Mrs Brown’s Boys: Why the feck is Brendan O’Carroll’s BBC comedy so popular?

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Four years ago, Mrs Brown’s Boys, the BBC sitcom described by one critic as “infantile, talent-deficient and entirely unfunny”, and another as “lazy, end-of-pier trash rooted in the 1970s”, was voted the best British sitcom of the 21st century in a public poll. Based largely on O’Carroll’s mother, who raised 11 children on little income, Mrs Brown’s Boys stars the Irish comedian, in drag, as Agnes Brown – a bawdy, foul-mouthed Irish “mammy”. The audience appreciation score for Mrs Brown’s Boys, according to former BBC Director Danny Cohen, “is the highest we’ve had in comedy for many, many years” – in large part because it tapped into an audience that had started to feel ignored. “Every day I wake up, I’m pretty glad of my second chance.” Mrs Brown’s Boys airs on BBC1 at 10.20pm on Christmas Day, and 10pm on New Year’s Day