Mrs Brown's Boys creator snubbed Russia over gay demand

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Brendan O’Carroll, who plays Agnes Brown, was offered a Russian licencing deal
But he was told he would have to remove gay character Rory Brown from show
Mr O'Carroll, who has already made £10m from the show, said he turned it down
Russia has tight laws banning anything deemed to be 'promoting homosexuality'

Published: 16:52 EST, 20 December 2017 | Updated: 19:35 EST, 20 December 2017

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The creator of Mrs Brown's Boys has revealed he turned down a lucrative TV deal in Russia because he was asked to write a gay character out of the show.

Irish comic Brendan O’Carroll said he was offered a 'nice little deal' by Russian TV networks to licencing the show to be shown on state networks.

But the deal would only go through if Rory Brown, who is openly homosexual, was completely removed from the script.

Brendan O’Carroll (right) says he turned down a 'nice little deal' from Russian TV for the show because they wanted to remove gay character Rory (left)

'I said "no gay, no show". And that was it,' he told The Sun.

He said other eastern European countries also raised concerns about the character, but these were all resolved.

For example, in Romania, the character still dresses and acts the same, but it is never openly mentioned that he is gay.

Russia has strict laws banning any material that is deemed to be 'promoting homosexuality' in order to 'protect children'.

O'Carroll has already made an estimated £10million fortune from the comic creation, which was voted the best sitcom of the 21st century by Radio Times readers.

Despite being panned by critics it has been a huge hit with audiences, and has since branched out into a live tour which has traveled around the world.

O’Carroll is estimated to have made around £10million from the show and live tours, and said he turned down a $100million deal to make the show for American TV

In March he told The Sun that he had also been offered the eye-watering sum of $100million to make the show in American, but also rejected it.

He said: 'NBC offered me ridiculous money to do the series in the States.

'It would have been for three seasons of 24 episodes each, but during those seasons, I couldn’t tour, I would hardly see my grandkids and I’d have to work with a team in a writers’ room that I would basically be locked in.

'But when I broke it down, I figured half of it would go on taxes, so that’s 50 million, I wouldn’t be able to tour or work for the BBC, so that takes it to 35 million, which over three years works out at $11million [£9million] a year.

'We can f***ing earn that without having to change our lives.'