Brendan O’Carroll ‘We’re going to make a complete mess of light entertainment with All Round to Mrs Brown’s!’

Staying in is most definitely the new going out – but only if you’re round Mrs Brown’s house. After her rip-roaring Christmas specials, Ireland’s loudest and proudest matriarch is back on our screens this week, hosting a brand-new Saturday-night show on BBC1, All Round to Mrs Brown’s.

With celebrity guests, musical performances and the intriguing promise of “outrageous stunts” – all filmed in front of a live studio audience – the six-part series will be packed with off-script surprises and typical foot-in-mouth moments from Our Mammy.

We caught up with the genius behind the much-loved comedy character, Brendan O’Carroll, 61, on set in Glasgow to find out more…

This doesn’t sound like your typical chat show, Brendan…

“No, I don’t know what you’d call it actually! We smashed up the sitcom with breaking the fourth wall on Mrs Brown’s Boys, and now we’re going to make a complete mess of light entertainment and the talk show!

It’s just like a night in at Mrs Brown’s house, and we’ll have celebrity guests round, music, and we’ll get the audience involved, too.”

Which celebrities will by dropping by?

“We’ve got Pamela Anderson and Judy Murray on the first episode, plus James Blunt is performing. Agnes’s daughter Cathy [Brendan’s wife, Jennifer Gibney] interviews them for her blog while Agnes is, erm, helping, which is more like interfering.

We also have a rule that one guest has to bring their mammy along, and because Judy is known for being Andy Murray’s mam, we asked her to invite her mammy, who was delightful.

We’re still filming the series so I’ve said I’d prefer to not know who’s coming on so it’ll be a surprise for Agnes. I have put in one request, though – I want Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield to pop in with both their mammies. If that happens, I will be a happy man.”

Mrs Brown was a long-running stage show before the sitcom, but what was it like recording this for the first time?
“Terrifying! But the audience knew it was a new venture and they wanted it to work for us. They were cheering us on.

You’ll also see Agnes picking on unsuspecting audience members, and on the first night, we had an Abba tribute band in called Fabulous. It wasn’t that unusual except there were only two of them and the fella didn’t sing!”

What else can we expect?

“The Mrs Brown’s Boys cast will be popping in for one reason or another, but we also have Chef Aly [Mahmoud], who cooks our guests’ favourite meals in Agnes’s kitchen.

Dermot [Paddy Houlihan] and Buster [Danny O’Carroll] also have their own segment in which they try to get their celebrity tour business off the ground. This week, you’ll see them touring Madame Tussauds with Louis Walsh, who was fantastic, and later in the series they go to a safari park with Steve Backshall and do an open-top-bus tour of London with Adam Woodyatt.”

We love it when the cast lose it and can’t stop giggling, but do you have to be more disciplined with this show?

“There’s no script, but we are quite slick. The rule is that everyone has to know the show inside out and only then can you play with it. But if you don’t know it, you’re not playing with it; you’re just causing havoc.

Jenny is my rock because I go off on tangents and she brings it back. But I love playing with Dermot because he just loses it, and you only have to knock Rory [Rory Cowan] off-centre a little bit and he’s gone!”

You’ve got a lot to live up to after Mrs Brown’s Boys was voted the best sitcom of the 21st Century, are you worried if viewers will like this format?

“As I told the cast on the night of the first recording, this show is not about them, me, the BBC or even the guests; it’s about the audience.

We have a responsibility for 58minutes on a Saturday night to put a smile on people’s faces, and those smiles will be our redemption and hopefully get us into heaven! But if we can translate onscreen what happens in the studio, it’ll be fantastic. I’m feeling good.”

All Round To Mrs Browns, Saturday 25th, 9.15pm, BBC1