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Geoffrey Hayes (above) was the main host, as it were, of the children’s TV show Rainbow, which I enjoyed as a kid, and even more so when at University as Friday mornigs… (ahem… the start of the afternoon) would begin with Rainbow from 12.10 (after a midday cartoon) and then Neighbours would come a bit later, at 1.45pm. Ah, those were the days. You think students were lazy? Of course we were!
It was a long-running show which spanned over 1000 episodes from 1974 to 1992 and was weird as hell, since you had a middle-aged man living with a bear (Bungle), a hippo (George) and.. er… Zippy, who was an odd character with a zip for a mouth, and was rather undefinable beyond that, but it WORKED!
In addition to reading stories from the Rainbow storybook, every now and then, a trio – Rod, Jane and Freddy – would pay a visit, with Freddy replacing Roger, along the way. They’d generally sing a song before naffing off again, and this always happened towards the end of the show, which made you wonder what they were up to beforehand.
In addition, Geoffrey Hayes starred in adverts for Monster Munch,and had an establish acting career, including Z Cars‘ Detective Constable Scatliff.
After his passing in hospital, his manager, Phil Dale, said: “It is with great sadness that the family announce that Geoffrey passed away in hospital with his wife, Sarah, and son, Tom, by his side. The family would like to express their thanks to the many fans over the years as it always gave Geoffrey so much pleasure to know that he and his Rainbow team had given so much fun to TV and theatre audiences.”
Fortunes weren’t so kind to him later, however, when in a Daily Express 2015 interview, he stated he’d worked nightshiftd shelf-stacking at a supermarket, as well as working as a taxi driver. He also said of his time in his most famous role: “I’m very proud of Rainbow and even now, over 20 years since it finished in 1993, people remember it with affection. Amazingly, I still get recognised. People stop me and thank me for being an important part of their childhood – it’s humbling.”
RIP Geoffrey Hayes. As he and the cast would say on Rainbow, “Goodbye!”
Check out a couple of videos from the show, the top one being from a commercially-released video, and the other being a Xmas tape where things get a little rude…
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.