Brendan O'Carroll in Mrs Brown's Boys Photo: BBC
The smile disappeared from his face BBC Head of Comedy John Petrie on this week when asked if he was a fan of the network's most beloved sitcom, Mrs. Brown's Boys. Instead of responding, Petrie chose to remain silent during a BBC comedy show in London.
“Then I’ll take it as a no,” said the journalist who asked the question. Petrie risked a chuckle, but did not go into detail. He was on stage with Michelle de Swart, the comedian and actress who stars in the upcoming BBC Three comedy, who advised him to avoid answering by saying: «It's a trap.» That the BBC's head of comedy should be ambivalent about Mrs Brown's Boys speaks volumes about the Marmite-like nature of the series, in which Brendan O'Carroll plays a foul-mouthed «mum» from the Dublin suburb of Finglas.
Critically panned and blockbuster hit, Mrs Brown's Boys is, in its own right, one of the most divisive shows ever to air on the BBC. «Consistently awful,» wrote the Telegraph in a 2023 review, but tell that to the millions who faithfully watch the show every week (a new season is due later in 2024).
Of course, its popularity is growing. there has been a recent downturn, with ratings for the 2023 Christmas special falling from a peak of 11 million to seven million. But that's still more than double the number of people who watched the new Doctor Who.
Mrs Brown has also gained some influential fans, including US comedian Tyler Perry, who — in the style of a Batman v Superman crossover — cast O'Carroll as Brown in his 2022 confused Netflix hit Madea Returns. The film established Perry and O'Carroll as comedic twins separated at birth, with both comics having huge success dressing up as stereotypical mother figures (African-American Madea in Perry's case). «I looked at Brendan's story and we saw that our lives were on parallel paths in different parts of the world: he was doing live shows and then he was also working in television,» Perry said. «So, I thought having these two worlds collide would be amazing.»
Comedy boss Petrie seemed to contradict himself during the Q&A, having already described Mrs Brown's Boys as «massive» for the BBC. «People want jokes, they want shows that make them laugh and they watch Spooks, Homeland, Don't Go Out and Mrs Brown's Boys over and over again. They still make huge amounts of money for us.»
In a subsequent statement, he reaffirmed the broadcaster's commitment to Brendan O'Carroll's comics. “Brendan created an iconic comedic character in Agnes Brown. Mrs Brown's Boys is a BAFTA Award-winning comedy show and one of the most watched BBC comedies of all time. It made me laugh many times and seeing Mrs. Brown's Boys live was an unforgettable experience. I'm very lucky to have had the opportunity to witness this and I'm proud to have it in the BBC Comedy stable.»
Brendan O'Carroll, the mastermind behind Mrs Brown's Boys, took home the award for best comedy. Photo: Getty
It's been 13 years since Mr Brown's Boys debuted on BBC One and immediately established itself as one of Britain's favorite party shows. Since then it has dominated. The 2018 Christmas special was the second most popular holiday program with an audience of nine million, putting it ahead of powerhouses Strictly Come Dancing and The Big Christmas Bake Off.
Back in Ireland, O'Carroll and Mrs Brown's overwhelming popularity in the much larger and more competitive British market is a source of constant bewilderment. Irish television, it's true, has historically been terrible. There is no tradition of quality drama or comedy that new generations can draw from. Even the «best» shows tend to be flops (this is one of the reasons Father Ted ended up on Channel 4 rather than Irish national broadcaster RTÉ).
In this case, Mrs. Brown's Boys was nevertheless considered something of a criminal secret at home. O'Carroll first rose to fame as a guest on Gay Byrne's The Late Late Show in the early nineties. He made his usually unforgiving host laugh with his tales of a scoundrel committing a useless act in Dublin's socially dysfunctional Finglas.
Mrs Brown's Boys Photo: BBC
O'Carroll then went to work for RTÉ, where he presented lousy quiz shows. It was a thankless path also taken by not-yet-Father Ted Dermot Morgan and puppy-faced Dara O'Brien, long a team captain on the flaccid Have I Got News? knock-off Don't Feed the Gondolas (even less funny than the title).
Mrs Brown's Boys represented an empire that O'Carroll built entirely on his own. He debuted with Agnes Brown (the 'e' was later dropped) in a one-off radio play on RTÉ Radio 2 in 1992. It was followed by four books — Mammy, The Chisellers, Grandmother and Young Van — the first of which was adapted by Anjelica Huston's Hibernophile into Agnes Brown. If you can watch, wait for Tom Jones' cameo.
Because of his love of nudges, winks and toilet jokes, O'Carroll was quickly considered in Ireland to be beyond the bounds of polite taste. It was unthinkable to give him his own TV show. Consequently, the seven Mrs. Brown DVDs he produced were self-financed and stand-alone. This led to some financial instability. More importantly, it gave complete creative control.
Thus, by the time Mrs. Brown's stage show became a phenomenon, O'Carroll was in complete control of his creation (it helped that his crew was staffed by friends and family). Say what you will about the quality of the humor, but O'Carroll never compromised his vision or was under any obligation to ingratiate himself with the powers that be.
Brendan O'Carroll in 1996 Photo: rex
He was also a little confused about life. Although his mother was a Labor Party politician, he grew up in stereotypically difficult conditions in Finglas. He worked as a waiter and milkman and even managed a pub before his business partner left the country. When the escapee subsequently died, a confused O'Carroll was briefly questioned by police.
But his biggest setback came when, in the wake of his fame on The Late Late Show, he made the boxing film Sparrow's Trap, starring Stephen Rea. Financing dried up before production was completed, and with the film in debt amounting to £1 million, O'Carroll was forced to declare bankruptcy. Every breakthrough he has made since (he is now said to be worth more than £10 million) has to be seen in the context of this disaster.
The secret of Mrs. Brown's attractiveness to boys is a question that puzzles many. But there is no point in tying yourself in nooses. The simple truth is that elbow nudges and jokes about bodily functions — O'Carroll's trademark — can get you laughing. The chaotic filming style, in which the audience is encouraged to laugh at the mistakes and misfires, only adds to the fun.
For example, while watching the preview for last year's Christmas special, I found myself rolling my eyes but also — and feel free to judge — holding back a rare chuckle. Is it funny to confuse “mahogany” with “monogamy”? Probably not—but in a moment of weakness, I threw my head back and groaned. A bad joke can be just as effective as a good one, as O'Carroll discovered with profitable results.
It should also be noted that O'Carroll is not so much an Irish comedian as he is a Dublin one. The city has historically been more anglicized than any other part of the Republic, as anyone who has walked into a pub in Blanchardstown or Kimmidge and been greeted by a wall of replica Liverpool and Manchester United shirts will attest.
So you don't have to go far to see how O'Carroll's kitchen sink and fnar-fnar humor could sound in Britain's regional cities (which Dublin essentially was until the early 20th century). Mrs Brown's Boys certainly doesn't have any of the relative exoticism of Father Ted or BBC3's The Young Offenders.
It is indeed no coincidence that O'Carroll's big break in Britain came in Glasgow, where his stage show Mrs Brown had its first success outside of Ireland (and where the TV show is currently being filmed). It was there that he was approached in 2009 by a BBC producer who believed Mrs Brown's Boys could be transferred to television (RTÉ, having ignored him for years, later stepped in as co-producers). It's fair to say that British comedy has never recovered since then.
Imagine if Jim Davidson or a vintage Del Boy-style David Jason had flown to New York and been announced as the new host The Late Show on CBS after Stephen Colbert's departure. This is exactly what Mrs Brown's unstoppable rise to popularity in Britain looks like in Ireland — stunning and downright nerve-wracking.
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