Mrs Brown’s Boys festive specials announced for Christmas and New Year

The sitcom is often a ratings hit despite being pilloried by many critics

Brendan O’Carroll, Josh Cole, Jennifer Gibney and fellow cast members from Mrs Brown’s Boys (Ian West/PA)

Mrs Brown’s Boys will return over the festive period, as the BBC announces its Christmas and New Year shows.

Last year, Strictly Come Dancing's Christmas special proved a ratings hit and is set to return again this year.

Mrs Brown’s Boys, which is often a ratings hit despite being pilloried by many critics, returns with specials over Christmas and New Year.

Last year it did not feature in the top 10 for overnight viewing figures. In 2020 3.8 million viewers tuned in.

Originally a theatre production, the show, starring Irish comedian Brendan O’Carroll as Agnes Brown, was first broadcast on BBC One in 2011 and has since become one of the biggest comedies on TV.

It won the Bafta for best-scripted comedy in 2012, the Writers Guild Great Britain award in 2014 and has been named most popular comedy TV programme at the National Television Awards five times.

Call The Midwife Christmas Special also returns. In its 75-minute festive show, the midwives move the maternity clinic into new premises, as the period show covers December 1967.

The Bafta-winning comedy Detectorists also returns after a five-year break for a 75-minute special.

The show’s writer and director Mackenzie Crook stars alongside Toby Jones to offer fans an update on the lives of metal detecting hobbyists Lance and Andy, as their Danebury Metal Detecting Club is in trouble.

There will also be specials of The Graham Norton Show, EastEnders, Bad Education, Ghosts, Malory Towers, Motherland,  Frozen Planet II, Antiques Roadshow and Inside No 9.

There will be game show specials of Blankety Blank, The Weakest Link, The Hit List, Question Of Sport, Pointless, The Wheel, University Challenge, Would I Lie To You and QI.

Meanwhile, the final chapter of the trilogy His Dark Materials will also be broadcast over the Christmas period, starring Ruth Wilson and James McAvoy.

There will also be another adaptation of JK Rowling’s Cormoran Strike crime fiction series, which she wrote under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Strike: Troubled Blood sees Strike, played by Tom Burke, visit family in Cornwall when he is called on to solve a mysterious cold case.

In music news, Cliff Richard will chat to Sara Cox in Cliff At Christmas about his 64-year career as he performs some of his Christmas classics, new songs and best-loved hits.

Top Of The Pops returns for a Christmas Day special hosted by Radio 1’s Clara Amfo and Jack Saunders.