Shedites | BBC piloting new sitcom starring Mrs Brown’s Boys creator

 

Like it or not, Mrs Brown’s Boys has consistently been one of the top rated sitcoms on the BBC since its debut in 2011. Brendan O’Carroll’s foul mouthed Mammy has sharply divided audiences and critics, but there’s no denying the comedy appeals to a lot of people, selling out multiple arena tours and transferring to the big screen in 2011 with Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie.

It is perhaps surprising that it’s taken until now for O’Carroll to headline another sitcom for the BBC. He wrote an Army sitcom called Lebanese Outpost, which was in development at the BBC in 2021, but nothing has been produced.

According to the British Comedy Guide, Shedites comes from the pen of O’Carroll’s Mrs Brown’s Boys co-star and co-writer Paddy Houlihan. O’Carroll stars alongside Tommy Cannon, best known as one half of double act Cannon and Ball. Houlihan and O’Carroll’s son Danny O’Carroll are also in the cast.

The pilot episode was shot in April and was directed by Ian Fitzgibbon, and is said to be about “lonely men finding friendship and purpose in their sheds”, with O’Carroll and Cannon playing best friends.

 

O’Carroll said, “I’ve been advocating for the BBC to make this show for a long time because as well as being really funny, it highlights men’s mental health”. He went on to say that “no one is going to mistake me for Mrs Brown ’cause I’ll have a beard and a moustache in this.”

The Men’s Sheds Association is the UK’s largest men’s mental health charity. It helps men take part in local activities and enjoy the company of others, with the aim of improving wellbeing.

O’Carroll is bringing Mrs Brown’s Boys back for its traditional Christmas specials this year incidentally, and two episodes will be broadcast in December.