Bolton’s Diane Morgan on Ai, ageing and her new comedy Ann Droid

And she stars alongside the nation’s favourite Sue Johnston in what promises to be a brilliant series, and a welcome throwback to relatable sitcoms that helped make the BBC the home of British comedy.

Imagine it’s 2029, and robots have been rolled out to support the NHS and care for the elderly whose children aren’t around to look after them.

This is the premise of Diane new BBC One madcap comedy Ann Droid, in which the 50-year-old Motherland actress portrays an outdated robot, Linda, who is assigned to a grieving widow called Sue, played by The Royle Family star Sue Johnston, 82.

L-R: Sue (Sue Johnston) and Linda (Diane Morgan) (Image: BBC/Boffola Pictures/GaryMoyes)

In the six-part series, penned by Morgan and Sarah Kendall, Sue’s husband Dave died two years ago, and now her only son, Michael, is moving out again, to try to fix his marriage – again.

In a bid to support his mother’s wishes to live independently, Michael surprises her with an Ann Droid Z58/100 humanoid care robot, but Sue really does not want a robot in her home, especially one that causes chaos straightaway.

Ahead of the release, the two talk about the innovation of technology, ageing, and loneliness.

DIANE, WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THE SERIES?

DIANE MORGAN: The idea has been batting around for a couple of years, not that long. But there are some ideas we have had for 15 years, and they don’t get made.

I read an article in the newspaper about how, in the future, not that far in the future, people who don’t have kids can end up having robots looking after them, and I thought this was hilarious, because I don’t have kids, and that’ll be me being fed soup by a robot.

So I told my friend Pippa (Brown, a producer) about it, and she said we should write it up and see if the BBC will go for it. I agreed, thinking they won’t go for it, and then they did.

HOW CAN THE ELDERLY BETTER EMBRACE AGEING AND THE SUPPORT TECHNOLOGY MAY BRING?

SUE JOHNSTON: I don’t know when the time comes when you do want to be looked after, because I don’t want to be looked after. But life’s an adventure, isn’t it? And it shouldn’t stop being an adventure, because you’re in your 80s.

DIANE MORGAN: After my dad died, my mum was on her own, living in Wales, and I thought, ‘I’ll get her an iPad, that’s the perfect solution. I can then Zoom with her, and train her to Zoom’. But she got this iPad, and she was like, ‘What’s this? I don’t want this. I hate technology. I don’t want anything to do with technology’.

There’s a whole generation that just doesn’t want anything to do with technology. It can be scary – they are terrified of scams. Yet it can help sometimes if you embrace it.

L-R: Sue (Sue Johnston) and Michael (Paul Ready) (Image: BBC/Boffola Pictures/GaryMoyes)

SUE JOHNSTON: So many older people are fiercely independent, but they’re always being told to downsize and get rid of their junk and do this, and people are trying to control their later years.

I’m in my 80s, so I know that feeling, and it’s what we all don’t want to hear. I always say I had a bad fall last year, but I call it an accident, and it was an accident.

HOW DID YOU PHYSICALLY PREPARE TO PLAY A ROBOT?

DIANE MORGAN: I didn’t think about it when we pitched this idea, but when the BBC went for it, I suddenly realised, ‘Oh Christ, they’ll want me to play the robot’, I thought I could play a nurse instead. But they were dead set that I should be the robot.

I had absolutely no idea how to do this, but we got a movement coach who worked on Humans [the TV series starring Gemma Chan], and he was amazing, and gave me the confidence.

Linda is meant to be a reconditioned robot, so she’s a bit of an older model. There are other robots in the show that are more modern robots, but Linda was one of the first ones that were rolled out.

She’s a bit old-fashioned, so we had to make her movements more of a proper robot-y style movement, and that’s where the fun is, I suppose.

If you’re making a drama like Humans [where a husband buys a refurbished, highly developed robot to help his wife], you want them to be as real as anything. But in a comedy, you want to see somebody being a robot, don’t you? Otherwise, where’s the fun?

HOW DID YOU FIND IT?

DIANE MORGAN: One of the hardest things was staying still. Sue’s brilliant, and if we’re in a take together, and I make the decision that Linda shouldn’t blink, which is a really stupid idea, I must commit to it.

There was a moment when we were outside, and the wind was blowing in my eyes. I had tears rolling down my face; I wanted to blink more than anything in the world. So it was hard. I’ve got new respect for people who play robots.

ARE YOU A FAN OF NEW INNOVATIONS, AND CAN YOU IMAGINE HAVING A ROBOT LOOKING AFTER YOU?

SUE JOHNSTON: If that was the only choice. It was very understandable how Sue got fond of her robot.

Diane bought me a robot cat at the end of the show, and it’s a beautiful thing, but this is how your brain works, and how it worked in the show.

I keep stroking and talking to the cat; it meows, purrs, lies on you, and you can feel its heartbeat. I love it and my grandkids go, ‘Granny, it’s not real’, but it’s something you get used to, which is why it’s so easy to transfer affection. It’s what happens to Sue in Ann Droid.

So, I don’t think I’m going to say I never want a robot, because if that’s what helps you be independent – and I’m so independent – then, yeah, I’d go for it.

That’s what I love about the series: it touches on the loneliness of old age, and I could really identify with that.

I hope other people will too, because there are so many women who lose their husbands and have to go through that stage on their own, finding things that they enjoy again.

Ann Droid comes to BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 9.30pm.

With two much-loved stars at its heart, there’s every reason to believe this will be a funny, thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining watch. Let us know what you thought of the comedy in the comments.