SO SAD: BBC legend’s wife issues heartbreaking health update amid star’s Alzheimer’s battle
Bryan Murray’s longtime partner has shared a deeply personal update on the Bread star’s health, revealing that he now fails to recognise her on most visits as his Alzheimer’s progresses.
The 77-year-old actor, best known to BBC viewers as Shifty Boswell in Carla Lane’s hit sitcom Bread, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2019 and moved into full-time residential care in 2025.
Una Crawford O’Brien, who has been Bryan’s partner for more than 20 years, said he currently appears happy and settled in his surroundings, even though his communication has become increasingly difficult.
“Bryan is in great form at the moment, smiling and chatting away,” she said. “He doesn’t make a lot of sense, but he’s in great form, and that’s so important.”
One particularly meaningful moment came on Bryan’s birthday, when Una took him out for a picnic.
That day, he recognised her.
When Bryan opened a birthday card signed “Love from Una”, he looked at her and said: “That’s you.”
Una described it as an especially good day because, as she explained, “most days he doesn’t know me”.
Bryan Is More Settled in Full-Time Care
The decision to move Bryan into residential care was not an easy one.
Una said that while he was still living at home, his condition had increasingly left him feeling frustrated and angry. Since moving into care, however, he has responded positively to having a consistent routine.
She said Bryan has his own room decorated with photographs from the many television and stage productions he appeared in throughout his career.
Although he no longer recognises himself in those pictures, Una believes the surroundings still provide him with a sense of familiarity.
“He doesn’t know himself in the pictures, but he recognises it’s his room,” she explained.
Looking back at how things were a year earlier, Una said she had no doubt that Bryan was now more content.
The couple first met in 2005 while working on the Irish soap Fair City and have remained together ever since.
They chose not to marry, having both previously been through marriage before meeting each other.
Bryan Continued Acting After His Diagnosis
Bryan kept his diagnosis private for several years before publicly revealing it in 2022.
Despite living with Alzheimer’s, he continued appearing in Fair City and remained professionally active until announcing his retirement in April 2025.
His career had already stretched across decades by that point.
Bryan became widely known in Britain through Bread, appearing as Shifty Boswell from 1988 until 1991. His work on the popular BBC comedy also earned him a BBC Personality of the Year award.
Two years after Bread ended, Bryan took on a dramatically different role in Channel 4 soap Brookside.
He played Trevor Jordache, a deeply troubling character whose storyline became one of the programme’s most memorable.
Bryan made his first appearance in March 1993 and was only on screen for around two months, but the storyline continued long after his character disappeared.
Trevor was killed by his wife Mandy, played by Sandra Maitland, as she attempted to protect their daughter
