Mrs Brown’s Boys to film new series in spring despite low ratings and racism row

Viewing figures for long-running series plummeted on Christmas Day

Mrs Brown’s Boys star Brendan O’Carroll has confirmed another season of the long-running BBC series despite recent calls for the show to be axed following a racism row.

In October, it was reported that filming for the show’s 2024 festive special was halted after O’Carroll made a “clumsy” joke where a “racial term was implied” during rehearsals. The actor apologised after the joke “backfired and caused offence”.

The show has had a controversial place on festive TV schedules for many years, and the 2024 Christmas Day special saw plummeting ratings, with only 2.2 million people tuning in. When the show first aired in 2013, it pulled in 11.52 million nationwide viewers. However, that was its peak, and ratings started to slowly drop. The last time it featured in the top 10 rated shows on Christmas Day was in 2020, when it attracted 3.8 million viewers.

By comparison, other Christmas Day specials received impressive ratings, with the Gavin and Stacey Finale attracting 12.3 million viewers, while Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl attracted 9.5 million.

O’Carroll, who plays Mrs Brown’s Boys’ lead, the foul-mouthed matriarch Agnes Brown, has confirmed that the sitcom will soon be filming a new series despite the negative feedback.

The actor told the Daily Star: “We are going to film another series in April and May [2025]. It’s lovely to be asked to do another one.”

The news comes after the show’s Christmas Special was critically panned across the board. In The Independent’s one-star review of the programme, Sean O’Grady concluded that it was a “crime against comedy”.

“So here we are again with the same old formula, the same old characters and the familiar complete and total absence of wit,” writes O’Grady. “Routinely, comedic elements are rolled into motion, albeit fumblingly, and then just left to roll around for a bit on set, unresolved and making no sense.”

O’Carroll admitted to making a “clumsy joke” that “backfired and cause offence” in the filming of the Christmas special.

The ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’ Christmas special (BBC / BocPIX / Greame Hunter)

The 69-year-old Irish writer and actor told PA: “At a read-through of the Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas specials, there was a clumsy attempt at a joke, in the character of Agnes, where a racial term was implied.

“It backfired and caused offence which I deeply regret and for which I have apologised.”

The BBC investigated the incident and temporarily halted rehearsals at the time.

The performing arts and entertainment trade union Equity said in a statement: “No working person should be subjected to racism when doing their job. Employers must realise the obligations they have and create safe, anti-racist workplaces.”

O’Carroll as Agnes Brown (BBC / BocPIX / Greame Hunter)

A BBC spokesperson said: “While we don’t comment on individuals, the BBC is against all forms of racism, and we have robust processes in place should issues ever arise.”

It comes after newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald condemned the incident. The 85-year-old told the Daily Mail: “I find it in every way crude and offensive and insulting. It couldn’t have been said without a desire to hurt and insult really. It’s not even funny.”

When asked what action the BBC should take, McDonald said: “I would probably have very harsh words with the person who said that. And said the society and the community in which we live regards that sort of stuff as unnecessarily crude and offensive.”