Diane Morgan's New Show Is the Sweetest Sci-Fi of the Year
The woman behind Philomena Cunk turns to the near future for her new sitcom.
I didn't expect a bittersweet sitcom about elder care to end up being one of my favorites of 2026, but that turned out to be the case this week after I devoured what is, hopefully, the first season of Ann Droid, the new BBC series from comedy icon Diane Morgan.
International audiences are more familiar with Morgan in her alter-ego as the obliviously hilarious presenter Philomena Cunk, who will next deliver her trademark dry wit on Netflix for Cunk on Cinema. But UK audiences will no doubt be aware of Morgan's scene-stealing turns across a series of TV comedies like After Life and Motherland before stepping into the main spotlight for the absurdist Mandy.
Her latest show, however, sees Morgan try a very different turn. Ann Droid (currently only available in the UK) is set in a near-future Britain of 2029. Not much has changed for the country, which seems as miserable as ever, but its aging population has seen the receipt of one particular technological boom: the proliferation of care robots, advanced humanoid AI meant to offer social and medical care to an increasingly large generation of isolated elders.
Enter Sue (Royale Family legend Sue Johnston, probably best known outside of the UK for her turn as Miss Denker in Downton Abbey). Grieving the loss of her husband Dave two years prior to the start of the series, Sue finds herself gifted a secondhand AnnDroid Z58/100 Basic ElderCare Robot by her down-on-his-luck son, Michael (Paul Ready), so he can move out of home and work on his imploding marriage. Morgan, of course, plays the android, named Linda by Sue (for her sister, whom she hates), as Sue tries to adapt to having a chintzy robot caregiver shadowing her every step.