Wiltshire | Archive | 2002 | July | 4
From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Thursday 4th Jul 2002.
THE toughest and the meanest corporal from ITV's Lad's Army is just a big softie, says the Beaver Scout group he looks after in Hullavington.
Sgt Major Richard Nauyokas, 39, who is based at Hullavington was, until earlier this year, leader of the village's Beaver Colony.
He has become a TV star after acting as a tough corporal in the reality TV show that had 30 volunteers being taken through 1950s National Service training. While the harsh discipline was not necessary for the eight and nine-year-olds, the Sgt Major says he used some of the same skills.
"You still have to have that kind of authority, without being scary, so that if you say `stay there,' they do what they are told," he said.
"I haven't seen any of the Beavers since I have been on the television. I don't know what they think about it," he added.
"The boys loved him and he was very good at making things fun and exciting for them. He was very good at softening down to their level. He didn't shout his head off like he does on television if he had been like that at Beavers he would not have been a leader for long," said cub leader, Sarah Bolton.
Rory Johnson, eight, a pupil at Hullavington Primary School, remembers being a Beaver with Sgt Major Nauyokas. He said:"I think it's quite exciting seeing him on television, because he has always wanted to be an actor."
In the two weeks since he finished filming the show, Sgt Major Nauyokas, who now lives in south Wales, has been having to get used to his new-found fame.
"The response has been incredible, nobody could have predicted it could have been such a success," he said. "You have got to keep your feet on the ground and you know it won't last forever.
"I wake up some days and think it's all over, but then I go to the shops and suddenly I've got 50 people around me asking for autographs."
The response from fans of the TV tough guy has been enormous, with people constantly approaching him in the street to talk about the show.
With his face on TV, posters and magazines and his own army of fans, he has even had to go ex-directory. "Being the only Nauyokas in the phone book, I've been getting a few strange phone calls," he said.
Sgt Major Nauyokas intends to pursue a career in the entertainment industry, and after developing a successful double act on Lad's Army, he and sidekick Joe Murray have been marching round agents looking for work.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008