Verrell also worked extensively in television, including as a drummer in Jack Parnell's ATV Orchestra and Sunday Night at the London Palladium.
[1] The Daily Telegraph said Verrell had a "rare combination of craftsmanship and bravura showmanship" and called him "Britain's best-known big band drummer for half a century".
[1] Initially he showed little interest in music until he saw the Benny Goodman Quartet perform in a film, Hollywood Hotel in 1938.
[4] In 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, the 14-year-old Verrell was evacuated to Porthcawl in South Wales, where he made his first public appearances drumming with local bands in the area.
[2][4] In the mid-1940s Verrell began performing with Scottish saxophonist Tommy Whittle and Belgian trumpeter Johnny Claes.
The cause of death was a chest infection he contracted during an operation to fix a crushed vertebra resulting from a fall down some stairs in November 2001.