'THANK FECK' Mrs Brown’s Boys star Brendan O’Carroll feared worst when Brendan Rodgers was trending on Twitter this week
The Irish comic woke up on Tuesday morning to find #Brendan all over Twitter
MRS Brown’s Boys creator Brendan O’Carroll admits he feared the worst when he saw his name trending on Twitter this week.
The Irish comic woke on Tuesday morning to discover “#Brendan” was plastered all over the social media site.
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But he was mightily relieved when it turned out to be his namesake — football manager Brendan Rodgers who had controversially quit Celtic for Leicester City.
He says: “At first I thought ‘Jeez, what have I done now?’.
“But when I saw it was Brendan Rodgers I said ‘Well, thank feck it wasn’t me’.”
The Irish comic found himself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons last year after his cast were accused of putting more than £2million into an offshore tax-avoidance scheme.
Daughter Fiona Delany, her husband Martin and their co-star Paddy Houlihan were all turned over by a BBC Panorama investigation — despite Brendan being one of the biggest stars on the network.
Brendan hit back insisting they had done nothing “illegal” adding: “We pay a f***ing fortune in tax.”
The 63-year-old is estimated to be worth £10million and lives with his second wife Jennifer — who plays Cathy Brown in the BBC sitcom — in a £1.8million home in Florida, beside five adjacent houses owned by their family.
But basking in The Sunshine State and having millions in the bank is light years away from the moment he arrived penniless in Glasgow 20 years ago as a complete unknown.
Brendan Rodgers controversially quit Celtic for Leicester City
That’s when he begged Pavilion Theatre manager Iain Gordon to take a punt on his stage show about a potty-mouthed Irish mammy called Agnes Brown and her brood.
He recalls: “I had been doing Mrs Brown on radio back home and we’d toured Ireland but we desperately needed to expand so I said ‘Let’s try Glasgow’.
“I walked in off the street to see Iain at The Pavilion and said ‘This is my play called Mrs Brown’s Boys Last Wedding and I promise you, you will have a £50,000 sales day if you put this on’.
“He looked at me and said ‘If I had a pound for everyone who walked through my fecking door and told me that I’d be a millionaire’.
That’s when he begged Pavilion Theatre manager Iain Gordon to take a punt on his stage show about a potty-mouthed Irish mammy called Agnes Brown and her brood.
He recalls: “I had been doing Mrs Brown on radio back home and we’d toured Ireland but we desperately needed to expand so I said ‘Let’s try Glasgow’.
“I walked in off the street to see Iain at The Pavilion and said ‘This is my play called Mrs Brown’s Boys Last Wedding and I promise you, you will have a £50,000 sales day if you put this on’.
“He looked at me and said ‘If I had a pound for everyone who walked through my fecking door and told me that I’d be a millionaire’.
Mrs Brown's Boys are coming to Glasgow / IMAGE BBC
But Brendan, who was born the youngest of 11 in the Finglas district of Dublin, believes it was written in the stars he would go on to be the BBC’s No1 ratings winner — even beating The Queen for viewers on Christmas Day.
The ex-bar manager explains: “This is no word of a lie, but when I was 22 I was in London for a meeting which got cancelled. So I had a day with nothing to do and ended up going to see a fortune teller.
“I was never into psychics and all that s**t, but she told me, ‘I see you standing on stage in front of a microphone — and remember this, Glasgow will change your life’.
Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Musical starts its UK tour at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro
“Not only had I not been on a stage I had also never been to Glasgow in my life. But she was right.”
But NTA winner Brendan also required a helping hand from Rab C Nesbitt creator Ian Pattison to turn the fortune teller’s predictions into a reality.
He says: “Ian, who is a brilliant writer, was working down at the BBC in London, and said to a producer, ‘You need to see this Mrs Brown thing in Glasgow. It’ll make a great sitcom’.
“And they did. So Ian is the man who started the ball rolling and brought the BBC to The Pavilion to see us.
“I have never met him but he knew we weren’t looking for a handout — we were just looking for a leg up and Ian gave us a leg up big time.”
Now Brendan and his extended cast and family are about to hit the road again with Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Musical, which starts its UK tour at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro at the end of this month.
And he promises fans of the show that despite the songs it will be business as usual.
He says: “The thing is we’ve always had a song or two in the shows and they were always really popular.
“But the whole plot is around Agnes trying to raise money for her legal fees as the traders have won their case to get the developers out and hang on to their market place, but they’ve been left with a £175,000 bill.
“So she comes up with the idea of putting on a musical and it follows the whole journey there with Cathy still trying to find herself a boyfriend and Buster and Dermot up to their usual scams.
“Mark, meanwhile, is desperate to appear in the musical but Mrs Brown won’t let him.
“Every time he goes to sing she tells him to ‘Shut up’. The irony is out of all the cast Pat Shields, who plays Mark, is the best singer.
“So it’s just a Mrs Brown show with songs.”
And while one Brendan left Glasgow under a cloud, this particular Brendan insists it will always be his favourite city in the world.
He says: “When I’m not working I’m sitting with my feet in my pool, drinking a cappuccino not giving a feck about the world.
“But it was Glasgow that got us to where we are now and I will never, ever forget that — believe me, it is my favourite place.”
Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Musical is on at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro from March 28-31. For tickets log on to sec.co.uk.
Source / thescottishsun
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