‘I honestly don't know the secret' – Brendan O'Carroll on enduring success of ‘Mrs Brown's Boys' as new series kicks off next week

Irish Independent

a day ago

The long-running comedy returns to RTÉ One for a sixth season next week as Agnes Brown attempts to manage her dysfunctional family in a rapidly modernising world.
Among the folly in the first episode will be Agnes's implausible new-found stardom after she hijacks daughter Cathy's podcast, while Grandad announces plans to move himself out of the house and into a care home.
Viewers will also see Agnes take on the role of driving instructor for her best friend Winnie, with predictable consequences.
Fourteen years after it was first broadcast, the show is still going strong, but O'Carroll himself is stuck for an explanation as to why.
Believe it or not, most of the storylines are based on true events
'I honestly don't know the secret to the enduring success of Mrs Brown's Boys,' he said. ' I write and perform what I think is funny and just hope that somebody somewhere watching gets a laugh out of it.'
However, O'Carroll (69) said his dramatised anecdotes rarely stray too far from his lived experiences.
'The ideas for these episodes are no different from the previous 53 episodes,' he said. 'Believe it or not, most of the storylines are based on true events that either happened to my family or have been told to me by people about their families.
'Everybody has a story, and it's quite common for someone in a family to say in the middle of a family disaster, 'This is like an episode of Mrs Brown's Boys'.'
O'Carroll has previously said the creation of Agnes was inspired by his own mother, Maureen, whose sharp wit and no-nonsense attitude working on the stalls on Dublin's Moore Street greatly informed the character's formulation.
I love being Agnes
The idea was conceived by O'Carroll in 1992 when he set up a theatre company with family members and decided to tour the country performing stage plays. Having begun writing the show in its televised format in 2011, he has made the role his own.
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'I love being Agnes. I'm not lying when I say I could not play any of the characters better than the actors who play them now,' he said.
The show owes its authentic appeal in part to its filming in front of a live studio audience, a feature O'Carroll describes as 'essential'.
'So many times, at the end of ­rehearsals for a particular episode, our director Ben Kellett will say, 'All this needs now is the audience' and he is so right,' he said.
'They follow every move, every line and add so much to our performances. We would be lost without them.'
The first Christmas special aired in the UK was well received by the British public, with the BBC production boasting 8.24 million views in spite of negative reviews by the country's entertainment critics.