than you and still come through without serious mental health issues of HR getting involved.”

And don’t expect a redemption arc anytime soon. “Nothing would happen if she suddenly could do a job well,” Diane says, “It would just be Mandy sitting at a desk. She’s learned nothing. Just keeps making mistakes, like all of us. That’s what makes her charming.”

Off-screen, Diane channels her values into the show. “We decided to use only cruelty-free make-up products that haven’t been tested on animals,” she says.

“We warned all the actors what we were doing and none of them had a problem with it. Most were amazed that some products aren’t cruelty-free. Some well-known brands still test on animals and people aren’t aware of that.”

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