A wacky idea of pretending to be tennis aces Andy and Jamie Murray’s less talented brother has given Scot Squad star Chris Forbes a whole new career.
The comedian and the stars’ mum Judy, who he roped into the gag for a one-off sketch for the BBC, are about to take it on stage.
And they are so convincing that thousands of people on social media are devastated when they discover “Duncan” doesn’t exist.
Chris, 39, said: “To this day, there’s still a lot of people all over the world that believe he’s real. They really believe that Andy and Jamie have this third brother.
“Sometimes I even curse Duncan because his Twitter account has 30,000 followers and I have about eight.
“It’s actually quite sad because every other day people tweet to say that they have just found out that he isn’t real and they are heartbroken.”
The idea for Duncan first came to Chris when he was thinking about what it might be like to be the less well-known brother of someone famous.
Chris, who bears a likeness to Andy and Jamie, said: “I was thinking about Liam and Noel Gallagher’s third brother. You don’t hear about him. And then I read an article about Tom Cruise’s younger brother and I thought, ‘Oh, man. Imagine having to live up to that.’
“The Murrays, I thought, would be the ideal family to have this fictional brother because all of them are into tennis, including obviously Judy.
“I approached Judy and unbelievably she was up for it and the rest is history.
“I had no idea she would be so good at it and really throw herself into it.
“Once she said she was onboard and liked the idea, I just changed the script and gave her loads of lines and she loved it.”
Since then, the Judy and Duncan double act has snowballed, with five mini-films under their belts, a live Edinburgh Festival Fringe show and now a stint at Glasgow’s King’s Theatre.
Judy, 63, admitted she is amazed by the success of the one-off TV cameo in 2019.
She said: “We did a couple of TV clips during the pandemic, one for Children In Need as well as one for Comic Relief.
“It just seemed like it would be quite fun and it got such a huge response that we did the Edinburgh Fringe show and it sold out
so quickly.
“It wasn’t that it was a big venue, about 350 people, but it sold out in about an hour-and-a-half so we did a second.
“I didn’t know half of what was coming up, which made it even funnier.
“I really thought I was going to be able to do it most of the way through because I can sort of get into the persona of the disappointed mother. I grew up with things like Morecambe And Wise so this is perfect.
“But some of the things Chris came up with were just so funny, I ended up in hysterics.
“As before, I’ll just have to react with disappointment when we take to the stage at the King’s.”
They may be Scotland’s unlikeliest comedy duo but The Duncan And Judy Murray Show will appear as part of Glasgow International Comedy Festival on March 19.
Chris said the large-scale performance at the King’s on Mother’s Day means they will both be stepping into the unknown with new material.
The audience will be treated to some physical comedy as Duncan tries his hand at various sports including football and gymnastics in a bid to impress his mum.
Chris said: “It’s definitely a jump up. It does feel like a little bit of extra pressure but it’s good fun actually planning for a bigger show and to show more of Duncan’s daftness.
“To do a show at the King’s is phenomenal for any type of actor or performance.
“It’s almost more fun thinking, ‘What would Duncan’s idea be and what would he do in a venue like this if he was given the opportunity?’ So that’s going to make it even more fun.”
Judy said: “It was all Chris’s idea to play the uncoordinated son who continually disappoints his mother. He plans the whole show out.
“As Duncan, he is constantly trying to find something that he might be good at, that he might have a talent for, to try to impress me. And, of course, he always messes everything up.”
Chris said as the character has grown in popularity, he has had to tread carefully in case people find the premise offensive.
He said: “The first time that the Duncan and Judy Murray sketch came out, the sketch was absolutely fine. Everyone just thought it was really funny.
“But once it started to go viral and had over a million views, all of a sudden people started commenting that the sketch was very offensive because it was making fun of people with dyspraxia.
"I thought, ‘Wow!’ It would never have occurred to me that anyone would look at the character of Duncan and think the writer or performer was trying to make fun of people with dyspraxia.
“It’s just a minefield because you’ve no idea that people are going to interpret anything but I think it’s fine as long as you’re not completely ignorant of the issues and things going on around you and you’re never setting out to cause offence.”
The show comes as Judy, who recently became a grandmother for the fifth time, steps back from her duties as a tennis coach and ambassador.
She’s already done Strictly Come Dancing and will appear in a new celebrity special of the BBC game show Bridge Of Lies.
She also wrote her first novel, The Wild Card, inspired by her life as a tennis professional, coach and ambassador, which will be published in June.
Judy said: “I just think that you get to a stage of your life where you want to spend more time with your family and spend more time doing things for yourself.
“I’m not stepping back completely but I’m probably a couple of years away from retirement age and that’s really one of the reasons to take these opportunities and do some of the TV shows and comedy shows with Chris as Duncan like we did at the Edinburgh Festival.
“I’m choosing to do things that are fun rather than going hammer and tongs at the tennis like I have done for many years.”
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