In January the character of Mrs Brown stormed to the top of our Blue Nun poll when we asked you who your favourite older woman on TV was. Mrs Brown, created and played by Brendan O'Carroll, pipped June Whitfield as Gran in 'Absolutely Fabulous', Maggie Smith's Downton Dowager Countess and Nana Royle to the post! So we know that Mrs Brown is a force to be reckoned with.
Now Mrs. Brown is back, not with a TV series but a feature length film, 'Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie'. In it Moore street market trader Mrs Brown's stall is under threat from a developer. Naturally Mrs Brown and her family launch a campaign to save her stall. The Browns find allies in a troop of blind trainee ninjas, an alcoholic solicitor and a barrister with Tourettes Syndrome. Mrs Brown is ready for "d'mother of all battles".
Now that Mrs Brown has both topped our female focused poll and has a film coming out we are wondering if it is time to revisit Rebecca Ellis's article on the character. In it Rebecca examines the presence (or lack of) older women on our screens: "Marketed as ‘the domineering but loveable mother hen that you wouldn’t mess with,’ Brendan O’Carroll’s creation displays a caricature of the hallmarks of older femininity quickly disapearing from our screens when in female form. Mrs Brown’s Boys shows us that it is possible for an elderly woman to thrive on prime time TV, but only if it’s when the audience is in on the fact that she’s actually a man."
Rebecca's description of Mrs Brown makes her sound like a female character after our own heart "Agnes Brown is not a particularly negative female representation with comedy created in her defiance of the expectations of proper female conduct."
No wonder she topped our poll.
Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie is out in cinemas on Friday 27th June
