Mrs. Brown's Boys (series)

Mrs. Brown's Boys is an Irish television sitcom produced by BBC Scotland and, and aired in the United Kingdom on BBC One.

Created and written by Irish actor and comedian, Brendan O'Carroll, the series focuses on the titular Agnes Brown (played by O'Carroll), the elderly matriarch of the Brown family, including her five children (four sons and a daughter; the "boys" of the title).

The show is known for its informal production style, often breaking the fourth wall, and outtakes and tomfoolery, usually instigated by O'Carroll, being edited into the episodes.

The show's characters originated from stage and radio plays, books, and straight-to-DVD films, with the main show's success going on to spawn a touring stage show, a talkshow, and a theatrical feature film.

The show is a popular mainstay on the BBC: initially consisting of full, multi-episode seasons, their output has consisted, in more recent years, of their annual Christmas and New Year's specials, a staple of BBC One's late evening schedule for the two holidays. It's prominence on these days has led to two minor crossovers with the Doctor Who universe via invalid promotional material.

Crossovers
As a tie-in to the show's annual festive specials, Agnes Brown has appeared in two of BBC One's annual Christmas idents with DWU elements, with Brendan O'Carroll reprising the role in both instances.

In 2011's Consider Yourself One Of Us, Agnes appears among the host of BBC stars at a Christmas party, at which the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, and a Cyberman are also in attendance. In 2012, Agnes appeared once again in It's Showtime, in a scene in which she mistakes the Doctor's TARDIS for a dressing room, hoping it was actually "bigger than it looks", before she enters it, and it dematerialises away.

References in the DWU
Only one reference to the series has been documented in DWU media thus far.

In SOS, the first episode of the audio series, Doctor Who: Redacted, when Cleo Proctor learned from her brother, Jordan, that his work colleague, Tony, had vanished, Cleo admitted that "[she] thought Tony was the boring one who liked cryptocurrencies and Mrs. Brown's Boys".

The somewhat disparaging nature of the remark may be a nod to the show's notoriously polarising reception from critics and viewers in spite of its success.

Cast and guests
Sorcha Cusack, who played Mary Carter in the audio stories, Master of the Daleks, and Eye of Darkness, was the original actress to play Hillary Nicholson, the snobbish mother of Agnes' daughter-in-law, Maria, in the show's first series ( played her in subsequent appearances). Cusack later returned to play Justice Dickie in the theatrical film,.

Conor Moloney, who voiced both Dawson and Greaves in the webcast story, Scream of the Shalka, plays the local priest, Father Damian.

Celebrity guests to appear on the spinoff talkshow,, include Adam Woodyatt, Ross Kemp, Sue Perkins, Emilia Fox, Sunetra Sarker, Jonnie Peacock, Peter Jones, Nigel Havers, Emily Atack, Noel Edmonds, John Barrowman, Lee Mack, Joanna David, Matt Lucas, Joel Dommett, and Jonathan Ross.

Two other actors to be appear in the aforementioned were Dermot Crowley, an actor who previously auditioned for the Seventh Doctor, as P.R. Irwin, and Raj Ghatak, a reoccurring voice actor for Big Finish Productions, as Rab Patel.

Festive specials
Mrs. Brown's Boys' festive specials have consistently been a staple of BBC One's Christmas and New Year schedules since the show's first broadcast year of 2011. Initially being shown on either Christmas Eve or Boxing Day (or both), the show's Christmas specials have consistently been broadcast on Christmas Day beginning from 2013, as a result, being pitted against Doctor Who's own Christmas specials in the ratings for the day. For every one of those years, the Mrs. Brown special would rank higher than Doctor Who's in the ratings for the week.

Beginning from 2015, Mrs. Brown has also regularly broadcast an additional special on New Year's Day, with Doctor Who once again having to compete against it, following its own annual festive special's move from Christmas Day in 2019. In contrast to the Christmas specials, Doctor Who managed to receive higher ratings for the week each year.

Even in years where Mrs. Brown's specials did not share a broadcast day with those of Doctor Who, the sitcom was still able to outrank the Doctor in consolidated ratings for the Christmas week, such as in 2012, in which that year's Christmas Eve and Boxing Day editions of the sitcom both managed to outrank The Snowmen, shown in between them.