{"id":310481,"date":"2025-08-01T23:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T23:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/310481\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T23:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T23:29:12","slug":"its-surely-time-for-this-dreary-and-unfunny-series-to-fade-from-our-screens-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/310481\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s surely time for this dreary and unfunny series to fade from our screens \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brendan O\u2019Carroll<\/a> recently confessed he \u201cdidn\u2019t know the secret\u201d of the popularity of his chortling blockbuster, Mrs Brown\u2019s Boys<\/b> (RT\u00c9<\/a> One, Friday). He isn\u2019t the only one \u2013 since first airing on RT\u00c9 and the BBC<\/a> in 2011, the lowbrow sitcom has soared ever higher. The iffier the humour, the healthier the ratings \u2013 and the more vitriolic the reviews. <\/p>\n

Some 14 years in, though, might the gloss have gone off his famous Finglas mammy? Viewing figures are down, and people who previously enjoyed hating the show appear largely indifferent to its return. Nor does O\u2019Carroll himself seem all that engaged during a dreary and unfunny opening episode in which Agnes discovers the joys of podcasting while working through a row with daughter Cathy (O\u2019Carroll\u2019s off-screen wife Jennifer Gibney). <\/p>\n

\"JenniferJennifer Gibney, Simon Delaney, Brendan O’Carroll and the cast in Mrs Brown’s Boys. Photograph: Graeme Hunter\/BBC Studios\/BOC <\/p>\n

The biggest disappointment is how slick the whole thing is. There aren\u2019t any of the fluffed lines that in the past gave Mrs Brown a seat-of-the-pants charm, while O\u2019Carroll breaks the fourth wall just once, riffing when a character says that something is \u201cpointless\u201d. \u201cIt could be worse, I could be the chase,\u201d he says \u2013 a reference to two popular quizshows (Pointless and The Chase), which raises a guffaw or two before the scene is restaged. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mrs Brown\u2019s Boys Christmas Special review: Unkillable comedy\u2019s wit is as sharp as a mouthful of Brussels sproutsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Agnes and Cathy have a falling-out after Cathy takes up with a fancy-pants podcaster, Roger, who says he wants to improve her \u201cdiction\u201d \u2013 a hilarious word which O\u2019Carroll mines for several gags. Somewhat inevitably, Roger is played by Simon Delaney<\/a>, the Dublin character actor who has graced every TV show ever set in Ireland (including this one \u2013 he portrayed a different character in the 2014 film Mrs Brown\u2019s Boys D\u2019Movie).<\/p>\n

\"EilishEilish O’Carroll as Winnie, Brendan O’Carroll as Agnes, June Rodgers as Birdie and Simon Delaney as Roger. Photograph: Graeme Hunter\/BBC Studios\/BOC <\/p>\n

Delaney is a good actor, which means that his performance has a jarring quality when set against the pantomime elbow-nudges that are Mrs Brown\u2019s stock in trade. You can tell he\u2019s a top thesp because he stays in character as the dialogue plumbs the depths, such as when Agnes\u2019s pal Birdie (June Rodgers) replies to Cathy\u2019s assertion that Roger wants to exploit the \u201cgap in the market\u201d by saying: \u201cI\u2019ve had a few Rogers exploit my gap in the market!\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no God, and we are all staring into the void. <\/p>\n

Aside from jokes drop-kicked in from the mid-1970s, Mrs Brown\u2019s Boys\u2019 most consistent quality is its sentimentality, which, as ever, is laid on with a rolling pin. The syrup is uncorked with a vengeance as Agnes uses the podcast to talk about how mothers and daughters don\u2019t always get along and then discusses her love for Cathy. It is massively mawkish \u2013 one more sign that, after a decade-plus of delighting fans and scandalising the snobs, the time may have come for Mrs Brown to fade to grey. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brendan O\u2019Carroll recently confessed he \u201cdidn\u2019t know the secret\u201d of the popularity of his chortling blockbuster, Mrs Brown\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[192,113481,77,31952,113482,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-310481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-brendan-o-carroll","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-rte","12":"tag-simon-delaney","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114956112127514937","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}