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Mrs. Brown's Boys

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Mrs. Brown's Boys
Mrs. Brown's Boys title card
GenreComedy
Created byBrendan O'Carroll
Written byBrendan O'Carroll
Directed byBen Kellett
StarringBrendan O'Carroll
Jennifer Gibney
Paddy Houlihan
Fiona O'Carroll
Danny O'Carroll
Eilish O'Carroll
Pat Shields
Amanda Woods
Rory Cowan
Gary Hollywood
Dermot O'Neill
Country of originIreland
Original languageEnglish
No. of series2
No. of episodes13 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducerStephen McCrum
Production locationBBC Pacific Quay
EditorMark Lawrence
Running time30 minutes
Original release
NetworkRTÉ OneStandard Defintion/High Defintion
BBC One HD
Release1 January 2011 (2011-01-01) –
present

Mrs. Brown's Boys is a BAFTA-winning Irish sitcom created by and starring Irish writer and performer Brendan O'Carroll. The programme is a co-production between BBC Scotland and BocPix in association with RTÉ.

Background

Mrs. Brown's Boys appeared first on RTÉ 2fm, an Irish radio station in 1992 and then in a series of books written by Brendan O'Carroll from the mid-1990s onwards.[1][2] The books, entitled The Mammy, The Chisellers, The Granny, The Scrapper, and The Young Wan, were first published in Ireland, before being made available in the United Kingdom.[3] In 2000, The Mammy was adapted into a film titled Agnes Browne with Anjelica Huston playing the title character. Following the success of the film, O'Carroll wrote a series of stories, adapted from the books, in which he played Mrs. Browne (now spelled 'Brown') and cast the rest of the family — including many of his own relatives as characters. A series of seven, film-like adaptations made, which went straight to DVD release. During this time, O'Carroll took the show on the road, appearing in a series of Mrs. Brown plays in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

In 2010, O'Carroll was approached to create a television series based on the stage show. He recruited a new cast mainly from family members and wrote a series of six thirty-minute episodes, together with an unbroadcast pilot, in order to encourage a network to pick up the series. RTÉ One subsequently bought the broadcast rights and the first, six-part series began airing on the channel from 1 January to 5 February 2011. In the United Kingdom, the BBC bought the rights and the first episode was transmitted on 21 February 2011.

Following the success of the first series, RTÉ and the BBC commissioned a second, which began with a Christmas special broadcast on 25 December 2011 on RTÉ One, and the next day on BBC One. The latter was the most watched television programme in Ireland over the Christmas season.[4] The second series began on New Year's Eve 2011 in Ireland, and 2 days later in the United Kingdom.

After good rating figures for the second series, the BBC commissioned a third. Series lead Brendan O'Carroll has described the commission as, "An extraordinary gift and we genuinely don't take it lightly. We're overwhelmed with the support of the audience and hopefully when they see what we've done with the second series they'll see that maybe the BBC is not totally mad."[5] Whilst Cheryl Taylor, Controller, Comedy Commissioning for the BBC has also commented on the commission of a third series, "The new Mrs Brown’s episodes are rip-roaring fun and will delight her ever growing army of fans. I am pleased as punch that we are commissioning series three - go Agnes!"[6] Following two Christmas specials, the 3rd series is due to begin on 29 December 2012 on RTÉ One [7] and on 1 January 2013 on BBC One.[8]

Cast and characters

Many of the main cast are played by O'Carroll's real-life family. Cathy Brown is played by his wife, Jennifer Gibney; Winnie McGoogan by his sister; Maria Nicholson by his daughter and her real-life husband is the show's director; Buster Brady by O'Carroll's son and Betty Brown by his daughter-in-law.[9] The character of Dermot is played by an actor who is a close family friend of O'Carroll's.

