Many of his immediate family had been active in musical theatre, but he initially trained as a hairdresser, and ran his own salon in Stafford before making a career on the stage.

[2] With some experience of repertory and a couple of provincial tours behind him, Fyffe invented the cabaret drag act character of glamorous soprano Perri St Claire.

Played on stage as a sophisticated young lady with singing talent, the Perri character was sufficiently eye-catching to earn him some television slots, and Fyffe was asked to appear in character in a number of television series of the late 1960 and early 1970s, such as Z-Cars, Special Branch and an episode of Doctor in the House in 1969, when he appeared as a cabaret singer.

Initially, they developed a comedy act featuring Fyffe as a retired opera singer who still thinks she can sing, with Logan as her male accompanist.

[4][5][6] A backstory developed for the Hinge and Bracket characters in which they were said to be residing in a fictional village called Stackton Tressel; the name was adapted from Fyffe's birthplace of Acton Trussell.