Here's the brilliantly witty Danny Baker introducing TV Heroes - Derek Guyler - BBC TV - Brodcast in 1995. The career of Deryck Guyler is looked at as Danny Baker pays tribute to another unsung hero of the small screen. His regular appearances on Michael Bentine 's/t's a Square World made him a household name, but his most popular characters were the police constable Corkie in Sykes and Norman Potter , the school janitor in Please Sir!
Deryck Guyler, born at the outbreak of WW1 in 1914 at Liverpool in England, was the only child of Elsie and Samuel Guyler. He grew up in Liverpool and had his senior education at Liverpool College. On leaving school he tried his hand at a few things including working with his father in the family jewelers business 'Green & Guyler'. However, he then left home to go to Bristol theological college to become an Anglican Minister, in those days Deryck was not a Catholic. It was not long before it became obvious to the 'powers-that-be' that he would make a better actor than a Parson!!!! So, he eventually joined the Liverpool Repertory Company in 1935 which became his training ground for a very successful career in theatre, radio and television.
During the war, however, he was called up to join the RAF Police and served there for a time before being invalided out and then rejoined his profession. As all the theatres had been closed down due to wartime, he was sent out on ENSA (Entertainment National Services Association) to entertain the troops. It was during this time that he met and married his wife Paddy, who was also working on ENSA with her two sisters as a three handed singing harmony act, 'The Lennox Sisters'. They were married on 15th Sep 1941 so, at the time of his death Deryck and Paddy had just celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary. They had two sons, Peter, born 26th April 1943 during the war and Chris, born after the war on 15th June 1948. Soon after their son Peter was born, Deryck converted to the Catholic faith and became an active member of the 'Catholic Stage Guild'. They also had another wedding ceremony, as Paddy was also a Catholic, and son Peter was in the front row of the church.
Just after the war, in 1946, Deryck joined the famous war time radio show ITMA ('It's That Man Again') and was with the show until its finish in 1949, due to the death of its star Tommy Handley. It was during this time that he was renowned for bringing to the radio, for the first time, the Liverpudlian accent with his immortal character "Frisby Dyke". Not long after this television started and Deryck began pursuing his very successful career in this new medium of entertainment. Due to the excellent quality of his voice he started in television, as many did, doing 'voice-overs' for many, many commercials which was his 'bread and butter', but then, he went on to become as well known for his face as he was for his voice in many TV series including Three Live Wires (1961), Room at the Bottom (1966), Best of Enemies (1968) and the well known Sykes (1972) series with Eric Sykes, Hattie Jacques and Richard Wattis. There were many other series that followed, supporting such other stars as Michael Bentine in It's a Square World (1960) and Harry Worth in his own series and then, of course, the TV series he's probably best known for, Please Sir! (1968) as the cantankerous school janitor 'Norman Potter'!!
It was in 1982 that he went out to New Zealand to star in a series written by an English TV scriptwriter Vince Powell called "An Age Apart"; it only went to 'air' in New Zealand. So, after a long successful career lasting over 50 years he then decided to retire 'down under' in Australia to be near his younger son Chris and his family, Deryck's three grandchildren, Paul, Mark and Cathryn. Deryck and his wife Paddy arrived in Brisbane on 5th November 1993, and lived in the tree-lined suburb of Ashgrove until about September of 1997. In October of that year, due to a few unfortunate falls at home attributed to his frailty and ailing legs, he had to go into a nursing home to be cared for, his wife Paddy being too small and frail herself to care for him. Regrettably due to his frailty; he had to be content with a wheelchair to get around. Paddy moved to 'Forest Place' Retirement Village, attached to the nursing home, and naturally, visited him daily. The rest of the family too often visited him in the nursing home where he was looked after admirably by the nursing home staff at 'Forest Place' until the evening of 7 October 1999 when he passed away very peacefully at about eight o'clock whilst wife Paddy and son Chris with his wife, were at his bedside to say their final 'Goodbyes'.