A loud, foul-mouthed Irish matriarch who is always looking out for her family after the death of her husband Redser. Agnes is a very nosy woman, who is very interested in other people's lives. Agnes works at a fruit and veg stall at Dublin market. She takes great pleasure in making a fool of her neighbour and best friend Winnie, and her father-in-law.
  • Jennifer Gibney (O'Carroll's wife) as Cathy Brown
Cathy is Agnes's daughter. She is a lonely woman who is on the look-out for a man but is always put off by her mother and what her mother has to say to her.
  • Dermot O'Neill as Granddad/Harold Brown
Granddad is Agnes's father-in-law, and is always made a fool of. He is senile and is always complaining, which makes Agnes mad.
  • Paddy Houlihan as Dermot Brown
Dermot is Agnes's youngest son, who is commonly seen in giant costumes. Dermot has found himself in trouble with the law after burgling with his friend Buster Brady.
  • Eilish O'Caroll (O'Carroll's sister) as Winnie McGoogan
Winnie is Agnes's next door neighbour and best friend. She is always seen either in Foley's Bar or at the kitchen table with Agnes. She is a quiet, harmless soul and is always made a fool of by Agnes. She is married to Jacko McGoogan who is an unseen character who is usually ill or accident prone.
  • Fiona O'Carroll (O'Carroll's daughter) as Maria Nicholson
Maria is Agnes's daughter-in-law, who is married to Dermot. She is a nurse from a wealthy family, who always seems to be quiet. She and Dermot have triplets, all boys.
  • Danny O'Carroll (O'Carroll's son) as Buster Brady
Buster, a troublemaker always looking for an easy way to make money, is Dermot's best friend and is not well liked by Agnes. He was the best man at Dermot and Maria's wedding.
  • Rory Cowan as Rory Brown
Rory is Agnes's homosexual son, who is scared of telling his mum that he is gay because he thinks that she will be ashamed. When she finally finds out, she says, "I know about your illness."
  • Pat "Pepsi" Shields as Mark Brown
Mark is the eldest of Agnes's sons, who lives with wife Betty and son, Bono. Mark never learned to read and write at the school, for which Agnes took the blame.
  • Amanda Woods (Danny's wife) as Betty Brown
Betty is Agnes's daughter-in-law, who is married to Mark. She and Mark have a son, Bono. Betty is very strong-minded and is not afraid to put Agnes in her place when needs be.
Dino is Rory's Scottish boyfriend. He and Rory manage the hair salon that they work in together. Dino is also a chef, and cooked for Maria's mother and Agnes when they had dinner together.
  • Martin Delany as Trevor Brown
Trevor is another of Agnes's sons. He does not appear in the first series, but returns in the Christmas special after his term with the missionaries ends.
Maria's mother. Hilary is very wary of Agnes, and does not approve of Maria marrying into the Brown family.
  • Fiona Gibney as Sharon McGoogan
Winnie and Jacko's daughter. In the pilot episode "Dermot's Dilemma", Sharon was played by Marion O'Dwyer.
  • Smug Roberts as Mr Foley
The local publican.
  • Jamie O'Carroll (O'Carroll's grandson) as Bono Brown
Bono is Agnes' grandson. He lives with his dad Mark and mum Betty and visits Agnes often.

Production

The show is filmed in Scotland at the BBC Pacific Quay studios in Glasgow,[10] and is recorded in front of a live audience. The programme uses a laissez-faire style of production in which the audience, cameras and production crew are often seen; the main character often breaks the fourth wall by talking straight to camera and/or interacting with the camera men. The show further takes a more irregular concept as outtakes and bloopers such as characters getting lines wrong, coming in too early, laughing and set and prop faults are also shown in the episodes.

International broadcast

As well as being broadcast in Ireland and in the United Kingdom, Mrs. Brown's Boys is also broadcast in Canada. Australia, Iceland and New Zealand[11]. Broadcast on the Seven Network in Australia, the series has secured nearly 1 million viewers.[12]

TVNZ has obtained the New Zealand broadcast rights for the series.[13]

Country Channel Aired
 Australia Seven Network 2012–
 Canada 2012–
 Iceland RÚV 2012–
 New Zealand TVNZ 2012–

Reception

Critical reception

Critical reception for the show has been mostly negative despite its popularity with viewers.[14] From the start critics hated it; "The whole thing is entirely predicated on viewers finding a man dressed as a foul-mouthed elderly woman intrinsically funny", noted Bernice Harrison, TV reviewer with The Irish Times. "If you do, you're away in a hack, and the viewing figures are astronomical, but if you don't, and you think that died out with Les Dawson and Dick Emery, then it's a long half-hour."[15] The Irish Independent said that Mrs Brown's Boys was the type of TV programme "that makes you vaguely embarrassed to be Irish".[16]

