Derek Griffiths


Derek Griffiths is a British actor, singer and voice artist who has appeared in numerous British children's television series from the 1970s to the present and has played parts in adult television drama.

Career

Griffiths appeared in Play School with fellow presenters/performers including Chloe Ashcroft, Johnny Ball and Brian Cant. A talented multi-instrumentalist, he narrated and sang the theme tune to Heads and Tails, a series of short animal films for children, produced by BBC Television, and sang and played the theme to the cartoon Bod. Another children's-TV role was in Granada Television's early-1980s series Film Fun, in which he played the entire staff of a cinema and also himself, showing cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner.
Griffiths appeared on Crown Court as accused fraudster Raoul Lapointe, from the Belgian Congo. In 1975 Griffiths played Ko-Ko in The Black Mikado at London's Cambridge Theatre. He provided the English voice of SuperTed.
In 1997 Griffiths debuted the role of Lumière in the original West End production of Beauty and the Beast at the Dominion Theatre and played the Child-Catcher in the West End run of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium.
In 2014 Griffiths was presented with a BASCA Gold Badge of Merit award. This was in acknowledgement of his unique contribution to music.
From 2016 Griffiths played Freddie Smith in Coronation Street: he left the role in March 2017 to star in a stage production of Driving Miss Daisy. In 2021, he joined the London cast of The Mousetrap.

Legacy

In 2011 English writer, television presenter, producer and satirist Charlie Brooker wrote,
I had an inherent sense that I liked black people, and wanted them to like me. And I genuinely believe a lot of that was thanks to Derek Griffiths. Griffiths was the first black person I can remember encountering anywhere in my life, and he existed only on my television. He presented Play School, appeared in Play Away, and created the music for Bod. And as far as I'm concerned he's one of the most brilliant TV presenters this country has ever produced: instantly warm and likeable, clearly very talented, and possessing the rare knack of appearing to speak directly to young viewers without patronising them. His colour absolutely didn't matter, yet at the same time it did – precisely because it didn't matter. Even this four year old could see that.

Children's television work

  • Play School
  • Play Away
  • Cabbages and Kings
  • Various Look and Read stories as singer, including:
  • *"Cloud Burst" as singer
  • *"The King's Dragon" as singer
  • *"Sky Hunter" as singer
  • *"The Boy From Space" as singer
  • *"Dark Towers" as singer
  • *"Fairground!" as singer
  • *"Geordie Racer" as singer
  • *"Through The Dragon's Eye" as singer
  • *"Earth Warp" as voiceover and singer
  • Bod where he composed the theme music for each of the main five characters
  • Ring-a-Ding! stories and singer
  • Heads and Tails as voiceover and singer
  • Watch It! regular continuity announcer on children's ITV segment for Yorkshire Television
  • Insight as presenter and various characters in this Yorkshire Television educational series for deaf and hearing-impaired children
  • Dinosaurs: Fun, Fact and Fantasy as the voice of Dil the Crocodile
  • SuperTed as the voice of SuperTed
  • *The Further Adventures of SuperTed as the voice of SuperTed in the English language UK version
  • Muzzy in Gondoland as the voices of Bob and Corvax
  • King Greenfingers as the narrator
  • The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends as Simpkin in animated short stories based on the popular book series
  • Christopher Crocodile as the narrator and all of the characters
  • Dragon Tales as the narrator for the audiobooks
  • Mio Mao as the narrator and all of the characters in the UK dub
  • Film Fun
  • Little Red Tractor as the voices of Mr Jones and Walter
  • Animal Antics as the narrator
  • Tinga Tinga Tales as the voices of Cricket and Skunk
  • Sarah & Duck Series 2 Episode 3: "Cloud Tower" as Cloud Captain
  • Hilda Series 2 Episode 8: "The Fifty Year Night" as Mr. Ostenfeld
  • The Dumping Ground as Larry Meadow

    Comedy television work

  • Please Sir!
  • Till Death Us Do Part
  • The Cobblers of Umbridge as The people of Umbridge
  • Marty Back Together Again
  • Don't Drink the Water as Carlos
  • Battle of the Sexes
  • Hi, Summer!
  • Terry and June as the Prince
  • The Funny Side
  • Porkpie as Benji
  • The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff as Pusweasel
  • Way to Go as Elroy
  • Man Down, Series 4 Episode 5, as Blind Jim
  • The Cleaner , Series 3 Episode 3, as Bill

    Other television work

  • Crown Court as Raoul Lapointe
  • Don't Ask Me!
  • Casualty as Duke Baines.
  • Holby City as Greg Martin and Ted O'Connor
  • Doctors as Renton Miles and Roger Saintfield
  • Silent Witness "River's Edge" broadcast 2 February 2016, as DS Malcolm Guillam
  • Coronation Street 2016–2017 as Freddie Smith
  • Small Axe as C. L. R. James
  • Midsomer Murders as Rev. Nigel Brookthorpe
  • Casualty as Donald Charles
  • Unforgotten, series 5 as Chris Blackwood
  • Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators, series 5 Episode 1 as Mr Gremio
  • Casualty as a patient

    Appearances

  • Derek Griffiths appeared in This Is Your Life.

    Advertising work

Griffiths has also frequently appeared in advertising. He won an Italian advertising Oscar for a series of comedy commercials about a Christmas cake where he played an entertainer with a French accent.

Film work

  • Up Pompeii! as Steam Slave
  • Up the Chastity Belt as Saladin
  • Up the Front as El Puncturo
  • Rentadick as Henson
  • The Alf Garnett Saga as Rex
  • Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! as Johnny
  • All I Want Is You... and You... and You... as Taxi Driver
  • Are You Being Served? as the Emir
  • The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It as Bus Conductor
  • Watership Down as voice of Vervain and Chervil
  • Rising Damp as Alec
  • Fierce Creatures as Gerry Ungulates
  • Run for Your Wife as Actor on Swing
  • Gallowwalkers as Mosca

    Theatre

In the theatre, Griffiths has been particularly associated with the Royal Exchange, Manchester. His roles include:
  • Ko-Ko, The Black Mikado adapted from Gilbert & Sullivan. Directed by Braham Murray at the Cambridge Theatre, London.
  • Dick Whittington by Derek Griffiths. World premiere directed by Derek Griffiths at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • Athos, The Three Musketeers by Braham Murray and Derek Griffiths. World premiere directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • Frontignac, Have you anything to declare? by Maurice Hennequin. British premiere directed by Braham Murray for the Royal Exchange, Manchester at the Roundhouse, London.
  • Rick, The Nerd by Larry Shue. European premiere directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • Khlestakov, The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol. Directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • The bluebird of unhappiness by Woody Allen. Directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • Feste, Twelfth Night. Directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • Oscar, The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. Directed by Ronald Harwood at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • Sergeant Kite, The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar. Directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • Lumiére "Beauty and the Beast" Dominion Theatre.
  • Feste, Twelfth Night at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle upon Tyne.
  • The Engineer. Miss Saigon, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
  • Sebastien, Nude With Violin by Noël Coward. Directed by Marianne Elliott at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • Truscott, Loot by Joe Orton. Directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • Harpagon, The Miser by Moliere. Directed by Helena Kaut-Howson at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
  • Rev. Tooker, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Novello Theatre, London.

    Audio

  • Ladybird Books Classic Collection as Narrator of Tales from The Jungle Book and The Wind in the Willows
  • BBC Radio 4 I, Regress as Mr Pigeon

    Honours

Griffiths was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to drama and diversity.