Brendan O'Carroll says Mrs Brown's Boys storylines are ‘based on true events'
O'Carroll, 69, who is best known for playing the menacing matriarch, Agnes Brown, in the hit BBC comedy series, will reprise the role in a new miniseries.
The fifth series, which is due to air on August 1 on BBC One, follows Mrs Brown as her meddling – into the lives of her family and friends, takes her on a number of misadventures.
Speaking about the new series, O'Carroll said: 'Believe it or not most of the storylines are based on true events that either happened to my family or have been told to me by people about their families.
'Everybody has a story, and it's quite common for someone in a family to say in the middle of a family disaster, 'This is like an episode of Mrs Brown's Boys'.
'In every episode there is something that stands out for me. I love being Agnes Brown and I love her family, and her neighbours like Winnie and Birdy.'
The new series will see Mrs Brown as she becomes the subject of a podcast, helps Winnie pass her driving test and becomes the unexpected new member of a book club where she discovers a 'passion' for steamy fiction.
Mrs Brown's Boys was first broadcast on BBC One in 2011 and has since transmitted more than 50 episodes, including Christmas specials.
The Bafta-winning series is filmed in front of a studio audience which O'Carroll described as 'essential'.
He said: 'So many times, at the end of rehearsals for a particular episode, our director, Ben Kellett will say 'all this needs now is the audience' and he is so right.
'They follow every move, every line and add so much to our performances. We would be lost without them.'
The miniseries will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Friday August 1.
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One morning, one of Hunter's gate attendant coworkers asked if he could pass on some papers to the captain of a soon-to-depart Spirit flight, which was heading to Orlando, Florida. This kind of task, says Hunter, was 'typically not my job, I did not normally do that.' But off he went, walking down the gangway and onto the aircraft. He passed on the paperwork to the captain and then waited for the all-clear to disembark. It didn't come right away, so Hunter stood by the door, biding his time. 'There was some sort of delay in him processing the paperwork,' he recalls. Also standing at the front of the aircraft was another guy, the flight attendant looking after the front half of the plane. This, of course, was John. Back then, John was a total stranger to Hunter. Sure, they both worked for the same airline — but so did thousands of other people scattered across the United States. 'We had never seen each other prior to that day,' says John, who was in his late 20s at the time. 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The couple savored the time together. 'It felt nice going to work together and actually spending three full days together. And spending time at the layover hotel together, eating dinner together,' recalls John. 'When you work together, it's almost like you're on vacation,' says Hunter. 'Yeah, you are working through the day. But once you're done with the day, you're at the hotel, you can go to the pool.' Flying together for the first time also felt like a momentous step. Here they were, working a Spirit Airlines flight together, where a year previously they'd been strangers on another Spirit aircraft. 'You go back to that first time you met,' says Hunter. Months passed and the couple settled into life in Michigan. Conversations about marriage started to take place 'a little bit here and there,' as Hunter recalls. The two had a trip to Puerto Rico coming up — John was working and Hunter was coming along for a vacation. As they mapped out the trip, Hunter started to think this could be the perfect opportunity to ask John to marry him. He spoke to John's mother about his plans to propose. 'I really love your son. I really think I want to spend the rest of my life with him,' Hunter told her. He also spoke with one of the couple's mutual friends, a fellow Spirit Airlines flight attendant who'd be on the trip too — he wanted to have a friend on side who could document the proposal when it came. As for John, he had no idea what was coming. On the second day of the trip, John and Hunter were walking along a sandy beach together in San Juan. The other crew member was armed with her camera phone, ready to capture the moment. 'We were just walking around doing the touristy stuff. And I remember I had a coffee in my hand, I was looking out in the water, and then I turned around and he's on one knee,' says John. 'I was just completely shocked, and of course I said yes.' 'We were both so happy,' says Hunter. Straight away, John called his mother, he was crying happy tears and so was she. That's when John realized that she'd known what was coming. 'I'm like, 'Oh my god, this is actually happening.' It all clicked, like the rest of my life is coming together perfectly.' Hunter and John planned a small wedding, putting the money they would have spent on larger celebrations towards a honeymoon. 'So we did a super small wedding on the West Coast. We brought our parents, two friends,' says Hunter, who changed his name following the wedding, becoming Hunter Smith-Lihas. 'It was beautiful,' says John. Hunter and John's families get on really well, and always enjoy spending time together and with their respective sons-in-law. 