Headed by Sue Johnston, who plays Eileen Lewis, the programme focuses on her, the widowed matriarch of a "large, close-knit and dysfunctional Northern family".

[14] Producer Rosemary McGowan said, "Michael Wynne has skilfully brought to life one ordinary family's chaotic experience of Christmas in a way that will have people all over the country chuckling in recognition.

I wanted to put a nice family who get on on the telly – they have problems but they like each other.On 4 October 2012, the BBC announced that Lapland will have a full series.

[6][12] Lapland is made by BBC In-House Comedy and was filmed in locations at Salford, Manchester, Liverpool, Birkenhead, New Brighton, World Museum and Landican Cemetery.

[6] Mark Freeland the controller of UK Comedy Production, BBC said, "After its rating success last Christmas, it's exciting that Lapland is coming back as a series.

[6] Pete Thornton, executive producer added, "Michael Wynne has penned a beautifully nuanced, warm hearted Northern comedy featuring a highly original comic family.

[1][6] Adam Scotland, Ellis Murphy, Connor Dempsey and Georgia Doyle as Eileen's grandchildren, Jack, Liam, Ethan and Melissa,[20] described as a "mixed bag of young children, some spoilt-rotten, some sugar-sweet".

[24] The single episode featured several guest cast members, such as Emily Joyce and Rufus Jones who played husband and wife Miranda and Julian.

[25] In the first episode of the series, "Missing", Adam Abbou, Casey-Lee Jolleys and Lewis Pryor all appeared as Tyler, Julie and Edward.

[5] In the second episode, "Homeless", Daniel Hayes appeared as Luke, Pearce Quigley played Dave, Pauline Fleming as Margie and Will Travis as Ken.

[28] Rosina Carbone appeared as Miss Igoe, Vicki Gates as Pat, and Ozzie Yue played "Taxi Driver".

[17] Along with Perez, Kevin Harvey, Conrad Nelson, Tanya Vital, Ian Munzberger, Debra Redcliffe and Taylor Perry played Mr Brown, "Olympic Coach", Lynda, Carl, Kim and Ben respectively.

[32] In "DIY", Lenny Wood appeared as Gavin, Sue Devaney as Carmel, James Devlin as Rodger, Naveen Riley Mohamed as Trace, Warren Donnelly as "Security Guard", Emily Pennington as Viv and Russ Booth as "Workman".

Tom Sutcliffe from The Daily Telegraph reviewed Lapland negatively, saying that "the Northern Lights provided the cure-all for family dysfunction", which he called "deeply unconvincing" as the show had been "so sour and bad-tempered up to this point", but did add that there were "some good lines".

[46] Naughton finished, "At points, this takes the programme more into the realm of edgy, Shameless-style drama than gentle festive comedy; but Wynne manages to sugar the pill with a good deal of warm Northern humour".

[48] However, writers from Daily Telegraph and Liverpool Echo disagreed, calling the single episode "popular" and that it "went down well" with audiences,[49][50] but British Comedy Guide and Alison Graham of Radio Times, opined that they were "flabbergasted" and "surprised" that the BBC had ordered a series.

[8][48] Shennan of Liverpool Echo wrote a positive review of Being Eileen saying that, "Wynne's words raised plenty of smiles" adding, "There were misunderstandings aplenty amid the many pleasing moments".

[47] However he did complain about the scheduling of the program; THE light, inoffensive, not-at-all-in-your-face comedy Being Eileen is the sort of sitcom I could easily imagine slipping through the Beeb's fingers.

But after investing in, holding onto and nurturing Birkenhead writer Michael Wynne's follow-up to one-off Christmas 2011 outing Lapland, you’d think the powers-that-be would see things through to the end.

[51] Sarah Doran from entertainment.ie said of Being Eileen; "If it's anything like Lapland we'll be hooked",[52] whilst Alan Corr of Raidió Teilifís Éireann described the series, "Blame or give credit to Gavin & Stacey, but of late there's been a glut of new provincial English sitcoms that strike the right balance between syrupy and actually quite funny and here's another one to add to the list".

[53] Adrian Michaels of Daily Telegraph wrote a positive review upon the airing of the first episode, "Missing", deeming it "funny and touching" adding, "This is classic British comedy territory, finding a deep well of humour in sadness".

[54][55] Michaels finished, "Being Eileen deserved far better than a miserable slot after the 10.00pm news, particularly when we were offered only a repeat of Outnumbered at 9.00pm", sharing Shennan's point.

[47][54] David Higgerson of Liverpool Echo gave a mixed review, noting the timeslot of the programme as a problem, saying, "What sort of "heart-warming comedy" gets put on the telly on a Monday night, just after the regional news?

[56] Again, Sutcliffe, now writing for The Independent, said that Being Eileen was "alright", saying that the shows "effortful implausibilities for comic effect aren't a deal-breaker", calling the series "not quite necessary".

[57] Contrastingly, Chris Dunkley, a former critic of Financial Times predicted that the show would be "extremely popular", calling it "cleverly made" after he watched the first episode of the series.