BBC One to broadcast a live episode of Mrs Brown's Boys

BBC One is set to broadcast an episode of its hit sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys live in 2016.

Once again featuring Brendan O'Carroll as Dublin matriarch Agnes Brown, the special one-off episode will be transmitted live to the nation.

The special episode has been commissioned to launch the BBC's Landmark Sitcom Season, a collection of programmes to "mark our enduring affection for all the great comedy characters we have met over 60 years".

The BBC quips: "Anything can happen when the Irish Matriarch is live and unleashed."

Talking about the prospect of making a live episode, Brendan O'Carroll says: "This is very exciting. When I heard the BBC were letting us go fully live I thought: 'They've lost their minds!'

"I'm seriously delighted about this. As Mrs Brown's Boys started in the theatre it gives us a chance to show the TV audience LIVE what we really do. Put the kids to bed early!"

The episode will be transmitted live in summer 2016, although the month has not yet been revealed by the BBC.

Tomorrow (24th September), the cast will assemble to record the first of two new Christmas specials of Mrs Brown's Boys, with the episodes set to be broadcast in prime-time slots during BBC One's festive schedule.

The show is now one of the BBC's most popular sitcoms, with nearly 10 million viewers tuning into the episode broadcast on Christmas Day 2014.

In the early days of television, all programmes were broadcast live, including the first ever British TV sitcom, Pinwright's Progress, as recording technology had yet to be invented.

However, it is now rare for any comedy to be broadcast live, and rarer still for scripted productions such as sitcoms. A recent programme to do so was Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps, which launched its seventh series with a live episode in January 2008. Elsewhere, More4 broadcast comic play The Vote live from a theatre in London to mark the General Election in May.