A report in The Mirror claims that Caroline Aherne has signed up to write and produce two more Royle Family specials.

According to the newspaper, Caroline and co-writer Craig Cash have agreed “in principle” to two more episodes but they may consider more.

“We billed this year’s special as a one-off but Caroline has agreed in principle a deal to create more new specials for next year and the year after” a BBC source is quoted in the paper as saying.

“It would be great if the new episodes could be screened at Christmas so we could get another quality programme in the schedule each year.”

The Royle Family Christmas special was watched by 9.98 million viewers, making it the fourth most popular programme on Christmas Day.