Comic Brendan hopes to take us all out of the Covid blues with shows
Brendan O’Carroll has a Christmas Day and New Year’s TV specials lined up
Exclusive by Eugene Masterson
December 06 2020 02:30 AM
Mrs Brown's Boys is set to top the Christmas TV ratings again this year as the star and creator Brendan O'Carroll admits they had to work hard to stay within tough coronavirus restrictions to make the festive specials.
Millions will tune into RTÉ and BBC to see how Agnes Brown and her Dublin family are celebrating Christmas in the year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
There'll be no hugging, no kissing and lots of social distancing going on in the Finglas household.
"For Christmas Day show it's a quiet household at the Browns," Brendan (65) tells the Sunday World. "With Covid restrictions, visitors are few, although nobody can dent Agnes' usual devotion to the holiday.
"The Christmas tree might be recovering from Covid. How did Winnie cope with lockdown?
"How will Fr Damien get the Christmas message across? What Was Buster up to with the Bard of Avon? "And who is this 'Dickie' that is terrorising the Finglas area?
Mrs Brown’s Boys will bring much-needed cheer to our screens
"Also Agnes wins a competition to reply on TV to the Queens Christmas message," he said.
He reveals what's the storyline behind the New Year episode. "Winnie is traumatised by a break-in," he discloses.
"It's Cathy's birthday, but she's not happy about it! Dermot and Buster go hunting 'Butterflies'. And why won't Fr Damien accept that he is not in this episode."
The cast had to rehearse their lines in Zoom meetings before flying to Glasgow in October and quarantining before going into a bubble to film the two shows in the BBC Scotland studio.
"I think people will enjoy them and, hopefully, it will bring some cheer after what's been a difficult year," he adds.
At this time of year Brendan and his fellow cast members stage a live tour of the hit show and would normally play dates in arenas in Dublin and Belfast.
For the past several years kind-hearted Brendan gives the proceeds of one of his Dublin shows to the Saint Vincent De Paul.
But the dad-of-four reveals he has helped the charity in a different way.
"I am today appealing to everyone to be as kind as their means allow them to," he reflects.
"Although we had no show, we did the 1,250 family Christmas SVP dinners this year anyway. It'll come back to us in karma."
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