I’ll keep on acting...it’s Alzheimer’s not a death sentence
Soap star couple on coping with actor’s diagnosis
They put scripts on walls, they hold the scripts BRYAN MURRAY ON TV SOAP ACTING PROMPTS
yesterday, because sometimes yesterday is gone and he needs the reminder.
“Acting is his first love and to think it might be taken away from you because you have Alzeimher’s was devastating. “He was given this new lease of life.” Bryan added: “I told our Fair City producer Brigie de Courcy that my condition was getting worse and she told me they would stand by me.”
Recalling that moment, he said: “It was like when Clark Kent becomes Superman again.
“They’ve really taken care of me, they say we will do what we can to support your condition.
“It means I can move forward.” As for getting killed off, the couple joked that you never know when your time is up in soapland.
Una added: “I’m back in April, Bryan is back in June, we don’t know where the story of Renee and Bob will go to next.
“Sometimes Galway is the place you are sent to get rid of you, there are places you don’t want to hear them sending you too, as you may never come back.
“Being in a soap, it’s the best job to be in as it’s the most consistent but you never know when you’re going to be killed.”
The duo admitted they would love a “bit of grit and nastiness” to be added to their storylines.
Bryan, who played villain Trevor Jordache on Brookside in the 1990s, said playing the baddie captures the imagination of the public. He said: “When I was playing Trevor, I realised you get the best reviews if you play a bad guy.
“The worse they are, the more the public like them. The first day we shot the beating of Sarah Maitland in Brookside, the next day I had to have a police escort in.
“People still say to me on the bus, ‘Oh you’re Trevor from Brookie’.”
Nostalgia is key in helping to keep memories alive for Bryan.
Photographs of some of his biggest acting roles don the walls of their home.
Una said: “We have photos everywhere and he sees them everywhere. “The big ones like The Irish RM. “We have a huge poster on the stairs of Peter Bowles sitting backwards on a horse.
“We have a photo of Sir Paul Mccartney when his wife was in Bread, another picture of Bryan meeting the Queen Mother. “His career was vast. “Also back in the Peacock [theatre] is where he started so that’s like going home for him.”
Brian and Una are ambassadors for the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland Tea Day on May 4.
An Old Song, Half Forgotten runs at the Abbey Theatre, Peacock Stage, Dublin from April 14 to May 6.