Sharon Osbourne has revealed The Osbournes TV series will return next year. But rather than a long run of the fly-on-the-wall show, it will be a mini-series of no more than eight episodes.

It originally aired in 2002 and became the highest rated show in MTV history. Now Ozzy’s wife and manager, who this week admitted she’s been battling depression for 16 years, says Ozzy wants to record the small run of shows sober – because he was drunk during the whole of the original series.

She says on ITV’s Loose Women: “Ozzy has decided he wants to do another few episodes – not a whole season, about eight episodes – of The Osbournes. He said that for the whole three years that we did it, he was drunk the whole time, so he said he would like to do one where he is completely sober as he is now.

“Because it’s been 13 years and our lives have changed so much, it’s a kind of catch up. ‘What are they doing now?’

Ozzy recently said the original series got out of control and wished it had been filmed outwith the family home.

He told The Times-Picayune: “It was a TV show which was a good idea that went fucking out of control. The no.1 mistake I made was having it filmed in the house I lived in, instead of a reproduction studio where I could go every day and come home. You have camera crews living in your garage 24/7 for three years – anybody would go fucking crazy at the end of it.”

Filming the new series of The Osbournes is due to get underway in January at their home in California.