Television ratings

Mrs. Brown's Boys was a ratings success upon its initial broadcast in Ireland. Every episode aired won its timeslot for RTÉ, with an average viewership of 753,500 in January 2011. One episode's rating beat that of RTÉ's own ratings giant The Late Late Show, with 856,000 viewers tuning in to watch.[17] The 2011 Christmas episode was the most-watched TV show in Ireland over the holiday season, with a 48.6% audience share.[4] Internationally it has been well received. Its opening in the UK won 16.4% of the ratings in its Monday night slot and was received well by viewers.[18] Despite the critical reviews, 2.9 million viewers had tuned in by the third episode.[19][20][21] The 2011 Christmas Special achieved 6.61 million viewers, winning in its 10 pm time-slot.[22][23]

Awards

In 2011 Mrs. Brown's Boys was nominated for a BAFTA award at the British Academy Television Awards.[24] In February 2012, it won an IFTA for Best Entertainment Programme. At the 2012 BAFTA Television Awards, Mrs Brown's Boys won the award for Best Situation Comedy, and Brendan O'Carroll was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme but lost to Darren Boyd for his role in the Sky1 comedy series, Spy.[25]

Distribution

DVD and Blu-ray releases

More than one million copies of the first series of Mrs. Brown's Boys were sold on DVD in Ireland and the UK between October 2011 and February 2012. A complete series 1 and 2 box set was also released on 8 October 2012, containing the 2011 Christmas special as a content exclusive, therefore meaning if one wishes to own the special, they would have to buy the box set.[26]

On 11 October 2012, series 2 was released in Region 4[27] in both standard form and a limited edition. The limited edition version contained the Christmas special. The complete box set was also released at the same time, containing all 13 episodes as well.

Title # of disc(s) Year # of episodes DVD release Blu-ray release
Region 2 Region 4 Region B
Mrs. Brown's Boys – Series One 2 2011 6 3 October 2011[28] 1 August 2012[29] 3 October 2011[30]
Mrs. Brown's Boys – Series Two 2 2012 6 (excludes the 2011 special) 8 October 2012[31] 11 October 2012[32] 8 October 2012[33]
Mrs. Brown's Boys Live Tour – Good Mourning Mrs. Brown 1 2012 Live show 12 November 2012
Mrs. Brown's Boxset – Series 1/2 & Christmas Special 5 2012 13 8 October 2012

iTunes releases

The first series of Mrs. Brown's Boys has been available on iTunes since 31 October 2011.[34]

Spin-offs

Film

There have been reports that an estimated £3.6m deal is in place with Universal Studios to start production on the film version of the series. A spokesman for O'Carroll has also confirmed that the film will have a distinctly Dublin flavour, "It's Dublin humour so you're going to need Dublin actors and technicians to get it right for the big screen."[35] Despite funding being secured, O'Carroll confirmed that the script has not been written. "I haven't written it yet. That's what success does, they give you money and say 'Whatever you think'. So I've taken the money!" [36]

Filming is due to start in Dublin in September 2013 under the working title, Mrs Brown 'D[37]

Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page).===Game show=== O'Carroll has also confirmed that a game show starring Mrs. Brown is in development with production company 12 Yard. A non-broadcast pilot is expected to be filmed in late 2012. A full series is also due to be broadcast in 2013.,O'Carroll says a pilot for the show was made, and it was "hilarious". 

But the funnyman turns businessman when he considers how being a panel show star would affect the Mrs Brown brand. It a step he is reluctant to take at the moment.

He says: "You have to think product-wise too, that sounds very mercenary, but we spent a lot of time and a lot of effort building this brand.

"Mrs Brown has become a really strong brand and we did not want to throw it away."

He adds: "I don't care how funny you think you are, people are entitled to think 'oh no, not him again'.

