Sitcom plumbs scarcely imaginable new depths

Luckily, 'Mrs Brown's Boys' was aired when most potential viewers were safely unconscious, writes Sean O'Grady

- Sean O'Grady

For professional and other reasons (and I stress not exactly willingly), I've had to watch a fair amount of Mrs Brown's Boys over its inexplicably long presence on our screens. Often, I have felt very much like the character played by Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. If you recall the scene, the criminal Alex undergoes experimental compulsory aversion therapy to cure his violence. He is strapped to a chair, his eyelids forced open with metal clamps, so that he has to observe footage of the most appalling depravity, and is left screaming in agony, mentally scarred for life.