Brendan O’Carroll signs massive new deal with the BBC with Mrs Brown’s Boys specials insured until 2026

BRENDAN O’Carroll is delighted to have signed a massive new deal with the BBC, but has also told the Irish Sun his sadness at facing his first Christmas without his beloved sister.

The 65-year-old has put pen to paper in a deal that will see him create Mrs Brown’s Boys holiday specials for the channel through 2026.

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There is even a clause that guarantees that the BBC must show Irish comedy at 10pm on Christmas Day, the most coveted space on British television.

And Brendan shared how he’s excited to make households across the UK and Ireland laugh with his foul-mouthed comedy series, particularly after a rough 2020.

The star faced his own difficulties after losing his sister Fiona in March, days before the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world, but says he is delighted to end the year on a positive note.

Brendan told the Irish Sun: “It is amazing that the BBC has secured such a special space for Ms Brown.

“We’ve been doing it for nine years, which is six more than the Royale family had and more than Morecambe and Wise.

“This new agreement that we signed last week runs through 2026, which means I will be able to become the role, and we have a clause where it guarantees that Ms. Brown airs at 10 p.m. you do not have to do it.

“I wanted that because if it’s not good enough for Christmas day, then we shouldn’t do it.”

Zoom tests

Not even Covid-19 was able to stop Agnes Brown this year with the cast of the show gathering to film two Christmas specials on BBC Glasgow during October.

The popular cast, which includes Brendan’s son Danny and daughter Fiona, tested on Zoom before daily Covid checks allowed them to film together for the cameras.

Brendan said: “When we got to Pacific Quay, the headquarters of BBC Scotland, we lit up the whole place.

“They let us take the place. We just get along with everyone. Not only our team, but also the people who work in the offices. It goes back to when we did the first Mrs Brown series, we connected with everyone at BBC Scotland.

“Then when we came back the following year, the show was a huge success and the people at the BBC were a bit distant, wondering if we were going to act like big stars.

“They were surprised and delighted to see that we were exactly the same people. That has never changed.

“So much so that there are two security men at BBC Scotland who have retired during our career but come back every year to work on the show, they like it so much and we are happy to have them.”

The Finglas man admits it was very emotional meeting his cast, whom he hadn’t seen in almost a year.

Typically the team travels around the world hosting live shows for fans, but the pandemic meant that dates in Australia, the UK and Ireland had to be canceled.
Bren said: “They are all family – cast, crew, merchandise people, and we should be on the road together.

“So seeing their faces and getting into the ferry port in Belfast was very good. I was so happy. ”

‘BEAUTIFUL PERSON’

In addition to being kept off the road with the Mrs Brown’s Boys crew, Brendan sadly suffered the loss of his beloved older sister, Fiona.

The couple were so close that Brendan decided that her passing last May will be the opening chapter of the new memoir he is writing for Penguin Books.

Brendan told us, “If you didn’t like Fiona, there had to be something wrong with you! He was an exceptionally kind and generous person. Any of my good points come from her. She was an exceptional person, a beautiful person ”.

The father-of-four and his wife Jenny had just returned home to Florida after filming the All Round To Mrs Brown’s chat show in the UK when they received a message from Fiona’s husband, Larry, to say he was missing. good.

Fiona, who often wintered with him in Florida but lived in Toronto, Canada, had been suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in recent years and had contracted pneumonia.

Brendan said: “I had already booked a flight to see Fiona in Toronto on March 8th, but Larry told us not to leave it so late.

“I immediately booked a flight that night to Toronto. We fly all night. Fiona and Larry live about three hours from Toronto, so I rented a car at the airport.

“But we landed in Toronto at 3am. And the car rental place didn’t open until 6 a.m. M., So we had to wait three hours for it to open.
“We came from sunny Florida and here we are driving through four feet of snow in Canada.

“We finally got to his house. Larry, her husband, met me in the hallway and warned me not to wait too long because she had pulled away.
“So I walked in to see her and within minutes of my arrival, Fiona laughs out loud and we sing ‘These boots are made for walking’ together.

“We laughed, we told stories, then his nurse came in, so I went to the kitchen for coffee with Larry, who worried me too.

“I said to Larry, ‘What’s up now?’ He said that Fiona would probably sleep once the nurse left. So I went back inside after the nurse left, to tell her that I was going to go to the hotel and drop off my bags.

Fiona nodded and then I took her hand. We had this little ritual where I would say ‘I love you’ and she would reply ‘I love you more’ and then I would say ‘I love you more’. But this time Fiona said ‘I love you more, forever and ever’ and then she died. “

Speaking to the Irish Sun from Florida, Brendan is overwhelmed with emotion as he remembers this final moment with his beloved sister.

Brendan said: “I wouldn’t consider myself a Bible-pounding Catholic, but I believe in life after death.

“I firmly believe that I will see Fiona again, and my mother and son (Brendan’s son, also named Brendan, died in 1979 days after he was born from spina bifida).

“If I didn’t believe he would shoot me. What is the point?”

‘LITTLE FUSS’

Fiona, who was in her 70s, had said she wanted “as little fuss” as possible during her funeral.

Brendan said: “We had a private cremation and planned a later service for his friends. That was supposed to happen in July, but the lockdown stopped it, so it will probably happen next year. “

When asked how he copes with the pain, Brendan said it was best to “keep talking about it.”

He said the loss of mother Maureen in 1984, a campaigning politician and mother of eight, had also been a severe blow.

Brendan said: “My mother asked me to make two promises about how she died. She said ‘I don’t want to die in a house, Brendan’ and then she said ‘And I want to die on a sunny day’.

“I said ‘Ma, I’ll make sure you die at home, but there’s all I can do about the weather.”

Even though the Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas shows were postponed at the 3Arena, Bren is still shelling out 1,500 Christmas dinners for families in need.

• THE Mrs Brown’s Boys specials will air on BBC One at 10pm on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. RTE One viewers can watch both from 9:45 PM.

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