Brendan O’Carroll says he accepts his Mrs Brown’s Boys comedy is “marmite” but he doesn’t care anymore because his fans continue to share their love for it
Brendan O’Carroll says he accepts his Mrs Brown’s Boys comedy is “marmite” but he doesn’t care as long as the fans continue to enjoy it.
Brendan is the star and creator of the huge hit sitcom which began on radio in the ’90s and has been on BBC1 since 2011. But TV critics have always blasted the series. Brendan, 69, said: “I’m the same with music and with comedy, it’s subjective, you know? It really is. There’s comedians that people find really funny who I then go, ‘I don’t really get that,’ you know?
“They went through a stage where comedy started to get really snarky and people punching down, and I’d be looking and I went, ‘I don’t know…’
“And then there’s other guys, people who were around me go, ‘Oh no, he’s f***ing hilarious. Are you kidding me, he’s f***ing hilarious!’ And I go, ‘Well… Because it really is, it’s what you call Marmite, that’s what it is and people either love it or they f***ing hate it.
“And you’re gonna have to accept that that’s the way it is. All I have to try and make sure is that the people who love it, I don’t let them down, that I continue to be… I don’t try and change to f***ing convert the others. I am what I am. The show is what it is, and we deliver it, and hopefully the audience agree, or that portion of the audience agree.”
Brendan is back on tour in Ireland from next month until Christmas, before filming more sitcom episodes for the BBC early next year. At its peak it pulled in 11 million but still gets up to seven million watching a Christmas Special. He plays the main role on the show of Agnes Brown with several of O’Carroll’s close friends and family members making up the rest of the cast.
Asked if it was snobbery that led to critics and some comedy fans laying into him and his work, he added: “I always remember the year we made Mrs Brown D’Movie, that year – and I have up on the fridge – it held the record as the highest grossed opening of any Irish movie, and it was so far ahead that it was double what the next one was, which was Michael Collins – it was double the figures of Michael Collins.
“And I remember the Irish Film and Television Awards that year, and there wasn’t one nomination in any category. And I remember thinking, ‘That’s odd’.
“But you have to remember that actors, actresses, and f***ing people in the business so I think there’s a little it of begrudgery there, but understandable, you know, they look and they go, ‘This thing is really f***ing successful and the **** is surrounded with his family. F***’s sake! How can you get a gig unless you’re f***ing married to him?’
“It must be frustrating for people. Audience-wise, again, I don’t understand. I’ve never gone online or given a quote to say that I thought something was f***ing awful. Never. Because why would you bother? But I have gone on to say, ‘Oh I love that, that is really f***ing good’.
“When we do the mini series, this April, May It’ll be our 56th episode. I signed on for 18. This will be our 56th and in 56 episodes, three of them live, not once has the BBC said to me, ‘Don’t do that. Don’t do this. Don’t do that.’ Never, ever, honest to God, never said it.
“Mrs Brown is Mrs Brown, and they just run it as it is. And I think they understand there is a nostalgic feeling to it.”
‘Mrs Brown D’Live Show’ will take place in Winter 2024 with dates in Derry, Galway, Killarney, Belfast and Dublin.
