Whether you're a fan of Mrs. Brown's Boys or not, there's no denying that it has been an absolutely enormous success - so much so that even Russian TV wanted to broadcast it at one point.

The show's star and creator Brendan O'Carroll, however, has revealed that he turned down what would have been a pretty big licencing deal to broadcast the show in Russia because they wanted to edit out gay character Rory.

The character was formerly played by Rory Cowan, who quit the show earlier this year, and is now portrayed by O'Carroll's real-life son Eric.

He told The Sun: “[Russia] is a big country so the fee you’d charge for the licensing is audience-related, so it’s a big audience and it would have been a nice fee. But [they said] ‘no gay, absolutely no gay’. So I said ‘no gay, no show’. And that was it.”

He added that other countries who broadcast the show, such as Romania, have also tried to edit the character out. “Romania threatened, but then went ahead with it," he said. "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.”

Cowan, meanwhile, is currently starring in Olympia panto 'Polly and the Beanstalk', having taken on Al Porter's role when the comedian dropped out following rumours of sexual harassment.