If you are writing comedy and try to please everybody, you'll please nobody.
Brendan O'Carroll
I can only write what makes me laugh, and what makes me laugh is the comedy I grew up on.
For many people, Mrs. Brown has come from the middle of nowhere. But Mrs. Brown was first written for radio. I wrote it for a radio series in 1992. It was a five-minute piece for radio, and it's been absolutely astonishing.
Anyone who thinks they can write the perfect comedy that everyone will love is a fool. I can only write what I think is funny and hope that there is a likeminded audience out there.
You write what makes you laugh, and you hope that the audience agree, and so far they do.
I don't know the secret of Mrs. Brown, but what I do know is that there are things that Mrs. Brown says and does that Brendan O'Carroll couldn't get away with. I think maybe it's a leniency that they're with an old woman. It's the old woman thing. I think secretly we all just want to be Joan Rivers.
I think with 'Modern Family,' you'll struggle to find anything better. It's brilliantly, brilliantly written.
People have really taken Mrs. Brown to their hearts. I think she reminds them of their own mammies... Fierce and scary but full of love.
I miss the comedy of the '70s and '80s, like 'Only Fools And Horses' and 'Fawlty Towers,' so I'm glad I'm put in that category.
