Mrs Brown’s Boys Live

BBC1, 9.30pm

You have to go back to New Year’s Day for the last time we saw a new episode of the unpretentious, old-fashioned sitcom starring Brendan O’Carroll.

It’s loved by millions of viewers for its winningly single-minded dedication to one simple aim: making us laugh. Now here it is back for a live, seasonally spooky special two days before Halloween.

Mrs Brown (O’Carroll, right) thinks that she’s ready for anything that any trick-ortreating visitors to her home in Finglas might throw at her, after which she’s hoping to head out to the fancy-dress party down at Foley’s Bar.

But then her plans for the evening are thrown by the unexpected arrival of an apparently supernatural guest – and it seems that Mrs Brown might have no choice but to call on the spiritual services of Father Damien… ★★★★