"It might make Mrs Brown more famous but, Jesus, we can't get any more people into the gigs than we do already“ [38][39]

Animated series

O'Carroll has also confirmed that an animated version of the show will be produced starring Mrs. Brown is in development.[40]

References

  1. ^ Ring, Evelyn (26 November 2011). "'Mad' success for Mrs Brown". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  2. ^ "The Cafe". RTÉ News. 20 December 2005.
  3. ^ "Brendan O'Carroll: O'Brien Press Author".
  4. ^ a b "Mrs Brown's Boys tops Christmas viewership". RTÉ Ten. Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 28 December 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  5. ^ "Mrs. Brown's Boys recommissioned for a third series". BBC. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  6. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys recommissioned for third series on BBC One". BBC. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  7. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys Season 3 Episode 3 of 8". TV Now. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  8. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys SERIES 3 - 3. MAMMY'S SPELL". BBC Media Centre. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  9. ^ Jaine Sykes. "Comedy Blog: Mrs. Brown's Boys returns for a second series!". BBC. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  10. ^ Marion Scott (20 March 2011). "Brown is the new back as Mrs Brown's Boys is set to return". The Daily Record. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  11. ^ McGreevy, Ronan (25 April 2012). "'Thrilled' Carroll leads Irish Bafta charge". Irishtimes.com. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
  12. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys draws big audience". Irish Echo. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  13. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys". TVNZ. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  14. ^ Finn, Melanie (22 March 2011). "Critics hate us but they never say how the audience is screaming with laughter". Herald.ie. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
  15. ^ Harrison, Bernice (12 February 2011). "It's not that 'Mrs Brown' is too mainstream. It's just not funny". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  16. ^ "Why Irish TV has the cringe factor". Irish Independent. Independent News & Media. 19 February 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  17. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys put it up to Tubridy". Irish Independent. Independent News & Media. 5 February 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
  18. ^ Shah, Kavi. "Mrs Brown's Boys rakes in 2.6million viewers for the BBC", Metro, 22 February 2011.
  19. ^ Lesnik, Tim. "Mrs Brown's Boys to make BBC One return", 22 March 2011.
  20. ^ Scott, Marion. "Brown is the new back as Mrs Brown's Boys is set to return", Daily Record, 20 March 2011.
  21. ^ Sykes, Jaine. "Mrs Brown will be back for a second series", BBC Comedy Blog (BBC), 22 March 2011.
  22. ^ "David Jason's 'The Royal Bodyguard' logs 7.1m for BBC One - TV News". Digital Spy. 27 December 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  23. ^ "Mrs Brown tops Ross in ratings". RTÉ Ten. RTÉ. 6 February 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  24. ^ Bray, Allison (27 April 2011). "O'Carroll's hit comedy nominated for BAFTA award". Irish Independent. Independent News & Media. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  25. ^ Hilliard, Mark; Sweeney, Ken (27 May 2012). "What Eurovision? Mrs Brown's Boys leads the Irish winners at the BAFTA awards". Irish Independent. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  26. ^ "Over 1m Mrs Brown's Boys DVDs sold". RTÉ Ten. RTÉ. 13 February 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  27. ^ http://www.ezydvd.com.au/search?q=mrs+browns+boys&t=all
  28. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys - Series 1 [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. N/A. Retrieved 28 December 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys - Series 1". jbhifionline.com.au. 9 August 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  30. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys - Series 1 (Blu-ray + DVD Bonus Disc)". Amazon.co.uk. N/A. Retrieved 9 May 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys - Series 2 [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. N/A. Retrieved 9 May 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys - Series 2". jbhifionline.com.au. 25 August 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  33. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys - Series 2 [Blu-ray][Region Free]". Amazon.co.uk. N/A. Retrieved 9 May 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ "Mrs. Brown's Boys, Series 1HD". http://itunes.apple.com. N/A. Retrieved 9 May 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)
  35. ^ "Mrs Brown's Boys gets a $6m movie deal". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  36. ^ "Mrs Browns Boys to be made into movie". RTÉ News. 29 May 2012.
  37. ^ "£3.6m budget for Mrs Brown's movie". Chortle. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  38. ^ Khalsa, Balihar (14 August 2012). "Mrs Brown gets Saturday night gameshow | News | Broadcast". Broadcastnow.co.uk. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  39. ^ "Exciting New Pilot!". 12 Yard Productions. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  40. ^ "New pilot and Mrs. Brown's Boys cartoon in production - News - British Comedy Guide". Comedy.co.uk. 6 March 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2012.

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