Shortly after Judy and Duncan Murray appeared on TV together for the first time, Judy’s daughter-in-law – Jamie Murray’s wife – received a phone call from her family living abroad.
Perplexed, they asked: “Why didn’t Jamie tell us he had another brother?”
“That was just one example of the many, many people out there who thought it was true,” Judy tells The Courier.
“I think that’s because Chris has perfected a Duncan voice that is not dissimilar to Andy when he’s talking slowly.
“And, also, he looks like he could be part of the family.”
Since 2019, Scottish comedian Chris Forbes has been fooling people across the globe into thinking his made-up ‘other Murray brother’, Duncan, really is Judy’s unfortunate eldest son, as well as tennis legends Jamie and Andy’s big brother.
As Judy fondly describes Duncan, he’s “the one who was hopeless at everything and was kept in the background and who was a constant disappointment to his mother.”
But, as impressive as Chris’s vocal and physical impersonations are, there’s one key reason so many don’t realise the joke is a joke: Judy Murray plays along like a pro.
‘The first sketch took ages because I couldn’t stop laughing’
Over the last five years, the pair have taken social media by storm, performed live to full houses across Scotland – from the Edinburgh Fringe to Aberdeen Music Hall – and hosted charity festive afternoon tea events at the Cromlix.
But when they sat down together to film the short BBC Scotland sketch that started it all, neither Chris nor Judy could have predicted how beloved Duncan would become.
They had never even met each other before.
Judy confesses she had absolutely no idea what she was letting herself in for.
“I would have to say that I sort of skimmed the email when it came through because it came through, of course, in the middle of the tennis season,” explains the 65-year-old.
“But I’ve always tried to support Scottish talent when I can, and I thought it looked quite fun.”
The way she tells it, on that first day, Chris was wearing a Heart of Midlothian football top (the Murray family are all fans of rival Edinburgh team, Hibernian) and munching his way through a bag of cheese and onion crisps.
He’d clearly done his research – Judy is famously unimpressed by noisy eaters. But Chris wasn’t deterred by what she refers to as her “death stare”.
“It took us ages to do [the first sketch] because I just kept laughing,” she says.
“And the outtakes of it are so funny.
“Now, all these years later, I can keep a straight face for the most part and look intolerant and bored and just frustrated with him. I can get into the character of it.
“But that first time was just so funny – sore stomach muscles and redoing your mascara because it all runs.”
Disappointed in Duncan but proud of Chris
On screen and on stage, Judy is full of disdain for Duncan. But, in real life, she can’t praise Chris enough.
“He’s so easy to work with because he’s an exceptionally nice young man,” she says.
“He’s very polite and respectful. He never pushes anything on me.
“If there’s something I’m not so keen on, it’s never a problem.
“But I would have to say, he does all the work and puts it all together.
“I just turn up and look disappointed. Which is not so difficult now – I can do that quite well.”
She may be perpetually disheartened by Duncan, but it’s obvious Judy is proud of Chris – perhaps even in a way that verges on parental.
She wants what’s best for him and his career, even if that means pushing herself out of her comfort zone.
“I’m familiar with the Edinburgh Festival – love the Edinburgh Festival,” she says.
“Never ever would have imagined myself performing a comedy act at it.”
She says that when she realised how excited her comedic co-star was about the opportunity, she knew she had to say yes, despite her personal reservations.
“But, actually, after we’d done the first one, I absolutely loved it,” she admits.
“It was so much fun. There is something about making people laugh.”
And – though he does still make her laugh – if she’s honest, Judy Murray is a little baffled that people still think Duncan is real after all this time.
“I always thought it would have a shelf life,” she shrugs.
“But if I do a speaking engagement anywhere and there are questions from the audience, guaranteed there’s always one about Duncan.
“He’s become incredibly popular as that sort of hapless, goofy young man.”
‘I spent most of my life stressing over tennis matches’
Judy feels appearing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2014 allowed her to begin to show the public more of who she really is away from the tennis court.
“I think that doing Strictly showed my personality to so many people who probably had only ever seen me stressing and pumping my fist and baring my teeth in the player box at Wimbledon,” she says.
Stepping into the world of comedy, with a talented, experienced guide like Chris Forbes, is plainly a continuation of that process.
“You get to a stage of your life where you just think: ‘It’s nice to try new things’,” Judy smiles.
“When I did that three-minute sketch, I never would have imagined it would be anything other than that. But what it morphed into…
“And that was really because the public enjoyed it so much.”
Above all, Judy undoubtedly gets a kick out of working with Chris, if not Duncan.
“I spent most of my life stressing over tennis matches,” she says.
“It’s quite nice to go into somebody else’s world and just enjoy yourself.”
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