Hit Anglo-Irish sitcom Mrs. Brown's Boys has been commissioned for a third series, it has been confirmed. The news comes just weeks after filming for Series 2 finished.

The co-production between BBC Scotland and BocPix for the corporation and Irish broadcaster RTÉ launched in early 2011 to a mixed reception; broadly negative from critics and in the wider media, but popular with the public, and particularly so in Ireland, where the family-centred comedy is set.

Written by and starring Brendan O'Carroll, the sitcom is based on his popular Mrs. Brown stage plays, which have sold out venues across Ireland, Scotland and the north of England for years, and had DVD releases in their own right.

The success of the TV series meant that the show toured venues in the south of England for the first time in 2011. Continuing in the tradition of the live productions, the series breaks the 'fourth wall', with actors breaking out of character and talking directly to the camera.

The comedy focuses on the Brown family and its dotty matriarch, Agnes Brown (O'Carroll). Never shying away from interfering in the lives of her family and friends, the widowed Dublin pensioner is proud and despairing of her family in equal measure.

Brendan O'Carroll said "What an extraordinary Christmas present. The BBC must be mad! To allow us to dress up and play again is an extraordinary gift and we genuinely don't take it lightly. We're overwhelmed with the support of the audience and hopefully when they see what we've done with the second series they'll see that maybe the BBC is not totally mad."

The sitcom's second series is currently in post-production, and will broadcast early in 2012, with the third series likely to follow in 2013. A Christmas special will feature in BBC One's festive line-up next month.

The second series had more than 5,000 applications for tickets to the recordings, a level of demand said to be unprecedented in the corporation's history. The series is recorded at Glasgow's Pacific Quay studios.

One of the most famous moments from Series 1 involved O'Carroll leaving a crucial prop in the set for an earlier scene: