Judy Murray and her mum were Mrs Brown's first guests in pilot for new Saturday chat show

"We did the pilot and it was such fun, it really was" O'Carroll told RadioTimes.com. "We had Judy Murray and her mother on and Judy was hilarious and then her mother came on and she was twice as hilarious."

Would the pair say it was 40 love to Judy or 40 love to her interviewer Cathy? “I’d say it was 40 love to Mrs Brown”, O’Carroll laughed.

The Irish comedian and his wife Jennifer Gibney – who plays daughter Cathy – were at the National Television Awards to collect the 4th Best Comedy gong for Mrs Brown's Boys.

The pair are eager to get Graham Norton, Jeremy Kyle, Jonathan Ross and Ant and Dec round for a Saturday night natter in the new series, which sees Cathy taking the lead as chat show host and sitting down to talk to the celebs for her very own blog – or video blog – while her mammy watches over proceedings.

"Of course my mother decides to sit in on the interview to be helpful," chuckled Gibney, "roughly translated as 'to interfere'."

"The thing is [the guests] have to bring their mother", O’Carroll explained, "so Mrs Brown interviews their mother in the kitchen. And then we have Chef Ali cooking their favourite meal for them.”

Gibney is excited to take on the challenge, but said she won't try competing with Ant and Dec for Saturday night stardom. "Nobody could take on Ant and Dec, they’re the kings. They always will be," she said, before adding that Graham Norton's gig was safe, too.

But with a new light entertainment show on the cards, traditional series of Mrs Brown's Boys will be put on the back burner.

"I think it’ll be Christmas specials for now. I mean, we did half a series this year between the live and the two Christmas specials", O'Carroll said.

But that much talked about film sequel hasn't been ruled out just yet. "We’re still talking to Universal but time wise we just don’t have the time yet," O'Carroll revealed. "We’ve got Australia in January, February and March. That kind of ties up next year as well."

They do have time, however, to thank the fans who voted Mrs Brown's Boys the best sitcom of the 21st century in a RadioTimes.com poll.

"We haven’t had a chance to say to the Radio Times and all the readers, thank you. We were absolutely bombed out by it. It was incredible. We’re still pinching ourselves", said Gibney.

And as for those who still criticise the show and can't fathom its success? Well, O'Carroll doesn't pay them too much heed.

"We don’t really think about the naysayers because they’re the only ones that don’t pay in."