Peter Caffrey; Padraig in 'Ballykissangel'
Hyfler/Rosner
married 1980 Brenda Banks (marriage dissolved 1990); died
Manchester 1 January 2008
The Independent
04 January 2008
The actor Peter Caffrey found his greatest television
success when he returned to his native Ireland in 1996 to
play the dry-witted garage owner Padraig O'Kelly, a regular
at Fitzgerald's bar, in the Sunday night comedy-drama
Ballykissangel. The BBC series, based on its creator Kieran
Prendiville's memories of childhood holidays in Co Kerry,
quickly attracted up to 15 million viewers.
It began with the arrival in the sleepy village of
Ballykissangel of an English priest, Father Peter Clifford
(Stephen Tompkinson), who fell for the feisty bar owner
Assumpta Fitzgerald (Dervla Kirwan). Padraig O'Kelly's
estranged son Kevin (John Cleere) turned up and moved in
with him and later he was shocked by the sudden return of
his wife, Fionnuala (Frances Tomelty), who had left for
London and a career as a lawyer soon after giving birth to
Kevin. Padraig had turned to drink and his fight with the
bottle proved to be Caffrey's biggest drama in the show.
Born in Dublin in 1949, Caffrey enjoyed acting in school
plays but subsequently went to a seminary for two years with
a view to becoming a priest (he later played one in
Coronation Street). He came out an atheist and studied
English at University College, Dublin, before teaching at a
primary school for a year.
His chance to act came with the Project Theatre, in Dublin,
where he also worked behind the scenes while sharing a flat
with Liam Neeson. Caffrey's first screen appearance,
alongside up-and-coming Irish actors such as Gabriel Byrne
and Stephen Rea, was in the director Thaddeus O'Sullivan's
experimental film On a Paving Stone Mounted (1978) about
Irish immigrants in Britain.
After several roles in productions for the Irish television
network RTE, Caffrey returned to the big screen in the
acclaimed thriller Angel (1982), playing a rock band
manager. He moved to London the following year when he
starred in Children of a Lesser God at the Albery Theatre.
His first television break came with the role of Danny, one
of four alcoholics who meet in hospital in both series of
the BBC comedy-drama I Woke Up One Morning (with Michael
Angelis, Frederick Jaeger and Robert Gillespie, 1985-86).
A steady stream of screen parts followed, in the television
play Shergar (for "Screen Two", 1986) and series such as
Saracen (1989) and Casualty (1989), as well as the film
Venus Peter (1989).
Then, in 1992, Caffrey was diagnosed with cancer of the
mouth and told that most of his tongue would have to be
removed. However, that was avoided when radical new
radiotherapy treatment proved successful. It left him unable
to speak properly, but he was acting again within nine
months, taking the part of a bishop on screen in a black
comedy set in Northern Ireland, Arise and Go Now
("Screenplay", 1991), despite the reaction of a BBC producer
at his audition.
"The producer knew nothing about my illness and I could see
his jaw dropping as I spoke," recalled Caffrey. "He asked me
what the hell I was doing there. All the optimism I'd
mustered went and I started heading for the door when the
director said: 'Why shouldn't the bishop have a speech
impediment?' He really went out on a limb for me." The
director was Danny Boyle, who later made the cult film hit
Trainspotting.
Before joining Ballykissangel, Caffrey played the
Rolls-Royce-driving chauffeur Lloyd in Carla Lane's sitcom
Luv (1993-94), about the rags-to-riches Liverpool couple
Harold and Terese Craven (Michael Angelis and Sue Johnston)
and their dysfunctional family.
Caffrey left Ballykissangel in 1998 after the first four
series and, in 2000, ill-health struck again when a stroke
left him partially paralysed and with impaired speech. With
the aid of physiotherapy and speech therapy, he fought his
way back once more - although the right-hand side of his
body remained paralysed - to play a publican who suffered
the same fate in the unreleased Irish film Sweet Dancer
(2005), another black comedy.
His other film roles included the villainous loudmouth Frank
Grogan in the gangster picture I Went Down (a box-office
success in the United States, 1997) and a transvestite in
the thriller Night Train (starring John Hurt and Brenda
Blethyn, 1998). On stage, he acted with the National Theatre
Company in Whale, The Crucible and Piano.
Anthony Hayward
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