Peter Caffrey

Jan 7 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

IN THE sensitive crumple of his face, there shone the smile of a man who enjoys a drink, but is called by the devil to take one too many.

He was, therefore, high on the list whenever casting directors sought an Oirishman of the auld stamp.

So, Peter Caffrey, a Dubliner, who discovered that he was an atheist after training for the priesthood for two years, was in regular demand.

And it was as Padraig O’Kelly, in Ballykissangel, that his face became known to the millions watching Sunday night TV’s cocoa and slippers slot, hoping for a little charm and blarney, before the rigours of the week.

It was created by Keiran Prendiville, and tells of an English priest, Father Peter Clifford (Stephen Tompkinson), who arrives with his new ideas in a traditional Irish village, where his feelings develop for Assumpta Fitzgerald (Dervla Kirwan), landlady of the local pub, frequented by O’Kelly, the ascerbic-witted local garage owner.

The BBC series, still held high in viewers’ affections, ran from 1996 to 2001, though ill-health forced Caffrey to leave in 1998.

After leaving the seminary, Caffrey studied English at University College, Dublin, before acting with the Project Theatre, while sharing a flat with Liam Neeson.

His first film part was in On A Paving Stone Mounted (1978), with Gabriel Byrne and Stephen Rea, about Irish immigrants in Britain.

Television work followed, and he was cast as the rock band manager in the acclaimed thriller, Angel (1984) set in the Troubles.

But then he was prominent in the batch of emerging Irish actors and gained a starring role in the TV series I Woke Up One Morning (1985-86), written by Carla Lane, also starring the Liverpool actor Michael Angelis, with Frederick Jaeger and Robert Gillespie.

As his career continued to flourish, Caffrey was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth (1992) and underwent radiotherapy, which saved his tongue, but left him with a speech impediment heard in his performance as a bishop in the film, Arise and Go Now, set in Northern Ireland.

His remarkable recovery led to Ballykissangel and the role of Frank Grogan in the gangster film, I Went Down (1997), but in 2000 Caffrey suffered a major stroke, from which he made a partial recovery to appear in the film Sweet Dancer (2005, but not yet released).

Peter Caffrey, actor; born April 18, 1949, died January 1, 2008.