END OF THE RAINBOW
THE BELOVED CHILDREN’S PRESENTER PASSES AWAY AGED 76
Farewell, Geoffrey Hayes
For 18 years, he played second fiddle to a pink hippo called George, a creature called Zippy and a bear called Bungle. He was the voice of reason among chaos and a firm favourite among several generations of kids.
Geoffrey Hayes, the presenter of British TV show Rainbow, died last week aged 76, and although he struggled to find work after the children’s show – he ended up stacking shelves in a supermarket – he was always gracious about the impact it had and the part he played.
“Practically all the time people come up to me and it really breaks me up because they thank me for being part of their childhood,” he said in a 2002 interview. “It makes me want to cry sometimes.”
Geoffrey was an actor whose biggest role had been on the police series Z Cars when he landed the job hosting Rainbow. He loved the work and took it seriously, even going into the studio on his days off to practise.
After the show was axed in 1992, the dad-of-one found it difficult to get acting jobs because he was typecast.
“Directors only saw me as Geoffrey from Rainbow,” he said. “It came as a shock when the phone stopped ringing. I got depressed for a while but it didn’t last long. I took the attitude, ‘What will be will be.’ They were fantastic years and I don’t regret them.”
He ended up working his supermarket job and driving a taxi, and parodied his fall from fame in a TV advert about investing money.
Despite the change in his fortunes Geoffrey, who died of pneumonia, said he was very grateful for his role on Rainbow. Earlier this year, he said, “We loved doing it; I certainly did. Twenty years of happiness, it really was.”