Mr Burns is back. Only weeks after Harry Shearer, the actor who voices Homer Simpson's Machiavellian boss, said he was leaving The Simpsons, TV bosses revealed in a tweet that "all principal characters have now been signed" for its 27th and 28th seasons.

Those involved must be breathing a heavy sigh of relief. After all, Mr Shearer appears to lend his voice to half of Springfield, including popular characters Ned Flanders and Seymour Skinner.