Ann Droid Review – The new robot drama by Diane Morgan and Sue Johnston is fantastic | Television

Tat home, warns Jamaican nurse Brianna (Michelle Greenidge), can be “killing” the elderly. “You’re lucky if you plucky didn’t hit your head on the corner of the coffee table, or your first teeth on the metal door!” he says, suddenly, when Sue (Sue Johnston) tries to explain in vain that he “didn’t fall”, but fainted from high blood pressure. In any case, Sue – widowed two years ago – wound up in hospital with a crippled arm and has been discharged with her arm in a sling.

At least she has her son, Michael (Paul Ready), to rely on. Except that Michael – innocent, seductive and red-shirted in drug trials he joined to make a quick buck (“it would be dangerous”, he says, “do you think the pharmaceutical industry would do that?!”) – is back with his cheating ex. The answer? Robot caretaker, loved and bought on a 24-month contract. Cocking wakes up at a time when everything is being registered and in line with late capitalist trips, Ann’s beloved robot Droid is offline, and is given by the heavy operator Cass (Sarah Kendall), who later we find out has completed a PhD on Chaucer. Sue is scared.

Arriving at a time when debates surrounding AI and robotics can be binary (humans – good! robots – bad!) this comedy from Aussie comic Kendall is a TV mainstay Diane Morgan it gives an interesting perspective. What if robot caretakers were naive and antisocial…and also thoughtful, compassionate and lovable? It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that Sue develops an unlikely friendship with Linda (played by Morgan), who reminds her when it’s time to take her medication and sets up a play program for her to keep her from feeling isolated and depressed. If some technical topics remember the sci-fi drama of Channel 4 of 2010 People – and its problems related to the use of machines as caregivers and sexual partners – the more human parts of the series, which is Sue’s grief at the death of her husband David, remember something like Stefan Golaszewski crying Sitcom Mum. Add in the dead Morganian proportions of Philomena Cunk and Mandy, and the drama of the super-rich Johnston family in The Royle Family and you get the point.

Yet despite the similarities, Ann Droid feels fresh and funny, inhabiting a world that draws on existing technology while remaining silly and unique. A lot of this is down to Morgan, who gives herself completely as Linda, with an excellent level of unflappability. Credit must also go to her fellow bots – which include Roxy (Nicole Sadie Sawyerr) and Keith (Ed Jones) – and they’re just as careless as they are loyal. The contrast between these hardy creatures and the classic characters that surround Sue – among them, the well-informed Phyllis (Margot Leicester) and the salty Eileen (Kathryn Hunter) – only makes the series more difficult. Not that it wasn’t: Linda is drawn to The Apprentice by Cotton Eye Joe’s latest hit, and uses her laser eyes to track down the Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor who slept with Michael’s wife (“I used it sparingly”).

It’s also – depending on your mileage in games about death and loss – a download. Johnston is often heartbroken as Sue, struggling to find new ways without David. At the end of the first episode, Linda does something so touching and it means so much to Sue that she can’t help but cheer for her. Later in the series, Linda is called upon to give a eulogy as Sue’s friend Tom (David Hargreaves) scatters her cousin’s ashes. Seeing a robot display the minutiae of a human mind like this for the first time is painful. Not that things stay sad for long. I’m off to a seaside amusement park, where Eileen warns us not to get on the platform because of a Swedish woman who was “bent like a shish kebab” in danger.

Back in the real world, elder care robots are already here, especially in Asia. Is it dystopian or – in countries where there are not enough people to care for the elderly – just pragmatic? Happily, Ann Droid treads carefully and lovingly when it comes to the reality that many seniors find themselves lonely and needy. Sure, it’s a robot show, but it’s shot through with love and care that’s completely human.