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Mrs Brown’s Boys Creator Says TV Critics “Really Are Irrelevant” And Will Die Out

Brendan O’Carroll, the writer and star of ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie’, says his film doesn’t need support from traditional media to succeed.

His TV show, the hugely successful BBC sitcom ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’, has a reputation as a “Marmite” show. The TV-watching public are generally on the “Love it” side, and the broadsheets on the other, but it doesn’t bother the Irishman.

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“The press are becoming less and less relevant. They really are. And I think they know it themselves,” explains O’Carroll in our interview above.

“They’re all gathering together into that elephant’s graveyard. And they’re all going to lie down and the only thing we’ll want is their tusks.”

‘Mrs Brown’s Boy D’Movie’, the big-screen version of the show, is coming to cinemas this Friday, 27 July, but it hasn’t been screened to the press or critics in advance.

This sort of behaviour from film studios indicates they have a turkey on their hands, but O’Carroll is confident that his brand’s loyal audience will still turn up to see it, regardless of the reviews.

“[Mrs Brown’s Boys] has 2.5 million followers [on Twitter and Facebook],” he told us, “If we put on the internet that we’re starting a new tour, it’s going to sell out. You don’t need to virtually advertise it now.

“I find [critics] are finding themselves less and less relevant. And because of that there’s less and less money in that business. So because of that there’s less money put into the entertainment section, and because of that, there’s less and less quality of critics.”

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“So you’re getting people, not really being critics, but people who just go ‘I don’t like that kind of movie’ and it’s irrelevant. They really are irrelevant.”

He’s probably got a point.

Devoted acolytes of the show put the fan into fanatical. When an episode was cut short by a news flash announcing the death of Nelson Mandela, the BBC receiving a barrage of complaints from people who wanted to know how the episode ended.

O’Carroll says he has fans in high places too.

“We got a lovely message recently from somebody who says the Queen is a fan of the show!”

But what is the secret to his success? How has his little Irish show, with its cast filled with O’Carroll’s family and friends, become such an international sensation with fans around the world?

“I only write this show to impress my wife,” he told us, “And I only work as hard as I do to make my kids proud. The rest is irrelevant to me.”

With his live shows selling out around the world, his show pulling in the most viewers on Christmas day last year, and a new film hitting multiplexes nationwide, who’s going to hold his success against him?

Not us.

‘Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie’ is in cinemas this Friday, 27 July.

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