Main News Stories About 'Mrs. Brown's Boys':

• More Christmas specials ordered for Mrs. Brown's Boys (30/01/13)
• Possible fourth series after Mrs. Brown's Boys award win (24/01/13)
• Universal order Mrs. Brown's Boys movie (19/09/12)
• New pilot and Mrs. Brown's Boys cartoon in production (06/03/12)
• Mrs. Brown's Boys gets third series commission (22/11/11)
• Mrs. Brown's Boys gets a second series (22/03/11)

Mrs Brown's Boys dominates UK comedy sales

Mrs Brown's Boys dominated UK comedy sales during 2012.

Digital Spy, 12th March 2013

Man has heart attack watching Mrs Brown's Boys

A grandad has told how he laughed so hard at hit telly show Mrs Brown's Boys he suffered a heart attack.

The Sun, 11th February 2013

Third series finale attracts mixed reviews from fans

The third series of Mrs Brown's Boys has come to an end with some fans calling the finale 'amazing' while others blasted the show as 'irritating'.

Written by Ann Lee. Metro, 5th February 2013

Sorry, but this vulgar drag act is no comedy classic

Could Mrs Brown's Boys on BBC1 be the worst comedy ever transmitted on British television?

Written by Brian Viner. The Daily Mail, 4th February 2013

How the 'worst comedy ever made' became a smash hit

The critics loathe it, calling it 'crass', and 'lazy trash'. But Brendan O'Carroll's sitcom has attracted an enormous, loyal following. Where did it come from and why is it so loved?

Written by Brian Logan. The Guardian, 29th January 2013

Hugh Bonneville may star in Mrs Brown's Boys film

Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville is being lined up to star in a film based on Mrs Brown's Boys.

Written by Laura Armstrong. The Sun, 29th January 2013

The man behind Mrs Brown

One reviewer called the opening episode "jaw-droppingly past its sell-by date", while another said it was a mystery that the series was ever ­commissioned. But that mystery was not so hard to solve this Christmas when it was the star attraction in the ratings war.

The Daily Express, 25th January 2013

Brendan O'Carroll: 'I write for audience, not critics'

Brendan O'Carroll has said that he cannot go about pleasing critics with Mrs Brown's Boys.

Written by Catriona Wrightman and Kate Goodacre. Digital Spy, 24th January 2013

Video: Hate Mrs Brown's Boys? You'll love this video

Can't stand the sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys? You're not alone. Take some solace in our trailer for the episode we all want to see.

Huffington Post, 22nd January 2013

Brendan O'Carroll says Mrs Brown's Boys saved him

Brendan O'Carroll says Mrs Brown's Boys saved his life when he plunged into depression over a £2.2million debt.

Written by Laura Armstrong. The Sun, 22nd January 2013

More than seven million of you watched Mrs Brown's Boys - Brendan O'Carroll's fabulously foul-mouthed, warm-hearted cross-dressing Irish comedy - last week. Now that Mrs Brown is in her third series, the BBC must be wondering what the heck it was playing at when it assumed that My Family was the sitcom British TV audiences really wanted.

It isn't - this is: a middle-aged man in a permed wig and a silly frock chatting to the audience like an old-fashioned throwback to the days of The Dick Emery Show only with better jokes. Much, much better jokes.

The LOL-factor in Mrs Brown's Boys throws a great one-liner at you roughly three times a minute and, despite what the haters say, the joke isn't just the bad language - that's merely there for punctuation.

If you took away the plot, the silly costumes and all the "fecks" and just kept the gags, you'd still be left with a great stand-up set.

This week in Agnes Brown's world it's Valentine's Day and she's about to try her hand at internet dating. Her dim friend Winnie has a sex education book. Put all that together and you've got more comedy gold.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 21st January 2013

How could anyone enjoy Mrs Brown's Boys?

Dave Cohen tries to understand how anyone could enjoy Mrs Brown's Boys.

Written by Dave Cohen. Chortle, 11th January 2013

Mrs Brown's Boys proves festive TV ratings hit

Two-part special pulls 11.7m and 10.7m using consolidated figures, eclipsed over Christmas only by Strictly Come Dancing.

Written by John Plunkett. The Guardian, 4th January 2013

Grace Dent on TV: Mrs Brown's Boys BBC1

Irritating relatives, terrible jokes, mindless banter: the perfect accompaniment to a family Christmas

Written by Grace Dent. The Independent, 29th December 2012

In a way, this defiantly old-fashioned adult panto is TV's brightest emblem of the true spirit of Christmas, seeing as the only reasoned response to watching it is a solemnly uttered "Jesus Christ."

