Martin Delaney: ‘Renford Rejects was a massive part of people’s childhood’

The actor reflects on appearing in the cult 1990s children’s TV show about a five-a-side team made up of outcasts and oddballs

“That’s Priscilla’s hatch!” Martin Delaney says, pointing excitedly to the square hole in the wall. We’re at Morty & Bob’s, a diner-come-bar in north London that is proving to be the perfect setting for this interview given it used to be Graceland, the cafe that appeared prominently in Renford Rejects, the cult children’s TV show from the late 1990s. The venue has changed a lot since then but one feature remains and Delaney is understandably delighted about that.

For he played Jason Summerbee, captain of the Rejects, a fictitious five-a-side team, from a fictitious area, made up of outcasts and oddballs. Alongside Jason there was Ben Philips, Bruno Di Gradi, Ronnie Supra and Robin Walker, and their every kick was documented by wannabe sports presenter Vinnie Rodrigues and coached by Stewart Jackson, who was the best player of the lot but couldn’t play having been put in crutches by the show’s arch-villain, Terry ‘The Terminator’ Stoker. And the Rejects – they were called Renford Rovers only for Stoker to change their name on their registration form for the Renford Youth League – hung out at Graceland, which was owned by Elvis fanatic Eddie McAvoy and his suitably-named, long-suffering wife Priscilla, who viewers never saw and only heard. Through her hatch.