No more series of Mrs Brown's Boys says BBC comedy boss

In an interview with Broadcast, the comedy boss said it would be “hard to get another series” of the popular sitcom because creator Brendan O’Carroll has other priorities.

He added that there would be more Christmas specials after this year's festive two-parter. Allen is talking to O’Carroll about other projects and said the comedian “wants to stay on with the BBC”.

Allen also revealed plans for a new sitcom from Gavin & Stacey co-creator Ruth Jones. “Ruth is fantastic and we’d love to do something with her,” he said. “We were talking studio shows and she would be absolutely perfect for that.”

Other comedies in the pipeline include a new BBC1 sitcom by Notes on a Scandal actress Emma Kennedy, starring The IT Crowd’s Katherine Parkinson. Called The Kennedys, it's inspired by the writer's memoir about the time she lived on a Stevenage housing estate in the 1970s, The Tent, The Bucket and Me.

Allen also revealed that Citizen Khan has been recommissioned for a fourth series and that the BBC will move away from middle-class sitcoms, which comedy boss Shane Allen fears lead to "homogenous" shows.

"We want to get away from menopause comedy," he said. "Those kind of middle-class, midlife crisis pieces that are individually brilliant, but collectively homogenous."