| Deryck Guyler | |
|---|---|
| Born | 29 April 1914 Wallasey, Cheshire, England (now Wallasey, Merseyside) |
| Died | 7 October 1999 (aged 85) Ashgrove, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Residence | Norwood , London Brisbane, Australia |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Spouse | Paddy Lennox (m. 1941-09-15) |
Deryck Guyler (29 April 1914 – 7 October 1999) was an English actor, best known for his portrayal of officious, short-tempered middle-aged men in sitcoms such as Please Sir! and Sykes.[1]
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Guyler was born in Wallasey on the Wirral Peninsula, and raised on the other side of the River Mersey in the city of Liverpool where his father was a jeweller. He attended Liverpool College and originally planned a career in the church. During the Second World War he was called up and joined the RAF Police but was later invalided from service, whereupon he joined Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) and then (on 4 May 1942) the BBC's Drama and Repertory company in Manchester.
After the war, he became a regular on the immensely popular radio series, It's That Man Again (ITMA) until the series was cancelled in 1949 upon the death of the main star Tommy Handley. Guyler claimed that his character 'Frisby Dike' (named after a Liverpool department store bombed in the Blitz) was the first time the real Liverpudlian accent was heard on the radio.
He took part in a Royal Command Performance of ITMA for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in December 1947.
After ITMA, Guyler carried on working in a variety of roles from light entertainment (BBC Children's Hour) to classical (acting with John Gielgud in King Lear). In the 1950s, he played the time-traveller (also known as "the voice") in the British sci-fi radio series Journey Into Space. Guyler then took on his best known radio role in the title character of a Scotland Yard detective in the Light Programme series 'Inspector Scott Investigates', created by John P. Wynn, that ran from 1957 to 1963. During the half hour programme a crime was committed; Scott and his sidekick, Det. Sgt. Bingham (Brian Hayes, brother of Patricia Hayes) interviewed two or three suspects; then, while music played, there was a short intermission for listeners to guess 'whodunnit' before the final reveal. His success continued into the 1960s and 1970s when he starred in the satirical radio programme about life in the British civil service The Men from the Ministry with Richard Murdoch. Guyler played the pompous, self-important Number One in the General Assistance Department, with Murdoch as his diffident but equally incompetent Number Two.
Guyler holds a unique place in theatrical history, having "acted" in every performance of The Mousetrap since the opening night on 6 October 1952 in Nottingham. He delivered a news bulletin via a recording which is still being used at the St Martin's Theatre at present.
His voice (or rather, an imitation of it by Bob Mortimer) is well known to this day as that of the bulldog Churchill, in the current ITV series of commercials for the eponymous insurance company, immortalizing Guyler's own catchphrase "Oh, yes!"
His popularity is lampooned in an episode of the seminal radio comedy The Burkiss Way dating from the 1970s. An advertising agency hired to spice up output suggests having a radio comedy without Deryck Guyler in it. This completely baffles the rest of the panel who find it impossible to understand the concept and offer various possibilities such as "you mean it only has Deryck Guyler in it a bit".
He appeared as the Police Inspector in The Beatles' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night and as the art professor in the Gerry & The Pacemakers 1965 film Ferry Cross The Mersey.
His first television success came as one of Michael Bentine's sidekicks in the inventive and surreal BBC show It's a Square World (1960).
It was when radio comedian and writer Eric Sykes moved into television that Guyler got major recognition on the small screen. He played the part of Constable Turnbull (alias Corky) in Sykes, which ran for 20 years from 1960. Later he appeared in numerous television light entertainment shows in which he performed a novelty act playing the washboard. He was also a regular on the sitcom Please Sir!, where he played the cantankerous school caretaker Norman Potter. Claiming to be an ex-Desert Rat, Potter would often complain to John Alderton, who played the part of schoolteacher Mr Hedges, about class 'Five C' and their 'dreadful behaviour'.
His subsequent television appearances include those in Three Live Wires, That's My Boy - the comedy series starring Mollie Sugden and Christopher Blake - and Best of Enemies. He also played a doddery surgeon in the film Carry On Doctor.
In 1975, he appeared in the ITV children's show The Laughing Policeman, based on the Charles Penrose song and his PC Corky character from Sykes.
He was the voice over in adverts for Scotch Video tapes, which ran in the mid-1980s in the UK.
In 1990, he played the washboard on three tracks of an album by longtime fan Shakin' Stevens. Guyler had been a devotee of washboard playing since his schooldays. He also played washboard on an episode of the Morecambe and Wise Show.
In rehearsal he was well-known for his often amusing asides. Once he was narrating a Children's Hour documentary about life in the coal mines. For this the producer had visited a mine and recorded most-realistic sound effects. As these were banging, crashing and thumping away he was heard to mutter ‘Sounds like a Peter Brook production’.
A long term resident of Norbury, South London, he retired to Ashgrove, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1983, where he lived until his death. He married Paddy Lennox from the three-sister music hall act The Lennox Theatre, and they had two sons, Peter and Christopher.
Deryck Guyler was a well known wargamer, and was a founding member of the Society of Ancients, a group of wargamers specialising in the classical era. Very active in the society in its early years, being elected its first president in 1966,[2] he was later made an honorary life president of the society.
His funeral service was held at St. Mark's Catholic Church, Inala, on 13 October 1999 and he was cremated at Mt. Gravatt Cemetery. In 1995, there was a 10-minute tribute to Guyler, made by Danny Baker and the BBC, which the family used as a part of the eulogy delivered by his son Chris at his funeral service at St. Mark's. Paddy Guyler died on 6 January 2002. Both are buried at Mount Thompson Memorial Gardens in the Brisbane suburb of Holland Park.
He was also the narrator for the BBC documentary on Fred Dibnah - Fred Dibnah, Steeplejack.