Mrs Brown’s Boys to air until at least 2026, Brendan O’Carroll confirms

Show creator signed new deal with the BBC for six more years of Christmas specials

Mrs Brown’s Boys will be on the air until at least 2026.

The hugely popular BBC sitcom, which stars Irish comedian Brendan O’Carroll in drag as the titular Irish matriarch, returns to our screen this festive season with new episodes on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

Mrs Brown’s Boys specials have been aired by the BBC every Christmas since the series’ debut in 2011, with O’Carroll confirming that the show would keep producing Christmas specials until at least 2026.

Speaking to The Irish Sun, the writer, who first performed the comedy character in 1992, revealed that he had signed a new BBC contract in December guaranteeing that any specials he made would be broadcast at 10pm on 25 December.

“We’ve been doing it for nine years already — which is six more than The Royle Family had and more than Morecambe and Wise,” he said.

The show will keep airing until 2026 (BBC Studios / Alan Peebles)

“This new deal we signed last week goes all the way to 2026, which means I will be able to grow into the part, and we’ve a clause in which guarantees Mrs Brown is aired at 10pm on Christmas night, or else we don’t have to make it.”

He continued: “I wanted that because if it’s not good enough for Christmas Day, then we shouldn’t be making it.”

This year’s Christmas special of Mrs Brown’s Boys is titled “Orange is the New Mammy” and sees the crude-mouthed matriarch contend with the perils of life during the coronavirus pandemic.

Though Mrs Brown’s Boys has earned consistently high viewership ratings throughout its time on the air, it has faced condemnation from some viewers and critics for its broad comic sensibilities.

Both the 2018 and 2019 Christmas specials were given one-star reviews in The Independent, with Sean O’Grady writing that the show was “so awful that it is physically painful to sit through”.