Brendan Stapleton

A MAN who trained apes for Tarzan is swimming for Islington.

Brendan Stapleton, 66, is a trained actor, mime, clown and dancer. He’s just two weeks away from swimming for the borough in the Better Club Games tournament for the over-60s.

“I thought, if I want to do commercials, they’re looking for a quirky character to do comedy commercials and swimming. If they’re going to use swimmers, you need to be technically correct, otherwise you can’t play with the skill. So, I took swimming lessons 30 years ago to the gold standard… It never arose, but it’s there just in case. People ask for all these zany subjects for commercials,” said Mr Stapleton.

He added: “I worked on Tarzan and the Lost City, I trained the apes for it.

Josephine Thomas – ‘part of the community’

“I played all three gorillas in an ad that was the first blue screen ad outside of America, it was for TCF Bank in Chicago.

“It was a joke on King Kong – we were all sitting on top of these blocks of flats drinking coffee and talking about how good this bank was. From that, the agency asked me to train the actors who play the apes in Tarzan.

“It was fantastic. We were in South Africa in the jungle, in KwaZulu-Natal.”

Mr Stapleton keeps up the swimming because “it’s the best workout you can do” and still works as a freelance actor, playing mostly comedic roles.

Janet Decruz, 82, is headed into her seventh year of the Club Games, and is set to play badminton for the borough.

“I started playing properly in my early 20s. I met my husband through it, he taught me everything I know. We started out as badminton partners and then ended up getting married,” she said.

Janet Decruz

“After my husband died, I didn’t play much at all until I joined the Sobell club… but we can’t play there any more because of the flooding.”

Ms Decruz is a retired teacher, and her fellow badminton players told the Tribune that she’s a formidable opponent.

She said: “The games are competitive, especially Hackney – they take it really seriously. One year, I played dominoes, and they had to ban the spectators from watching because they were standing behind the chairs and giving the other players hints.”

Josephine Thomas, 67, is another badminton player who is determined to win at her first year in the games. “I suffer with sickle cell, so I have to be careful with too much exertion, so I do about an hour here. I’m going into hospital on Friday [today] for a red cells exchange, which I have to do every six weeks. Having these transfusions keeps me well, and stops me having crises. And I’m able to do this as well, which is great…and once I’m done here, I go and do mundane things at home… It makes me feel part of the community.”

The Club Games are set to begin on September 22 in the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre before moving to the Copper Box Arena and the London Aquatics Centre on September 26.