Bryan Murray announces Fair City departure

Murray is to retire from RTÉ soap Fair City after 20 years…

RTÉ have confirmed the actor is to depart the saga after two decades following his ongoing life with Alzheimer’s disease. In 2022 he publicly spoke about his diagnosis with the RTE Guide, saying at the time that he had hoped going public with the diagnosis would “help others”. He had been given the news in 2019.

“I wish I didn’t have it, but I do have it, and I’m still here. I have it and I am working with it. As a younger actor, I would get a script, it would be four pages and within 15 minutes I would know the lines. As I got older, I couldn’t do that any longer.” – Murray speaking to RTÉ Guide in 2022

For the last twenty years the 75-year-old performer has appeared as Bob Charles on Fair City, where he ran the McCoy’s pub. Over the years he’s been at the centre of several big storylines including a series of tumultuous events led to him being homeless for a period.

Bryan as Bob in Fair City / RTÉ

In another series of dramatic events, a romantic relationship with Judith led to Bob being shot when Judith was being stalked by Tommy Dillon. Throughout his time in Carrigstown, Bob has actively been involved in charity, community and philanthropic work. He now runs and operates the Hungry Pig, which after Covid, he attempted to burn down for insurance money. Bob eventually fell in love with and married his on-screen partner Renee Phelan, who is played by Bryan’s wife Una Crawford O’Brien.

Over in the UK he had a string of successful television parts including as notorious Trevor Jordache in Channel 4’s Brookside, the wife-beater husband of Mandy who ended up as a body under the patio – where his corpse lay for two years. Other series including BBC One sitcom Bread and TVS, for ITV, drama Perfect Scoundrels alongside the late Peter Bowles.

In December 2023 his career was celebrated when he was awarded the Irish Film & Television Academy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bryan with Sandra Maitland in Brookside as Mandy and Trevor Jordache / Channel 4 / Mersey TV

His acting career spans over five decades and began at the Abbey Theatre, where he went on to feature in over fifty productions. He has also performed at London’s Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Bryan has appeared in films including A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, The Disturbance at Dinner, Boy Eats Girl, Vita & Virginia and The Professor and the Madman.

He also hosted shows such as Encore and The Tenements, which received critical acclaim and an IFTA nomination. Bryan has worked with many Irish and international actors over the years, including Judi Dench, Peter O’Toole, Anna Friel, and Sean Penn among others.

Bryan Murphy and Peter Bowles in prime time TVS drama Perfect Scoundrels / Television South

Born in a rundown tenement in Islandbridge, his family later moved into a Corporation House in Arbour Hill that pulled his family out of destitution. In the 1980s he moved to London where he could afford a chic apartment thanks to regular work, and increasing fame, from shows such as BBC’s ‘Bread’, ‘The Irish RM’ and RTE’s ground-breaking drama ‘Strumpet City’. However, it wasn’t all money, fame and success. The financial windfall from a series of soap adverts in the US was lost in an ill-advised County Kildare Theme-Park scheme.

RTÉ have confirmed that Bryan and his character of Bob will be seen for the final time in Fair City on Thursday 24 April.

“Bryan took on the role of a man whose complex relationships and gripping storylines captured the attention of viewers across the country. Over the years, his portrayal of Bob has been a cornerstone of the show, delivering unforgettable moments” – RTÉ Fair City statement

Renee and Bob get married in Fair City, in 2019. Bryan with Una Crawford O’Brien / RTÉ