Mike Berry, who has died aged 82, became a familiar figure in British living rooms thanks to his role as Mr Spooner, a junior sales assistant, in the innuendo-packed BBC TV sitcom Are You Being Served? He featured in the last three of the show’s 10 series, from 1981 until 1985.
But before that, Berry had been a pop star who briefly earned the nickname of “the British Buddy Holly”, thanks to his song A Tribute to Buddy Holly. It was Berry’s first hit, reaching No 24 on the UK chart in November 1961, even though the BBC had banned this ode to Holly, who died in a plane crash in 1959, for being “morbid”.
The maverick producer Joe Meek had masterminded the track, on which Berry was backed by the Outlaws, a band Meek had also found. Berry had two further Meek-produced hits. Don’t You Think It’s Time reached No 6 in 1963, and later that year My Little Baby peaked at 34.
Berry appeared on pop package shows alongside the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Holly’s own band the Crickets, but he was never able to match their level of success. Nonetheless, he recalled how “I was told by somebody that Brian Jones thought I was one of the best singers in the country”, and he reached the UK Top 10 again in 1980 with his version of The Sunshine of Your Smile, a sentimental ballad originally popularised by the Irish tenor John McCormack in 1916.
In the mid-70s Berry also enjoyed popularity in several European countries. In the Netherlands he reached No 2 on the local chart with a remake of A Tribute to Buddy Holly and made the Top 20 with Don’t Be Cruel.
Berry was born in Northampton, but six weeks later his mother, Jerretta Bourne, moved the family to north Wales. Jet (as his mother was known) was an actor, singer and musician, but initially Mike had no yearning to follow her into show business. He described how his elder brother, Peter, was the “early, budding performer” – he later became an actor, performed as the drag queen Bette Bourne and founded the gay theatre company Bloolips – while Mike’s sisters, Pam and Val, were both accomplished singers and often sang round the piano while their mother played. “My mum was also into amateur dramatics and performed in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas,” he said.
At the end of the second world war the family moved to London, to 47 Clissold Road in Stoke Newington, with Mike’s grandparents across the road in No 64. Mike attended William Patten primary school, then at 11 won a scholarship to Hackney Downs school. When he was 13, his father, a driving instructor, abandoned the family, declaring that his children were “the four biggest mistakes of my life”.
The feeling was mutual. In a 2008 interview with the Teletronic website, Mike described his departure as “like a big dark cloud lifting and a great sense of relief and release. He was a miserable, grouchy, begrudging presence for most of my childhood … and totally devoid of any fatherly love or affection.”
Mike left school without taking his O-levels, but with help from his brother, who was working on a science magazine, he secured an apprenticeship as a printer’s compositor at St Clements Press. Meanwhile, he had developed an interest in music, including the skiffle musician Lonnie Donegan and rock’n’rollers such as Elvis and Holly. He made a tremulous performing debut in a Finsbury Park pub, then formed his own skiffle group, the Rebels, and wrote his first song, Sweet Leslie Ann, for them. They upgraded to electric instruments and became Kenny Lord and the Statesmen.
They recorded a demo tape of four songs and sent it to Meek. He loved their version of Buddy Holly’s Peggy Sue Got Married, decided he wanted to make Berry a star and signed a deal with the 18-year-old singer.
As his musical profile waned in the 70s, Berry turned to acting and advertising work, and featured in more than 50 TV advertisements. His advert for Blue Riband chocolate biscuits, in which he sang the catchline “I got those can’t get enough of those Blue Riband Blues”, ran for three years.
It was through advertising that Berry made the breakthrough into TV drama. When shooting an advert for TV Times magazine, he caught the eye of the director James Hill, who was also casting for the children’s TV version of Barbara Euphan Todd’s Worzel Gummidge books, starring Jon Pertwee in the title role. In 23 episodes, from 1979 until 1981, Berry played the role of Mr Peters. Subsequently, when the screenwriter David Croft was looking for a replacement for Trevor Bannister, who was leaving his role of Mr Lucas in Are You Being Served?, a recommendation from Pertwee helped Berry to land the role of Bert Spooner.
Berry found further acting work in The Bill, the children’s TV series Dramarama and the music-biz film Julie and the Cadillacs (1999), starring Toyah Willcox.
In 1988, Berry donned his songwriting hat and paired up with Mel Simpson to compose This Is the Kiss, one of the eight songs competing to be the UK’s entry in that year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Performed by Two-Ché on the TV show A Song For Europe, it came second (the winner was Go, sung by Scott Fitzgerald).
In 2016, Berry auditioned for the TV talent show The Voice UK, urged on by Chas Hodges. Hodges was not only half of Chas & Dave, but had also been a member of the Outlaws and had produced The Sunshine of Your Smile. Berry sang Buddy Holly’s True Love Ways, but did not progress to the show’s later stages.
Berry would subsequently tour with the Solid Gold Rock’n’Roll Show, a package tour with other 60s veterans such as Marty Wilde and Eden Kane, and had recently been performing with a reconstituted Mike Berry and the Outlaws.
He is survived by his wife, Susan, and their daughter and son, and by his sisters. His brother died in 2024.
• Mike Berry (Michael Hubert Bourne), singer, songwriter and actor, born 24 September 1942; died 11 April 2025
