Brendan’s plans for Lebanese Outpost — a BBC comedy drama about Irish army peacekeepers in the Lebanon during the 1980s — were first revealed by the Irish Sun last year
FUNNYMAN Brendan O’Carroll is thrilled Irish army bosses are helping him with his next TV pilot.
Brendan’s plans for Lebanese Outpost — a BBC comedy drama about Irish army peacekeepers in the Lebanon during the 1980s
How Brendan O'Carroll would look as an Irish soldier
And now we can reveal the Irish army contacted the Mrs Brown’s Boys creator to offer their assistance.
He said spoke to a number of veterans as background for the pilot. But he was over the moon when the Defence Forces press office got in touch with him.
Brendan, 63, said: “I got a lovely letter from the Commandant who looks after press for the Irish army saying they would love to co-operate on the show.
“I’m delighted because I want to portray the hardship these young men went through and what it was like for these volunteers being so far away from home.”
Brendan O'Carroll as Mrs Brown
Should the pilot — which stars the cast of Mrs Brown’s Boys — get green-lighted for a full series by BBC bosses, Brendan wants one episode to feature a roll call of top Irish soccer stars.
Some viewers will see this as a glorious nod to iconic footie movie Escape To Victory, which featured the late English footballer Bobby Moore, ex-footie Argentinian star Ossie Ardiles and former Brazilian player Pele.
Brendan said: “I have this idea for an episode where there is a football tournament between all the peacekeeping troops from different countries in the Lebanon. Only the Irish smuggle in Robbie Keane and a few of the boys to play for the Irish army team.”
The stand-up believes the Irish army’s unique position as peacekeepers in the Middle East is ripe for comedy.
Irish troops serving in Southern Lebanon
Brendan said: “If the Irish Defence Forces guys got fired on, they had to ring up HQ to find out if they could fire back. Sometimes HQ had to ring up Geneva in Switzerland to return fire.
“I’ve spoken to so many guys who were in the Lebanon and everyone of them had a funny story and I loved hearing them.”
The director is planning to write the pilot for the comedy, based around the Irish Army’s Camp Shamrock, when he returns to his Florida home after another Christmas which saw Mrs Brown’s Boys top RTE’s ratings.
A massive 612,000 viewers watched Mrs Brown’s Boys: Exotic Mammy on Christmas Day, pulling in a giant 41 per cent share of the total RTE audience.
In Britain, 4.7m people watched Agnes Brown on BBC One on Christmas Day.
Meanwhile, the Finglas man harbours no ill feelings for critics who’ve panned his show. Brendan said: “I’ve never written anything for a critic so it doesn’t bother me. I don’t take umbrage with them either.
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