October 2016 - £1.00 www.theharpnews.com @TheHarpNews The Harp News
In tune with the Irish community
Daniel O'Donnell helps Tuesday Club celebrate 30th Anniversary
Mrs Brown is back! SEE CENTRE PAGES
By Gabriel Filan
The Irish love a good funeral it has to be said and a funeral will form the backdrop when Brendan O’Carroll’s Mrs Brown stage show returns to the Midlands in 2017.
The latest live installment of the all-conquering television series - Good Mourning Mrs Brown - comes to the Genting Arena at the NEC from April 6-8 next year. Once again comedian Brendan O’Carroll plays his inimitable female alter ego Agnes Brown. Good Mourning Mrs Brown revolves around Agnes planning Granddad’s funeral. A slight technicality is that Granddad is not actually dead yet! The Mrs Brown bandwagon continues to roll and has come a long way since the
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stage show first took to the road playing at far smaller theatres than the arenas it now visits. Initially its popularity grew through word of mouth but over time it has become a phenomenon of epic proportions, morphing into a TV show that was recently voted the best sitcom of the 21st century in a Radio Times online poll. A 2013 Christmas special on BBC1 was watched by more people than the Queen’s Speech and Eastenders. A spokesman for the Genting Arena said: “If you haven’t experienced Mrs Brown’s Boys live, this show is not to be missed - it’ll have you laughing your socks off from beginning to end.” Mrs Brown might not be to all tastes but its success cannot be denied. The television version of the show is produced in the United Kingdom by BBC
Scotland in partnership with BocPix and RTÉ. Its unique charm and endearing appeal owes much to the fact O’Carroll is surrounded by a cast comprising close friends and family members. The show adopts an informal production style where production mistakes and tomfoolery, mostly instigated by O’Carroll, are edited into each episode. Despite being lambasted by critics, the show has become a ratings success in both Ireland, where it is set, and the United Kingdom, where it is recorded. Its popularity is also growing in Australia and Canada and the show has won a host of awards.
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