‘Mad’ success for Mrs Brown

THEY must be mad, said comedian Brendan Carroll when the BBC gave the green light for a third series of Mrs Brown’s Boys.

Mr O’Carroll, the show’s creator and writer, plays the leading role of loud-mouth meddling matriarch, Agnes Brown, in the hit series.

The world of Agnes Brown began in 1992 as a five-minute comedy series for RTÉ 2fm. It ran until 1994 and was so popular that Mr O’Carroll decided to bring Mrs Brown and her boys to the stage.

The theatre show, although panned by some critics, has been hugely successful in Ireland and Britain.

The BBC recordedaudience figures of more than four million earlier this year when the first series was screened in Britain. It was also one of the award nominees for this year’s British Academy Television Awards (BAFTA).

The second series has not been aired yet.

“What an extraordinary Christmas present. The BBC must be mad,” said Mr Carroll.

“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 theaudience and hopefully when they see what we’ve done with the second series they’ll see that maybe the BBC is not totally mad.”

Mrs Brown’s Boys, a joint collaboration between the BBC and RTÉ, and performed before a live audience, is very much a family affair.

The cast includes Mr O’Carroll’s wife, Jennifer Gibney, as ‘Cathy’, his daughter, Fiona O’Carroll as ‘Maria’, his son Danny O’Carroll as ‘Buster’ and his sister, Eilish O’Carroll as ‘Winnie McGoogan’.

* The second series of Mrs Brown’s Boys begins on BBC One next month with a Christmas special.