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Sarah Kendall

Sarah Kendall was nominated for the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy award in 2015, 12 years after her first Edinburgh solo show and 11 years after being nominated for the Perrier, as it then was, for the first time. She began comedy after winning the Raw Comedy competition in her native Australia in 1998.

Diane Morgan to play a robot in AI sitcom

BBC One comedy co-written with Sarah Kendall

Diane Morgan is to play a humanoid robot created to keep elderly people company in a new BBC One sitcom.

The Cunk star wrote the six-part series – provisionally called Ann Droid – with fellow comic Sarah Kendall

And she said: ‘I’m thrilled that the BBC has finally commissioned a programme about AI and how it will affect your mum."

The comedy is set in 2029 when widow Sue is given a D500 social humanoid eldercare robot, created to keep the ageing population company and monitor their health, taking the pressure off the ever-stretched NHS.

It’s Sue’s worst nightmare, ’an overly attentive, socially inept pain in the arse’. But she soon works out she can use the droid to her benefit in settling scores and doing the things her son never gets round to.

What develops is a buddy comedy between an older woman and her robot who isn’t quite as advanced socially as she is technically, say producers.

Shane Allen, executive producer for programme-makers Boffola Pictures, said: ‘In a world where AI is creeping in to the creative industry, we’re fighting back in the best way we can: taking the piss out of it. The ball’s in your court Chat GPT.’

BBC Comedy Festival Jon Petrie, BBC director of comedy, adds: "Diane Morgan’s sharp comedic genius shines in Ann Droid, co-written with Sarah Kendall, as she brings to life an unlikely friendship between a feisty pensioner and her over-attentive robot. Equal parts clever and chaotic, this six-part sitcom marries heart and high-jinks in equal measure.’

The show was one of several announced at the BBC Comedy Festival in Belfast today.

Ann Droid production credits

Made by: Boffola Pictures and Witchcraft Industries
Written by: Diane Morgan and Sarah Kendall,
Executive producers: Shane Allen, Diane Morgan and Pippa Brown
Series producer: Pippa Brown
Commissioned by: Jon Petrie
Commissioning editors: Seb Barwell and Navi Lamba. BBC Studios,