Murray Jensen
Murray “Mullet” Jensen (1990)
Jaiman Paget Bayly
Episodes: 501–583
Parents: Michael & Lorraine Jensen
Siblings: Paul Jensen
Murray Jensen was a school friend of Sally’s, two months younger than her, whose love of fishing had earned him the nickname ‘Mullet’. We first heard of Murray, as Sally preferred people to call him, when she was on the lookout for him with Tom’s binoculars. Tom worried for a moment that Sally was being bullied, but Murray had in fact become enamoured by Sally and wanted to carry her school bag every day. Carly agreed to walk Sally to school to protect her from this ‘pest’ but soon left her in the lurch when Murray showed up. Though feigning dislike of him, she soon softened when Tom pointed out that Murray might lose interest if she played too hard to get, and so gave him permission to carry her bag – on the condition that he did what she told him. Murray was soon enjoying being bossed around by Sally, though there was a slight setback when he asked for help with some homework, with Sally believing she was being used. After some relationship advice from Alf, Murray soon won Sally over again and she joined him on his fishing trips.
After promising to bring some fish home for the Fletcher household for dinner, Sally and Murray were disappointed to have a bad day with no catches. Not wanting to let them down, Murray stole a large crab from Alf’s crab pot that Alf been fattening up for the past few weeks. It wasn’t until Tom called into the Stewart Store, to pick up some lemons for their crab dinner, that he heard Alf complaining about his prize crab being stolen and put two and two together. Sally and Murray were forced to return ‘Claws’ to Alf the next day, albeit dead and cooked, where Murray confessed that it was his idea and Sally had nothing to do with it. Sally had once again broke off her friendship with Murray, until Steven and Ben teased her with the idea that Murray would be emotionally scarred for life after defending her honour only to be rejected. This caused Sally to think twice and she went and joined Murray in Alf’s punishment, during which Sally admitted to Murray that she “liked him too”.
After receiving her invite for Carly & Ben’s wedding, Sally asked Murray to be her ‘plus-one’, but after learning that he would have to dress up in his best clothes, he declined without telling Sally a reason why. Ben worked out what the problem was, that Murray felt he would be out of place as his mother wouldn’t be able to afford smart clothes for him. Despite Ben offering to help him out, Murray refused saying that weddings were for dorks. Trying to find a way to help, they came up with the idea of planting an old shirt with $50 in it, near where to Murray was fishing, however having learnt his lesson from the crab incident, Murray handed in the money to Tom to give to the police. Realising his plan had been thwarted, Ben invited Murray to be his page boy, thereby meaning they would have to provide a suit for him and Murray’s pride would still be intact. Murray accepted this and Sally was quick to inform him that they would have to learn to dance, taking ballroom lessons with Marilyn. Their first lesson was interrupted however when Carly and Ben arrived to take Sally home after Tom’s death.
When his mother Lorraine came to pick up Murray from the Fletchers one evening, she invited Sally to join them for dinner the following day. Murray didn’t seem too thrilled with the idea and the next morning he tried to make several excuses to Lorraine as to why Sally couldn’t come over. This didn’t work, but when Lorraine burnt her finger on a frying pan this gave Murray an idea, and he later told Sally she couldn’t come over as his mother was all bandaged up after a chip-pan fire. In turn, he told Lorraine that Sally had contracted the mumps and so wasn’t able to join them for dinner. His plan was exposed however when Pippa, after learning of Lorraine’s ‘injuries’, brought over a casserole for her. He later revealed to Paul that he felt ashamed of their simple home life in comparison to Sally’s nice house.
When Viv’s sister Tammy arrived in Summer Bay, having run away from her father, she befriended Sally when she hid out in one of the caravans. When all was out in the open and Tammy was spending more time with Sally, she asked whether they would be able to go fishing. Pippa suggested that maybe Murray could take them, but having fallen out with him again over the dinner incident Sally was not keen. When Pippa explained about how Murray may have been embarrassed to let Sally see his house, Sally had a change of heart and took Tammy to meet Murray – but drew the line at joining them on the fishing trip until after they’d had a talk. Curiosity got the better of her however, and when Carly teased that Tammy could steal Murray away, Sally went down to see what was going on – feeling a pang of jealousy when she saw Tammy put her arm around Murray (not knowing that she was comforting him over his fall-out with Sally and wanting to help them get back together). She was cold to Murray when Tammy brought him back to the house, but after talking with Tammy during their sleepover and hearing what happened, she admitted that she liked Murray again.
Things back on again between them, Sally was pleased to inform Pippa that she and Murray were singing a duet, ‘There’s a Hole in my Bucket’, at the talent show that Grant was organising, though she was yet to inform Murray of his involvement. When she did tell him however, Murray wasn’t keen, and following a practice run between Sally and Ben, he still refused and ran home. After talking to Paul about performing in public and seeing further rehearsals with Sally and Ben, who had taken his place, Murray changed his mind and decided to take part after all. The eventual performance not going to plan, Sally ended up pushing Murray off stage in embarrassment – though the audience believed the mistakes were all part of the act and it went down a storm. He also took part in Adam and Marilyn’s ‘Sawing a Lady in Half’ magic act, but inadvertently revealed the secret when he popped out of the cabinet to take a bow.
The talent night gave Murray a thirst for performing and he decided he wanted to be on the stage like his dad. With advice from Carly on keeping their acts fresh, Sally and Murray soon ended up back at Marilyn’s for more dance lessons. Keen on he and Sally now being a pop stars, Murray changed his image complete with shades, earring and slick hair – but Lorraine soon put a stop to it. After witnessing Marilyn bleaching her hair, Murray convinced Sally to do the same to him, but ended up with bright red hair as a result. Lorraine didn’t have the heart to punish him as she found it too hilarious, but Murray did decide to put his pop career on hold.
When Ben’s chickens got out of their coop and destroyed Pippa’s vegetable garden, Sally overheard Ben commenting that he was going to ‘wing them’ and after misunderstanding the meaning, Sally recruited Murray on a mission to save the chickens. They hid them away but were eventually forced to reveal their part in things when Ben explained what winging actually meant.
The time eventually came for Murray to fulfil his duties as Page Boy at Carly and Ben’s wedding, and he and Sally proudly took their place on the dancefloor during the bridal waltz. The last we saw of Murray was when he and the other guests waved Carly and Ben off on their honeymoon.
Murray was mentioned in 2000 when Sally and her family were reminiscing following her failed wedding to Kieran, with Steven teasing her about Murray being her ‘first love’.