He was summoned to the Television Centre. Free Online Library: THE SUN WON'T SET ON ME .. (UNTIL I'M 102); STAR INTERVIEW: BUSTER MERRYFIELD; AND ONLY FOOLS WOULD DOUBT UNCLE ALBERT. Copyright © 2020 Farlex, Inc. | I WAS TOP OF THE BILL IN A BOOZER: (And everybody ignored me! But now married, with a child on the way, he prudently went back to the bank. To those watching on TV he dropped out of the shot altogether, but reappeared briefly with blood dripping from a cut above his eye and said a few words before being led away for treatment. ); Questions + Answers: SIMON ROUSE (The Bill's DCI Meadows). Printer Friendly.
Buster Merryfield - he kept his Christian name a closely guarded secret - came from a working class background in Battersea, London. Merryfield, who has died aged 78 after being admitted to hospital with a brain tumour, was written into the series after the unexpected death in 1984 of Lennard Pearce, who played Del and Rodney's acerbic Grandad. For webmasters. Only a year later the show, normally half an hour, was chosen to furnish the BBC's 90-minute Christmas Day special up against ITV's Minder equivalent. He enjoyed amateur dramatics and after the second world war, in which he actually served as an army officer in Africa, was tempted to try the professional stage. He also made one film, Pick Of The Cherries. He fluffed his entrance lines but was rescued by Jason, who deliberately did the same and then challenged the audience: "What are you lot sniggering at? GOODBYE BUSTER; Only Fools' salute to Uncle Albert after death at 78. You got in for nothing, didn't you?" On leaving school, where he was a boxing champion, he started work in the Westminster Bank, eventually to be merged with the National Provincial as NatWest. He and his wife Iris, who survives him, were married for 57 years. Buster Merryfield - he kept his Christian name a closely guarded secret - came from a working class background in Battersea, London. (Features) by "The Mirror (London, England)"; General interest. All rights reserved. It was when he was a bearded Baron Hardup in pantomime, however, that he happened to be seen by a member of the Only Fools And Horses production team. FOOLS STAR IS FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE; TV Buster struck by brain tumour. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
In 1997, after the series had been wound up, Merryfield stumbled and fell when going on to the platform to accept an award at the British Comedy Awards. They had a daughter and two grown-up grandsons. Buster Merryfield, bank manager and actor, born November 27, 1920; died June 23, 1999, Available for everyone, funded by readers. All he needed to be assured was that he wouldn't be stepping into a dead man's shoes, that it would be a new character. Some small parts on television came his way, including one in the four-part Hannah (1980), which went out in a sequence of mini-serials under the umbrella title Love Story. 25,550,395 articles and books . Feedback | https://www.thefreelibrary.com/THE+SUN+WON%27T+SET+ON+ME+..+(UNTIL+I%27M+102)%3b+STAR+INTERVIEW%3a+BUSTER...-a061102688. Uncle Albert, as he materialised out of Sullivan's typewriter and into Merryfield's person, had the jolly Jack Tar look of Captain Birdseye, never seemed to mind being called an old git, and had but one irritating habit - of forever harking back to the war and his time in the Royal Navy. Copyright 1997 Gale, Cengage Learning. A new actor in the same role was briefly considered, likewise the introduction of an aunt figure, but in the end the writer John Sullivan decided to create another, quite different, old codger. Keyword Title Author Topic. Of all the tetchy old comedy actors the television audience took to its heart, few were unlikelier than Dad's Army's Arthur Lowe, who found fame in the role of a bank manager, and Buster Merryfield, who really was a bank manager until he replaced a favourite character in the long-running saga of two brothers trying to make life work for them, Only Fools And Horses. Privacy policy | He rose to be a manager, and not until the late 1970s, when he was 57, did he choose early retirement, re-christen himself Buster - a childhood nickname - and persuade a repertory company to take him on. Terms of use | See, he really was in the war; FAREWELL TO UNCLE ALBERT: TRIBUTES POUR IN AFTER DEATH OF GRAND OLD MAN FROM ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES. As a Battersea boy, I told them, I would have no problem." "All they wanted to know," he used to recall, "was whether I could put on a cockney accent.
A meeting with David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst followed, and two days later he braved the ordeal of a debut in front of the studio audience. The audience loved it, everyone relaxed and everything then went swimmingly. The Free Library > General Interest/Informational > General … All rights reserved. On leaving school, where he was a …
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