The argument in favour is that it appeals to an audience who have been ignored for too long, namely those overlooked millions who shriek with mirth at the very idea of a man in drag saying rude words and brandishing a vibrator. I can't argue with its popularity, but I can argue that it's a crass, depressing, lazy shriek of badly written garbage.

The only thing that could do more damage to our beloved comedy tradition of cross-dressing is if George Osborne personally demolished a trail of orphanages while dressed as Carmen Miranda.

Anyway, the BBC, in an extraordinary act of cruelty, have foisted not one but two Mrs Brown Christmas specials on us this year (Christmas Eve, 10.15pm, and Boxing Day, 9.30pm, BBC1). And wouldn't you know it, they're atrocious.

I'll give the limelight-hogging O'Carroll one grudging point for at least trying to make them as Christmassy as possible. Mrs B writes a nativity play in which she stars as the Virgin Mary. There's a bit of slapstick business with a Christmas tree, which is practically de rigueur. It's not at all funny, of course, but it's there.

Otherwise it's dismal business as usual: every useless gag is painfully signposted from miles away, before the whole thing degenerates into a horribly cynical puddle of forced, fake, unearned pathos. Tonight's Christmas Eve episode actually ends with Mrs B eulogising her dead dad to the strains of a music box. And this following 25 minutes of crude slapstick and "fecks" in which she's portrayed as a thoroughly unsympathetic ratbag. They'd be better off calling it "Mrs Brown's Schizoid Circus of Doom".

Fundamentally, I'd like to see Brendan O'Carroll introduce the Christmas institution of announcing your retirement from television.

Paul Whitelaw, The Scotsman, 24th December 2012

Created by and starring a genuine comedic genius, Brendan O'Carroll, Mrs. Brown's Boys is just-about the funniest, cleverest and most seemingly-effortless comedy on British television, deconstructing the classic structures of conventional sitcom and adding great clumps of Rabelaisian filth.

Victor Lewis-Smith, The Independent, 24th December 2012

Mrs Brown's Boys - 'We are not the Waltons'

Mrs Brown's Boys has been a surprise success - winning a Bafta for best sitcom and gathering up to eight million viewers on BBC One. It returns for a third series, starting with two Christmas specials on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. Its creator and star Brendan O'Carroll explains how it took 20 years to become an overnight success.

Written by Steven Brocklehurst. BBC News, 23rd December 2012

Mrs Brown's Boys UK arena tour announced

The cast of Mrs Brown's Boys have today announced a UK stadium tour for next year.

Written by Jordan Howell. iMediaMonkey, 27th November 2012

Marmite nature of Mrs Brown

The first time I saw Brendan O'Carroll on stage, I laughed until I cried. Mrs Agnes Brown had finally made her long-awaited Edinburgh debut. That was in 2008 at the Playhouse. I found him funny. Still do.

Written by Liam Rudden. The Scotsman, 8th November 2012

Mrs Brown's Boys repeats scoring big audiences

Mrs Brown's Boys has cemented its popularity in the UK with high ratings for its Saturday night repeats.

Written by Paul Millar. Digital Spy, 25th June 2012

Mrs Brown Rides Again - live review

The references to gays are horribly unfunny, the show's heavy-handed Oirishness makes me uncomfortable and many of the jokes are so old you could supply the punchlines. But there's an undeniable warmth to this show and it's filled with big laughs because of Brendan O'Carroll's superb clowning.

Written by Veronica Lee. The Arts Desk, 15th June 2012

Mrs Brown's Boys is a hit with autistic kids

Brendan O'Carroll's sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys is a hit with youngsters suffering autism.

The Sun, 6th June 2012

Mrs Brown's Boys: The Movie confirmed

Brendan O'Carroll confirms that Mrs Brown's Boys: The Film is set to happen. But it's a while off yet...

Written by Simon Brew. Den of Geek, 29th May 2012

Brendan O'Carroll turns down HBO Mrs Brown USA offer

Brendan O'Carroll has turned down a "ridiculous" amount of money to take Mrs Brown's Boys to the US.

JOE, 3rd April 2012

Mrs Brown's DVD sales hit a million

Brendan O'Carroll's hit comedy series Mrs Brown's Boys has sold more than a million DVDs since it hit the shelves last October.

Written by Allison Bray. Independent Ireland, 11th February 2012