Sir, – I was very surprised to see your newspaper knock a true Irish business success story. “So the bad news is that Mrs Brown’s Boys really is that popular” was the closing line of a piece about TV ratings (Laura Slattery, Media Marketing, September 27th).
The fact is, in addition to its TV ratings success, Mrs Brown’s Boys and its creator and star Brendan O’Carroll directly employ more than 20 people, retain numerous professionals (myself included) and are responsible for numerous jobs in the BBC, at concert promoters, theatres and stadiums, not to mention the executives at RTÉ.
Mrs Brown’s Boys has TV viewers of more than one million in Ireland and almost eight million in the UK, and is moving into other territories. The Mrs Brown’s Boys plays are performed in front of about 5,000 people each night across the United Kingdom and abroad.
There are also sales of books, merchandising and DVDs.
It is a shame this true home- grown success could not be celebrated rather than be subject to such negative comment. The comment in question was possibly intended as a joke but it wasn’t funny. We know funny or at least the business of funny. – Yours, etc,