...while Mrs Brown's Boys takes the comedy gong – again

Alan Carr won a special recognition prize at the  National Television Awards last night –  as Mrs Brown's Boys won the comedy category again.

It is the sixth time Brendan O’Carroll’s sitcom has won the award, which is voted for by the viewing public.

Carr’s semi-autobiographical ITV comedy Changing Ends was up for the same award and he told the BBC before the ceremony: ‘Mrs Brown's Boys wins every year, why am I even here?’

But in the end he won the special award –  the only category not chosen – by the public, having won Celebrity Traitors last year.  The programme took the reality competition prize – and accepting the award, fellow contestant Charlotte Church, praised the show's final as a ‘beautiful vignette of male tenderness and emotional expression’, adding:  Alan, Nick [Mohammed] and David [Olusoga], you were just absolutely sublime.’

Carr learned of his special recognition award when  Amanda Holden, his friend and co-presenter on property renovation shows, sang I Know Him So Well along with Paloma Faith, who he famously ‘murdered’ on Celebrity Traitors. 

The comic choked back tears as he realised the song was about him as Church, Olusoga and Kate Garraway also joined in.

@chattyman gets a surprise performance from some familiar faces as he celebrates an incredible contribution to television ✨ The 2026 Special Recognition Award goes to Alan Carr. A very well deserved #NTA206 pic.twitter.com/15LA1eJaaJ

— National TV Awards (@OfficialNTAs) September 8, 2026

On stage, he said he should have realised he was going to be a winner as ‘they never put me in the front row – I'm always at the back with the people from Naked Attraction’.

Turning to Faith and Holden he said: ‘You singing to me, both of you, oh my, I mean, it's too much – and I'm sorry, I'm crying again.

‘I look out here, and I see Olly who played me in Changing Ends, and then I see the runners, and I see the researchers who brought me my tea on Friday Night Project and Chatty Man, and they're up for awards. I see them coming up. It's amazing. 

‘It's been very surreal – and triggering. But thank you, because you know what? If you didn't watch the show and vote, then I wouldn't be here.

‘So thank you, and Danny Julian, my angel, I was going to call you. You are my agent and my angel. Thank you so much.’

Amandaland, Last One Laughing and Not Going Out had also been nominated in the comedy category.

O'Carroll, 70, was absent from the ceremony at The O2 in London as he is recovering from surgery to fix a fractured jaw– which has also led to the postponement of this year’s two Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas specials and a live panto.

Co-star  Fiona Gibney, who plays Sharon and is O’Carroll's sister-in-law, said after the show: ‘He’s doing great… he’s doing very well.  He's very sad not to be here.’

Published: 9 Sep 2026