Young Offenders star Alex Murphy: 'For Roy Keane to be eager to be on the show was just mad'

• Published date: 05 May 2024
• Author: Ed Power
• Publication title: Irish Times: Web Edition Articles (Dublin, Ireland)

"It was guerrilla film-making," he say. To get one of the shots a cameraman was "leaning out of the back of open boots driving down the road, filming me cycling. There were definitely no stunt doubles, except for one guy going down Patrick's Hill who wasn't me. We were never given any expectations."

Eight years later The Young Offenders has become an unlikely phenomenon – in Ireland but also in Britain, where a BBC spin-off of the film returns on Friday evening for its fourth season. It reunites Murphy, playing the potty-mouthed teenager Conor MacSweeney, with Chris Walley as his best pal, Jock O'Keeffe.

"It has a primetime slot on BBC One, so they obviously have faith," says Murphy. "And the numbers are there, which is another mad reason to be so proud of it. It's this show in Cork, a very local show – the show doesn't talk about the outside world a whole lot; it's very localised. To think that the bigwigs in London are happy to put it on their UK primetime slot is great. I can't get over it."

The Young Offenders is like nothing else on TV, its unlikely blend of knockabout comedy and social realism landing halfway between Looney Tunes and Ken Loach. The new series maintains the ribald humour that was a feature of the original film. Still, while the chortles are perhaps an acquired taste – fans of slapstick will enjoy them – underneath the gags, Peter Foott's script draws a moving portrait of friendship and male vulnerability.

"There is a lot of trauma involved," says Murphy. "Conor's dad died when he was young – but not too young to forget. He's living with his single mum. Máiréad" – played by Hilary Rose, Foott's wife – "never talks about her deceased husband. Jock grew up in an alcoholic household. That's underneath everything they do. They wear these tracksuits as armour. They always end up doing things because home isn't the nicest environment. They're tough, but it comes out in other ways – those moments where Conor gets upset. That's what Peter is good at. You see behind the mask: they aren't just horrible young fellas. They've been through a lot."

Cork rarely gets a look in on Irish television. But when the Young Offenders movie became an international success on Netflix, BBC took a chance and commissioned a series from Foott, who had written and directed the film. The show's ratings have been impressive, hence its promotion from the more niche BBC Three to the mainstream BBC One. That success has been fuelled by ecstatic reviews. The Guardian has...