Out of Super Mammy, PanMama and other local remakes of the BBC sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boy’s, there’s one country’s version that is well and truely the worst – Mammy is ‘just a guy in a wig’
Mrs Brown’s Boys’ creator Brendan O’Carroll has sold his comedy hit around the world – and reckons the Romanian version is the worst.
The sitcom star says the lead actor – who has to dress in drag to play the famous Mammy – is “just a guy in a wig” who speaks in his normal voice. The BBC sitcom has been snapped up by many countries since its launch in 2011.
Some broadcast the show with subtitles but others have made their own editions with homegrown TV male actors playing the potty-mouthed matriarch. In Greece it’s called Super Mammy and in the Czech Republic it has been re-named PanMama.
But Brendan – who plays the original Agnes Brown in the TV comedy – doesn’t think much of the Romanian edition, which is called Auntie Florica and has TV talk show host Florin Calinescu as the star.
The Irish comic said: “In Romania there is a guy and he doesn’t even bother. It’s like he just puts on the wig and then just speaks.
“I don’t know what he is saying but I get royalties so it must be the script.”
The news follows the shocking incident which saw a black crew member storm off the set after Brendan’s N-word “joke” during a read-through, leaving the BBC to issue the comedian a final warning.
The junior staffer was appalled by the offensive language at the Christmas special run-through.
An insider revealed: “How is it that they are no longer on the show…but Brendan is. The whole thing is messed-up.”
Questions arise over the BBCs decision to keep Brendan, who stars as Agnes Brown, instead of giving him the boot, reports the Mirror.
A source from the BBC said: “The BBC takes the matter extremely seriously and Brendan also takes the matter extremely seriously. Brendan is under no illusion about this. We have made it clear what the consequences of any future issues would be.”