Creator and star of ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’ Brendan O’Carroll has revealed he turned down a “nice little deal” to take the show abroad, as he refused to axe its central gay character.
Brendan plays the titular Mrs Brown in the hit BBC comedy, the mother to five children, including Rory, who is gay.
Speaking to RTE, Brendan disclosed that Russian TV bosses were apparently keen to bring the show to their country, but with one big change.
He explained: “They didn’t want any gay, Russia in particular.
“It was a nice little deal, it’s a big country so the fee you’d charge for the licensing is audience-related, so it’s a big audience and it would have been a nice fee.
“But no gay, absolutely no gay. So I said ‘no gay, no show’. And that was it.”
Rory was played by comedy actor Rory Cowan for 16 years, first during the show’s theatre runs and later when it made the jump to TV.
However, earlier this year he announced that he’d be stepping down from ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’, admitting he’d grown “tired” of being in the show for the past two years.
He said at the time: “There was no row with Brendan, there was no dispute over money or anything – in fact quite the opposite. I got so well paid it enabled me to be able to leave.
“We’re so big now that years are scheduled out. It’s not exhausting, it’s just boring.”
This year’s upcoming Christmas special will see the character played by Eric O’Carroll for the first time, following Rory Cowan’s departure.