It’s impossible to steal the show from Madea (Tyler Perry), but she’s got no choice but to share the spotlight with Agnes Brown (Brendan O’Carroll) in A Madea Homecoming. With her spurts of frank, hilariously inappropriate commentary, Agnes, the grand aunt of Davi (Isha Blaaker), quickly becomes one of the film’s most memorable characters. But for those in the UK, Agnes isn’t a new character at all.
She was introduced on Mrs. Brown’s Boys, O’Carroll’s original radio play that aired on Irish radio station RTÉ 2fm in 1992. The play follows the lives of Agnes and her family, and just as he does in A Madea Homecoming, O’Carroll plays Mrs. Agnes Brown, a fourth wall–breaking matriarch whose blunt commentary and comical lack of social graces guide much of the humor. He took on the role after the actor who was originally set to play Agnes was a no-show. The cast included members of O’Carroll’s own family, with his wife, Jennifer Gibney, playing Agnes’ daughter Cathy and his sister, Eilish O’Carroll, playing the role of Agnes’ best friend Winnie McGoogan. O’Carroll subsequently wrote multiple Agnes-centered books (in which the character’s last name is Browne) throughout the ’90s, including The Mammy, The Chisellers, The Granny and The Young Wan.
After several Agnes stories were turned into films and stage plays, producers approached O’Carroll about making a TV series based on the character, and in 2011, the Mrs. Brown’s Boys sitcom debuted on RTÉ One. The original sitcom ended in 2013, but 20 specials have aired between then and now, with Agnes’ distinct personality and a purposefully lackadaisical approach to production threading them together. On a thematic level, the story of Agnes is also tied to a certain grandma from across the pond.
In terms of her personality, Agnes is, in many ways, Madea’s spiritual cousin. Both share a knack for curt but quippy commentary, splashes of unpredictability and tough love. Speaking to her daughter Cathy, Agnes lets loose a casually ruthless one-liner after offering Cathy some chocolate. “No, that will ruin my figure,” her daughter responds. “Seriously, Cathy, it’s a bit late for that now,” Agnes retorts.
The Madea-Agnes similarities go well beyond attitude, though; their origin stories also have a lot in common. For his part, Tyler Perry has said that his lovingly wise mother Willie Maxine and his feisty Aunt Mayola inspired the pistol-packing Madea. While O’Carroll had previously denied that Agnes was based on his own mother, the late Maureen, he later noted that her fiercely independent spirit — she advocated for women’s rights as a member of the Irish Parliament during a time when husbands could legally beat their wives — and bluntness partially inspired Agnes.
“When I’m writing, I think, ‘What will Agnes do?’ and then wonder what my mother would do,” O’Carroll told Radio Times in 2013. “She gives me the answers. My mother still speaks to me every day.” After meeting in person, it didn’t take long for O’Carroll and Perry to consider getting Agnes and Madea on the same screen — though O’Carroll was skeptical at first. “Initially, I thought, ‘I don't know if this will work,’ ” O’Carroll told Screen Rant earlier this year. “But once we started talking, even off screen as Tyler and Brendan, there was a chemistry there that was undeniable. You kind of went, ‘You know what? We’ve got to get these two women together.’ ”
From their rambunctious personas to the inspirations behind them, Madea and Agnes Brown are two peas in the proverbial stylistic pod — a raucous cocktail of irreverence and sincerity that threads connections from across the pond and beyond.
