Sue Johnston and Diane Morgan star in the new BBC One comedy Ann Droid, a grief comedy set in a future where AI eldercare robots look after the elderly. The show, which airs on Friday, 17 July at 9.30pm on BBC One, follows Linda, a robot carer played by Diane Morgan, and her reluctant owner Sue, played by Sue Johnston.
Race Against Reality
Diane Morgan and Sue Johnston rushed to get Ann Droid made because they feared the show’s concept would become reality before it reached screens. Set just three years in the future, the series explores a world where robots are rolled out to care for the elderly when their children are not around.
“I kept panicking when I saw that robots had run in marathons and I was thinking, ‘It’s all advancing so quickly, if you don’t get the show out, somebody else will do it!’ So I’m really glad it’s coming up, because we want to be on top of it,” said Sue Johnston, known for The Royle Family.
Inspiration Behind the Story
Diane Morgan was inspired to write the series after reading about robot carers in Japan and also by her own mother. “I read a story in the paper which said that apparently they were rolling robots out in Japan. It was also inspired by the time in lockdown when I decided to send my mum a tablet so she could do online shopping – she reacted like I’d sent her a nail bomb,” explained Diane.
In the show, Linda is gifted to Sue by her son Michael (Paul Ready) after she has a fall and ends up in hospital. At first, Sue does not want to be cared for by a robot, but Linda slowly wins her over.
Casting and Collaboration
Diane was delighted when Sue Johnston and Paul Ready both agreed to star. She had worked with Sue on the 2019 sitcom The Cockfields and collaborated with Paul four times before, most famously in Motherland. “I was a fan of Sue’s from The Royle Family and I’d worked with her on The Cockfields, so I knew she was easy to work with and a great comic actress,” said Diane. “Paul’s funny, he’s very good at physical comedy and he was who I had in mind for the role when I was writing it.”
Sue Johnston was equally delighted by the show’s mix of laughs and warmth. “I wanted to be part of it because Diane wrote it and I’m such a fan and a friend of hers, so when she sent me the script, it was just joyful and I thought ‘Yes, thank you very much, I’ll have that!’” she said. “I just love all the characters, they are all well written and they’re all people you know, and find along the way, so it’s just really funny.”
Personal Connection to Grief
At 82, Sue Johnston can relate to her character’s woes, especially her frequent falls. “The series starts with her falling and I recognise an awful lot of her in me, which I think is the age thing,” she said. “When you get to my age losing your balance and falling over it’s sort of par for the course. She’s defensive about it because she’s very independent and doesn’t want to be looked after.”
Sue Johnston is also a widow following the death of her husband David. “She thinks she’s fine but she’s in denial about her loneliness, grief, and age,” she said. “She’s a very warm and lovely woman, dealing with all these things, which an awful lot of people deal with, so I feel she’s very real.”
Robot Movement Challenges
Learning to walk, talk, and sit like a robot was a learning experience for Diane Morgan. “I worked with Dan O’Neill, who was movement director on Humans, another show about robots, to help me get the walking right,” said Diane. “There are several robots in the programme and the modern ones have voices like Siri or Alexa but because I’m reconditioned, I wanted a more retro robot voice.” However, Linda’s awkward gait gave Diane trouble. “I had to bend my knees and go into a certain posture that was sort of a neutral pose. It really hurt my back!”
Diane noted that the poignant message about grief emerged naturally. “That sort of accidentally happened. The more we wrote the story and realised it was about grief and looking after elderly parents it started to become more poignant. Then when Sue was doing it, it started to have heart, which was incredible because that’s not what we set out to do. We thought it’d just be a silly comedy about a slightly rubbish robot.”
Supporting Cast and Future of Robot Carers
The show features a quality supporting cast, including Danny John-Jules from Death In Paradise, Margot Leicester from Coronation Street, and Rupert Vansittart from Game Of Thrones. While the show has moments of tenderness, Diane insists Linda does not have a heart. “No, of course she doesn’t, she’s a robot. But stick a pair of plastic eyes on a computer and you want to believe it’s got emotions.”
Diane predicts robots will be part of our future. “I definitely think we’ll have robots looking after us in the future. Whether they’ll end up killing us or not I can’t say. That’s none of my business.” She added, “I haven’t got kids so I’ll probably end up with one feeding me soup.”
