Brendan O'Carroll was born in Dublin in 1955, the youngest of eleven children. He left school aged twelve and over the years worked in a variety of jobs before turning to stand-up comedy in his forties.
Since then the father-of-three has become a bestselling novelist and is now one of the world's most successful comedians.
Brian Beacom is an award-winning entertainment writer at the Herald and Times group of newspapers based in Glasgow. He has written four books and two plays.