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Mrs Brown’s Boys star Brendan O’Carroll has confirmed one other season of the long-running BBC sequence regardless of current requires the present to be axed following a racism row.
In October, it was reported that filming for the present’s 2024 festive particular was halted after O’Carroll made a “clumsy” joke the place a “racial time period was implied” throughout rehearsals. The actor apologised after the joke “backfired and induced offence”.
The present has had a controversial place on festive TV schedules for a few years, and the 2024 Christmas Day particular noticed plummeting rankings, with solely 2.2 million individuals tuning in. When the present first aired in 2013, it pulled in 11.52 million nationwide viewers. Nevertheless, that was its peak, and rankings began to slowly drop. The final time it featured within the high 10 rated reveals on Christmas Day was in 2020, when it attracted 3.8 million viewers.
By comparability, different Christmas Day specials obtained spectacular rankings, with the Gavin and Stacey Finale attracting 12.3 million viewers, whereas Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl attracted 9.5 million.
O’Carroll, who performs Mrs Brown’s Boys’ lead, the foul-mouthed matriarch Agnes Brown, has confirmed that the sitcom will quickly be filming a brand new sequence regardless of the detrimental suggestions.
The actor instructed the Every day Star: “We’re going to movie one other sequence in April and Could [2025]. It’s beautiful to be requested to do one other one.”
The information comes after the present’s Christmas Particular was critically panned throughout the board. In The Unbiased’s one-star overview of the programme, Sean O’Grady concluded that it was a “crime in opposition to comedy”.
“So right here we’re once more with the identical previous components, the identical previous characters and the acquainted full and complete absence of wit,” writes O’Grady. “Routinely, comedic components are rolled into movement, albeit fumblingly, after which simply left to roll round for a bit on set, unresolved and making no sense.”
O’Carroll admitted to creating a “clumsy joke” that “backfired and trigger offence” within the filming of the Christmas particular.
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The 69-year-old Irish author and actor instructed PA: “At a read-through of the Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas specials, there was a careless try at a joke, within the character of Agnes, the place a racial time period was implied.
“It backfired and induced offence which I deeply remorse and for which I’ve apologised.”
The BBC investigated the incident and briefly halted rehearsals on the time.
The performing arts and leisure commerce union Fairness stated in a press release: “No working particular person needs to be subjected to racism when doing their job. Employers should realise the obligations they’ve and create protected, anti-racist workplaces.”
A BBC spokesperson stated: “Whereas we don’t touch upon people, the BBC is in opposition to all types of racism, and we’ve sturdy processes in place ought to points ever come up.”
It comes after newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald condemned the incident. The 85-year-old instructed the Daily Mail: “I discover it in each approach crude and offensive and insulting. It couldn’t have been stated and not using a need to harm and insult actually. It’s not even humorous.”
When requested what motion the BBC ought to take, McDonald stated: “I might most likely have very harsh phrases with the one that stated that. And stated the society and the neighborhood wherein we stay regards that type of stuff as unnecessarily crude and offensive.”
