Diane Morgan turned to Humans choreographer for Ann Droid
Diane Morgan has revealed how Humans movement director Dan O'Neill helped shape her Ann Droid character.
Diane Morgan worked with the movement director from Humans to prepare for Ann Droid.
The 50-year-old comedian wrote and stars as Linda the Ann Droid robot in the new BBC comedy about a grieving widow (Sue Johnston) and her outdated care robot.
Asked about how she prepared for the role, she told the BBC: "I worked with Dan O'Neill, who was movement director on Humans, another show about robots, to help me get the walking right.
"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."
Humans first aired on Channel 4 and AMC in 2015, and ran for three series before it was officially cancelled in May 2019.
Meanwhile, Diane admitted her posture for Ann Droid caused her some issues.
She added: "I had to bend my knees and go into a certain posture that was sort of a neutral pose.
"It really hurt my back!"
The Cunk on Life star revealed there was a real life inspiration behind the upcoming series too, although her mother isn't keen on the concept.
She said: "I read a story in the paper which said that apparently they were rolling them [robots] out in Japan and I told Pippa my producer and we started laughing about it.
"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."
Diane was surprised by the way the show has taken shape, with some more poignant moments even the writer herself wasn't expecting.
She admitted: "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.
"And 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 would just be a silly comedy about a slightly rubbish robot."
Ann Droid will air weekly on BBC One from Friday, July 17, as well as launching in iPlayer at 6am the same day.
