The comedy actor Brian Murphy was the mainstay of several hit television shows in which he was constantly outmanoeuvred by contemptuous and implacable women: Mildred Roper, Kitty McShane and Nora Batty were three of them.
The public image was of a ferret-faced and crafty-eyed loser, his thinning hair in a comb-over. Playing feeble, dim and cunning, Murphy specialised in a kind of low-level reedy grumble that could swiftly escalate into yelping panic. It was, however, somehow always clear that the weakness of his characters was firmly rooted in the strength and intelligence of his interpretation.