'John's mom and my mom are great together. John's dad and my dad are great together. I love all his cousins, his nieces,' says Hunter. 'My dad loves you,' John tells Hunter. 'My grandmother, who recently passed in October, she was an old-school Greek person and she came to America when she was just 18. And when she met Hunter, she fell in love with him.' 'It's very nice that we all get along, our families just love each other.' After the wedding, John and Hunter headed off on what Hunter calls 'a lavish European vacation.' The trip also coincided with John's 30th birthday, so there was plenty to celebrate. En route, Hunter and John were upgraded to first class. They enjoyed flying in style — and the fact they were the ones being served, for once. 'It was the middle of winter. And when we landed in Paris, it was snowing. We saw all the snow and we went to the Eiffel Tower and there was snow everywhere. It was so magical,' says John. Today, John and Hunter still work together, although they're no longer at Spirit Airlines and now live in Florida. A few years ago, the couple both applied for jobs with another major US airline. They were keen for new career opportunities and more opportunities to travel internationally. It was a risky decision to make just as aviation was getting back on its feet in the wake of the pandemic. For a long stretch in 2020, both John and Hunter were grounded and unsure when — or if — they'd ever return to the skies. 'Not only was it a global health pandemic, but now you're out of a job for the time being, too. So it was just a lot. It was really scary at the time,' says Hunter. 'But we grew together, we made work,' says John. It was John who first suggested moving to a new airline. When he voiced the thought aloud, Hunter echoed it back to him. 'We both just wanted more, because Spirit only flew to the US, a little bit of South America and the Caribbean. Whereas where we're at now services all the continents except Antarctica,' says Hunter. 'So that was another huge step we took together.' Before they applied, Hunter and John talked about what might happen if one of them got the job, and the other didn't. 'We decided, if one of us gets it, that's great. We'll be fine. We'll make it work,' says Hunter. 'We believe in each other, that's the thing,' says John. The couple applied on the same day. They interviewed on the same day. And in the end, they both got hired on the same day and began training together. At their current airline, John and Hunter have the same level of seniority, so they can bid for the same flights. This makes it easy for them to coordinate their schedules and work the same flights. Nowadays they often work on large, wide body aircraft, so they don't always see each other much during the flight. 'If one of us is in economy, and the other is first class, we definitely see each other a lot less as opposed to when you're working in the same cabin,' says Hunter. 'But I mean, there's always like a time where I can just pop up there and say hi, or vice versa, John can come back and say hi.' And, of course, there are those moments — like on the recent flight to London — where they're both working in the same cabin, and can watch one another at work, excelling at their jobs, and share the odd secret smile. 'It just goes to show you never know who you're going to meet, when and where, you just never know who that one person is going to be.' Hunter Smith-Lihas Hunter's also followed in the footsteps of the flight attendant vlogger who first introduced him to the aviation profession and started documenting his job on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. He hopes his content might inspire or help others keen to work in the industry. Both Hunter and John plan to work up in the air for as long as they can. 'This is what I've dreamt about since I was six years old,' says John. 'I don't see myself doing anything else. I will be a flight attendant forever until I decide to retire.' 'I think for both of us, this is our career. This is our lifelong career,' says Hunter. 'Because what other job can you say, 'Oh, well on Monday, I'm going to New York and Tuesday I'm going to Africa.' There's always the element of surprise and adventure with this job.' Whatever the future brings, for Hunter and John, one of the most memorable on-the-job surprises will always be meeting each other. 'I saw so many different faces every day, it's hard to see the same face twice. And then suddenly, he comes along. And now it's been six years later, and I'm still seeing him,' says Hunter. 'I never thought this would happen to me, to be honest, never — even coming across so many people day to day, coworkers, passengers,' says John. 'I always believe it was always meant to be.' 'It almost makes me teary-eyed,' adds Hunter. 'When I look back, I just never in a million years thought that this is where we together would be after that chance encounter. It just makes me almost emotional, it makes me want to cry. It's just an overwhelming happiness. It just goes to show you never know who you're going to meet, when and where, you just never know who that one person is going to be.' EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published in May 2023. It was republished in July 2025 to include a new episode of CNN's Chance Encounters podcast focused on Hunter and John's love story
