Mrs Brown's Boys cartoon confirmed
The cartoon version of Mrs Brown's Boys is set to go into production this summer.
The cast of the hit sitcom are set to record the audio track this summer, with work then beginning on the animation.
Rory Cowan, who plays Rory Brown - Mrs Brown's camp son - told The Irish Daily Star: "It will be a mix of storylines we've seen on the main shows, as well as a few other things thrown in to make them different. The logic is that it can be sent to all English-speaking countries, and dubbed so it can be used across the world."
The comedy's stars recently filmed live-action movie spin-off Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie, and will move onto recording their voices for the animated series when the film is released in June.
The audio track will be recorded in front of a live studio audience, although the location of the recording has not yet been announced. Cowan explained how the audience was integral to the format: "Everything we've ever done has a live audience except for the movie. It makes the process enjoyable and it gives us instant feedback."
The new series will be made by Powerhouse Animation, the production company who created the animated titles seen in the main BBC show. The animation studio created a non-broadcast pilot in 2012, however the TV production and live tour time demands on creator Brendan O'Carroll means it has taken until 2014 for the series to get under way.
Speaking in a newspaper interview at the time of the pilot, O'Carroll said: "I always knew that if I could get Mrs Brown on to BBC TV, it would explode. So about four years ago I started a project in Arizona where I put a team of animators together to turn Mrs Brown into a cartoon series. When you see the titles of Mrs Brown's Boys, that's from the animated series which we're bringing out. The wonderful thing about doing a cartoon is that they translate it into any language."
Due to the length of time it takes to animate a half hour programme, fans still have quite a while to wait before they can see the new incarnation of the characters. Cowan says: "The earliest we'll see it is in 2015. Recording the voices is the first part - the animation is what will take a long time."
Since the BBC One sitcom launched in 2011, the Mrs Brown's Boy franchise has gone on to become one of the corporation's biggest entertainment brands. Two new TV specials shown in December are listed in the list of top rated programmes of the year with consolidated viewing figures of over 10 million, whilst the live tour has sold out arena venues across the UK multiple times over.
The cast are now heading to Australia to tour there too. Despite having never visited the country before, the 350,000 ticket tour is already sold-out.
Due to the cast's busy schedules, there will be no new series of Mrs Brown's Boys in 2014. However two more brand new Christmas specials will be filmed towards the end of the year, to be broadcast in prime-time slots as part of the BBC's festive schedule in December.
In the below video, filmed last month, Brendan O'Carroll talks about winning the Best Sitcom category at the National Television Awards for the second year in a row: