MERVYN, THE MAN.    Contributed by Llewellyn Williams  (husband of Gerrie/Leonie)

I fully expect that the tributes to our friend posted on this site, plus a really adequate version of his C.V., would more than fill an edition of the Bioscope – and then some!  So, what can I add?

I once told Mervyn that he was ‘just a crazy mixed-up kid.’  He replied that he had no problem with the accusation, but resented it being couched in American terms.  As he often felt the need to not only ‘wave his own C.V. like a banner’ but also that of his friends, and would likely grumble that in order to evaluate anything I had to say about him folk would need to know a bit about me, he would abhor the use of ‘this is where I’m coming from’ -  but here goes……. Born of  theatrical parents. Child performer. Earned living in most types of UK and Europe Theatre/Cabaret/TV performance branches and productions, as Actor,Singer or Musical Act (Xylophone & other instruments, etc). Then, a decade ago, although agreeing with my increasing disgust at the way ‘the business’ was now being run, both Mervyn and our agent were astonished when I retired before my 60th birthday. (Okay, Merv?)

I sometimes think that we appreciate our friends as much for their faults as their virtues, as we may aspire to emulate the latter whilst accepting, but feeling comfortable in criticising, the former – hopefully, not being hypocritical in the process. In describing such a ‘cavalier’ character as our dear friend of nearly forty years , I think that one might well say that ‘they first broke the mould,  and THEN made Mervyn!”

He heartily agreed when I  once said that it might have been he instead of John Buchan who said, “There is nothing to be said against the retention of prejudices. I believe in every man having a good stock of them, for otherwise we should be flimsy ineffective creatures, and deadly dull at that.”  I’m sure that anyone who was more than a passing acquaintance would be likely to offer him as a perfect example of ‘A study in Contrasts.’  Boastful/self-denigrating. Clumsy/painstaking. Dismissive/caring. High-handed/self-effacing. Lazy/driven . Facetiously critical/Fiercely loyal.  Knowing him, which of us could not add to this description of someone who often faced the world at large looking like a slob but, devoted to the demands of ‘polite society’, would immediately ‘scrub-up well’ when the situation demanded. Or deny that he would cheerfully own up to the most negative of these descriptions, whilst attracting friends who would rush to his defence if the need arose.

A chance remark could result in one being on the receiving end of a serious, erudite mini lecture on the subject or, conversely, a flippant, dismissive and sometimes quite bigoted rejoinder. If the latter resulted in a furious challenge, he could gleefully defuse the situation by quoting his highly-esteemed mentor at Loughborough University, who once remarked, “Mervyn, you are pontificating from your usual standpoint of complete ignorance of the subject!”

On one occasion, in a conversation about changing our destinies, I quoted a verse from one of Fitzgerald’s translations of the

Rubaiyat of Omar khayyam. Mervyn muttered something denigrating about ‘foreign poetry’, and I reminded him that it was only ‘half foreign’, as there was as much of Fitzgerald in this translation as there was of Omar.  And, as he shared the Persian poet’s devotion to the consumption of alcoholic beverage, he might approve the final stanzas being included in his epitaph.

After I had quoted the following lines he grinned broadly and chuckled, “Yes – Yes, I quite like that!”

BUT SEE, THE RISING MOON OF HEAV’N AGAIN LOOKS FOR US THROUGH THE QUIVERING PLANE.

HOW OFT, HEREAFTER RISING WILL SHE LOOK AMONG THOSE LEAVES -  FOR ONE OF US, IN VAIN?

AND, WHEN LIKE HER, YOU SHALL PASS AMONG THE GUESTS, STAR-SCATTERED ON THE GRASS

AND IN YOUR JOYOUS ERRAND REACH THE SPOT WHERE I MADE ONE  -  TURN DOWN AN EMPTY GLASS.

Merv, if there is an ‘afterlife’ I imagine that you’ll have your Booze and Fags removed, but should still be allowed your daily crossword. Similarly, your going has removed some of the sunshine from our lives, but they will still be enriched by memories of your ‘carryings on’, and we’ll always remember you ‘with a smile and a kind word.’