Deryck Guyler

Deryck Bower Guyler (29 April 1914 – 7 October 1999) was an English actor, best remembered for his portrayal of officious, short-tempered middle-aged men in sitcoms such as Please Sir! and Sykes. Early life Guyler was born in Wallasey on the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire, the son of Samuel Phipps Guyler, a jeweller, and Elsie Evelyn, née Bower. In his childhood, a next-door neighbour was Irené Eastwood, who would also go on to have a career in show business when she changed her name to Anne Ziegler - the 1921 census shows the Eastwood family at 111 Hartington Rd, Liverpool and the Guylers at 113. He attended Liverpool College and originally planned a career in the Church of England, having studied theology for a year. In the 1930s, he joined the Liverpool Repertory Theatre and performed in numerous productions. 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, in 1942, the BBC's Drama and Repertory company. Career From 1946, Guyler became a regular on the immensely popular radio series, It's That Man Again (ITMA), a series built around comedian 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. Guyler remained with the show until Handley died in 1949 when the series ended. After ITMA, Guyler worked in roles from the BBC's Children's Hour to classical parts, including with John Gielgud in King Lear. He was known for his often amusing asides in rehearsals. For a Children's Hour documentary about life in the coal mines, which Guyler was narrating, the producer had visited a mine and recorded most-realistic sound effects. As these were banging, crashing and thumping sounds he was heard to mutter: "Sounds like a Peter Brook production".