He is best remembered for his comedic upper class "silly ass" and clerical roles including Revd Mervyn Noote in the BBC1 sitcom All Gas and Gaiters (1966–71).

Nimmo was born in Liverpool, Lancashire,[1] the son of an insurance salesman,[2] and grew up in Mossley Hill in an environment he described as "old merchants' houses, comfy English suburbia".

At the time it was considered rather controversial because the main characters were senior churchmen (the Bishop, his chaplain Noote and the Archdeacon) who got into various scrapes as a result of their general incompetence.

He became so well known for his clerical parody that, in the 1975 The Goodies episode "Wacky Wales", a "team of Derek Nimmos" played in a spoof "Ecclesiastical Rugby Sevens" competition.

Nimmo appeared on stage in many West End plays and starred in the musical Charlie Girl, which contained a scene specially written to allow him to perform his party trick of wiggling his toes.

[6] As a theatrical impresario, he took his own touring production (Intercontinental Entertainment) to 30 countries,[7] including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Oman and the UAE, and so provided himself with material for many stories on Just a Minute.

He was made a Freeman of the City of London, and the University of Leicester recognised his contribution to entertainment with an honorary master's degree in 1996.

On 2 December 1998, Nimmo attended a National Treasures celebrity lunch in the boardroom of the Daily Express newspaper along with Sir Peter O'Sullevan, Joan Collins, Dame Beryl Bainbridge, Dickie Davies and Sue MacGregor amongst others.