For
me, Derek’s relative anonymity was blown apart when in his late sixties he
established himself in the cast of Eastenders,
but his overnight celebrity took more than four decades to happen. In the early
Seventies I must have seen him in the family business drama The Brothers (as ‘van driver’, surprise
surprise) and the quirky children’s sci-fi serial Man Dog. Sadly I couldn’t find a clip of the latter but it made a
substantial impression on me, helped by its familiar Southampton locations.
Later
in the decade he became a familiar figure in ITV crime capers, invariably on
the wrong side of the law. In an episode of The Sweeney, he even managed to out-run Dennis Waterman’s Carter, but I daresay he was
nicked by the closing credits. That same year, he played another villain in The Professionals,
and then a ‘heavy’ up against Waterman again in Minder.
Derek
Martin wasn’t always one of the bad guys. He upheld the forces of law and
order, albeit under the radar, in programmes like Z Cars and even Terry and
June, but it was in The Chinese Detective that he really made his mark. At that time (1981-2), this was quite a ground-breaking
series, providing a rare starring role for an ‘ethnic minority’ actor. I loved
David Yip in that show, portraying the mild-mannered but slightly unorthodox
(is there any other kind of cop on TV?) John Ho, clashing not only with criminals but
also his boss DCI Berwick, played by Derek Martin. He was old-school Londoner,
and displayed the sort of casual racism that pervaded much of the police in
those days. In my mind’s eye I can still see him shouting “’O, ‘O” at his
sergeant! I think there grew a grudging mutual respect between the two by the
end, but it ran for only two series.
In
the Nineties, I watched some of ITV’s Lynda la Plante prison drama The Governor,
in which Derek played Janet McTeer’s deputy but I missed out on one of his
largest roles, in King and Castle.
However, it is as a regular cast member of a couple of soaps that he has become
part of my TV furniture.
Back
in ’93, he joined the Beeb’s ill-fated foray into international drama, Eldorado.
Located in an expat community on the Costa del Sol, it carried a great deal of
investment, financial and professional. As a BBC employee, I fervently wished
for success but it was doomed from the first creaking instalment which,
somewhat improbably, I watched from a Channel ferry. In hindsight, box-ticking
took priority over plotlines, and the European eye-candy failed to attract the
younger audiences. A few of them could barely act. The hostile anti-Beeb press
finished the job. Removing the dead wood and bringing in some sterling British
character actors did help but the plug was pulled after a single year. As Alex
Morris Derek Martin appeared in forty episodes, including the very last but, to
be honest, all I can remember was ‘Mucky Marcus’ escaping from an exploding car.
In
comparison I have a clear memory of his arrival in Albert Square as Charlie Slater and his dysfunctional family of females. That was 2000, and in all he went on
to make nearly 800 episodes of Eastenders.
Apparently Derek had been considered for both Dirty Den and Frank Butcher
(there’s a thought!) but as East End cabbie Charlie, he must have been a
shoo-in for the casting team. At first he had some meaty storylines, even
becoming involved in some fisticuffs, but it was for his verbal clashes with
mother-in-law Big Mo (Laila Morse) that he is best remembered by me.
The
character also brought him a few related TV roles, be they in Eastenders
spin-offs or as cameos in comedies such as Little Britain.
In my opinion he made a splendid straight man to Matt Lucas’ grotesque
Fatfighters leader Marjory. But then that has always been Derek Martin’s
strength. For fifty years he’s been one of our most dependable supporting
actors on the box. I’ll never know how he might have fared battling with Angie
Watts or wooing Pat Butcher wearing nowt but a rotating bow tie but, now well into
his eighties, I reckon Derek Martin has done enough to enter my role call of
Treasures.
