Mrs B’s Boys wows fans with live show
Brendan O’Carroll enjoys TV takeover as millions tune in on BBC and RTÉ
BRENDAN O’CARROLL wowed fans last night with a riotous turn in the much anticipated live show of Mrs Brown’s Boys.
Thousands of fans tuned in to see the show, which was staged in front of a live audience in Glasgow and broadcast simultaneously on RTÉ and BBC.
Throughout the day, the award winning comedian teased fans with a live Twitter feed.
‘Hello to all our face-f… book friends … Facebook friends, don’t forget 9.45 BBC1 Mrs Brown’s Boys Live. Bring a friend. And some duct tape.’
‘Don’t forget 9.45 RTÉ1 Mrs Brown’s Boys live (laughter) *cough* … Oh I need to go to the toilet.’
In an interview on ITV’s This Morning on Friday, O’Carroll was asked whether his potty mouth and live TV would be ‘chaos’.
‘I don’t know where you’re getting that impression. I’m a good Catholic boy,’ he replied to much laughter in the studio.
It was put to him that Mrs Brown’s Boys’ recorded shows have a live feel to them and he was asked if he had ‘lots of naughtiness’ up his sleeve.
‘Oh gosh no, I think it’s important to be professional and stick to the script…’ he said, at which point everyone in his vicinity burst into laughter.
‘We have a script reading at the start of every episode. We call it the guideline and it kind of builds from there. Ben (the director) makes a great contribution to the comedy element of it, in that he doesn’t attend most of it,’ O’Carroll added to more laughter.
‘Potty mouth? Sure I’m a good Catholic boy’
‘Buster is my son, Maria is my daughter, Cathy is my wife – who plays my daughter in the show – and I play her mother, which gets very weird.
‘Sharon is my daughter-in-law, Trevor is my son-in-law, Betty is my daughter-in-law, Winnie is my sister. I’m a firm believer in keeping it in the family,’ he said.
‘The lead role was written for an actress who didn’t show up so I said I would overdub my voice. When we went to the editor, the editor said, “Who is the actress playing Mrs Brown?” I said that’s me and he said, “We’ve got to keep that accent.”’
O’Carroll put the success of the show down to everybody knowing ‘somebody like Agnes. It’s either an aunt or a granny or a mother and everybody knows a little bit of Anges. There’s that aunt we all have when you hear she’s coming to the wedding you think, Oh my God…’
‘But also there’s a warmth about Agnes, there’s something about her. She absolutely adores her children and that’s her redeeming factor. Whatever else she does at the end of the day, she absolutely loves her kids.’
IT IS a long way from Finglas to the top of the entertainment tree, so congratulations to Brendan O’Carroll for last night’s live episode of Mrs Brown’s Boys, broadcast by the BBC and RTÉ. In the golden age of TV comedy, shows such as Hancock’s Half Hour and Morecambe and Wise were always broadcast live, but few nowadays would take the risk. Brendan O’Carroll and his extended family proved last night they are funny – and fearless.