Calls for an Ann Droid Christmas special have flooded social media after the BBC confirmed that Mrs Brown’s Boys will not air its usual festive and New Year’s instalments this season, following star Brendan O’Carroll’s surgery for a fractured jaw.
Fans of comedian Diane Morgan’s new show have been making their feelings known loudly and clearly online, arguing that the BBC has a ready-made opportunity to fill the prime Christmas slot with something a little different. The show, it turns out, already has the audience numbers to back up that argument.
The Ann Droid Christmas special fans are demanding
Posts on Twitter/X have ranged from polite requests to outright pleas. ‘As there is no boring Mrs Browns Boys this christmas, time to get Diane Morgan on the phone! Ann Droid xmas show special PLEASE!!!’ one person wrote. Another added: ‘Can we PLEASE have AnnDroid Christmas and New Year special instead that actually is funny.’ A third put it simply: ‘thankfully Mrs Browns Boys Christmas specials have been cancelled, I suggest an Ann droid special to replace it.’
The clamour has not been limited to a solo outing for Ann Droid either. Some viewers have called for a festive double bill pairing the show with Amandaland, the Motherland spin-off starring Lucy Punch in the titular role. ‘If the BBC have any sense they’ll be getting these two on the phone IMMEDIATELY,’ one account posted, which prompted another user to suggest the crossover be titled Amandadroid.
Whether the BBC acts on any of that is, for now, an open question. What is less in doubt is that Ann Droid has already proven it can pull in a crowd.
Strong debut figures behind the Ann Droid Christmas special push
According to Radio Times, the first episode of Ann Droid attracted 7.6 million viewers within 28 days of broadcast, making it the BBC’s second biggest new scripted launch of the year to date, behind only Small Prophets. Those are the kind of numbers that tend to make commissioning conversations a good deal easier.
The series itself is a BBC six-part production made by Boffola Pictures and Witchcraft Industries for BBC iPlayer and BBC One. It is co-written by Diane Morgan and Sarah Kendall, and stars Sue Johnston, Diane Morgan and Paul Ready. For a show that arrived with relatively little of the institutional weight that Mrs Brown’s Boys has built up over many years, those viewing figures represent a proper statement of intent.
The fan campaign for an Ann Droid Christmas special is, in part, a straightforward expression of enthusiasm for a show that has landed well. But it is also a reflection of how the festive television landscape feels this year, with a long-running anchor of the BBC’s Christmas schedule suddenly absent and a gap that many viewers clearly feel needs filling with something they actually want to watch.
Mrs Brown’s Boys and what comes next
O’Carroll himself addressed the situation in an Instagram post announcing the cancellation of this year’s Christmas and New Year’s specials. He said he has been ‘talking with the BBC about getting Mrs Brown’s Boys back on the screen in 2027’, suggesting the show is paused rather than finished. For fans of Ann Droid, though, that future return date may feel beside the point: the slot is open now, and their preferred replacement is right there.
Whether Diane Morgan and Sarah Kendall are currently fielding any calls from the BBC about a festive edition of the show, nobody is saying. What is clear is that the audience appetite is there, and a series that became the BBC’s second biggest new scripted launch of the year is not short of reasons to make a return visit before the year is out.
Related Posts
