Brendan O’Carroll was on the Marian Finucane show last weekend and when speaking about the replacement for Rory on Mrs Browns Boys, he spoke about the troubles he had with Russian when negotiating a license for Russian tv.

He said: “They didn’t want any gay [content], in Russia in particular.

He talked about the lucrative deal saying “it was a nice little deal because it’s a big country, the fee you charge for licensing is audience related”

They told him: “no gay, absolutely no gay” to which he retaliated: “well no gay, no show and that was it”.

This is not the first time he has dealt with backlash from countries about not wanting to feature any gay characters in the show:

“Romania threatened it [to cut the gay characters], but then when ahead with it.

What they’ve done is, the Rory character is the Rory character and he’s still gay, but they never mention that he’s gay. But it’s [still] Rory.”

He added: “The comedian that does Mrs Brown in Romania, he doesn’t even bother trying to put on a voice!”

Brendan O’Carroll has long been a supporter of the LGBT+ community and he famously made a video during the marriage equality referendum when he lent his voice to the Yes Equality campaign with a video.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38WRQrR2br4[/embedyt]

Speaking in the video, which also stars Mrs Brown’s on-screen gay son Rory (Rory Cowan), she says, “Nothing beats the joy and contentment I feel knowing that my son Rory has just as much opportunity for happiness as everybody else’s son. And that’s all I ask for him, the opportunity.”

His sister, Eilish O’Carroll who plays Winnie, Mrs Brown’s next door neighbour came out as gay in her mid 40’s.