Career
Griffiths was best known in his early years for his Play School appearances alongside the likes of Chloe Ashcroft, Johnny Ball and Brian Cant. A talented multi-instrumentalist, he voiced over and sang the theme tune to Heads and Tails, a series of short animal films for children produced by BBC Television, and also sang and played the theme tune to the cartoon Bod. Another memorable children's TV role was in Granada TV's early-'80s series 'Film Fun', in which he played the entire staff of a cinema (the manager, the commissionaire (with the catchphrase "Get on with it!!"), the projectionist, the usherette and also himself) while also showing cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner. He appeared on Crown Court (1973) as an accused fraudster Raoul Lapointe, from the Belgian Congo. In 1975 Griffiths played Nanki-Poo in The Black Mikado at London's Cambridge Theatre. He was also the English voice of Superted (Superted was originally made in Welsh).
Griffiths' distinctive voice can currently be heard in the UK on the CBeebies programme Little Red Tractor alongside Stephen Tompkinson, and in the voiceover for 2010's Muller Shropshire Dairy Advert in the UK.
In 1997, Griffiths originated the role of Lumière in the original West End production of Beauty and the Beast at the Dominion Theatre and played the role of The Child Catcher in the West End run of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium.
Read more about this topic: Derek Griffiths
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