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Open Mike Conor O’Hagan meets Mike Murphy . Now 78 and as energetically relaxed as ever, he claims – emphatically and just about plausibly – to be doing nothing these days.
To paraphrase Voltaire -- as one does, whenever the opportunity arises --if Mike Murphy hadn’t existed, it would probably have been necessary for RTE to invent him. The quintessential Mr Versatile of Irish broadcasting; if anyone can lay claim to having been there and done that, plus quite a few other things along the way, it’s Mike Murphy. Now 78 and as energetically relaxed as ever, he claims – emphatically and just about plausibly – to be doing nothing these days. ‘Just trying to stay healthy, really. I walk, swim half a mile in the sea every day – that sort of thing.’ Not here in Ireland, you understand. The Murphys (Mike and second wife Anne) spend large parts of the year in Florida and Spain; the fruits of Mike’s successful career in business, rather than his 35 years as one of Ireland’s most ubiquitous TV faces. He’s had a difficult year; a bad fall left him with a shattered shoulder and a long road back to recovery, including a major back operation and ‘unbelievably bad physical pain.’which to all intents and purposes he has managed. If he has aged as a result, it’s not obvious. Mike Murphy is in good shape. And the voice; as easy on the ear as ever; paced, melodic and always just a little quizzical. Like his former friend, colleague and once mentor Terry Wogan’s, it’s a vehicle well-suited to light humour, or – as he demonstrated most effectively on The Arts Show – the presentation of the high-brow in middle-brow language.
The Live Mike team: Fran Dempsey, Twink, Mike Murphy, Dermot Morgan
Or, come to think of it, just about anything except pomposity. The national broadcaster has been, at least by its own reckoning, something of a legend factory since its birth in 1960. With the passing of Terry Wogan and this year, Gay Byrne, Murphy is the survivor of a generation that defined the character of RTE, probably forged its historical high point – and from whose shadow the present incumbents still struggle to escape. Is Ryan Tubridy the new Gay Byrne? Safe to say he’s not the new Mike Murphy. Burdened with self-imposed mimicry of the BBC, but with a tiny fraction of its resources, RTE was always going to provide opportunities for the young Mike Murphy, once he had aborted unlikely careers in drapery and at Castrol Oil. With a naturally pleasant voice, honed by years acting with the Dublin Shakespeare Group and early RTE drama productions (he was offered, but turned down a scholarship at RADA), a clear middle-class South Dublin
6 Senior Times l January - February 2020 l www.seniortimes.ie
accent easily polished for the favoured RP pronunciation of the day and just enough geniality to convey warmth and confidence on air A paradox of Murphy’s career is that he was and perhaps still is held at arm’s length in the sniffier reaches of Irish intelligentsia. Strange, because during his tenure of The Arts Show he succeeded in wrestling the Arts into an unprecedented afternoon slot, with ratings that dwarf anything achieved before or since. ‘There was murder when it was announced that I was taking on The Arts Show,’ he recalls cheerfully. It was said that I was unqualified, but I learned on the job. I had always been interested, and in those 12 years I think I learned enough for three degrees. ‘The Arts slot had always been a career graveyard, but it wasn’t so for me. I like to think I lifted it. I wasn’t afraid to say that I didn’t understand what my guests were saying, and I think that the result was a show that brought
