Jamie Rix

Last updated

Jamie Rix
Jamie Rix (cropped).jpg
Born (1958-04-27) 27 April 1958 (age 65)
England
Education University of Kent
Occupation(s)author, producer, screenwriter
Years active1981–present
Known for
  • Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids
  • The War Diaires of Alistair Fury
Spouse
Helen Murray
(m. 1980)
Children2
Parents
Relatives
Website jamierix.com

Jamie Rix (born 27 April 1958) [1] is an English children's author, television comedy writer, and media producer. He is best known for the book series Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and The War Diaries of Alistair Fury ; both were adapted into award-winning children's television programmes.

Contents

Career

Rix studied Drama and English at the University of Kent, and worked as an assistant stage manager at Royal Court Theatre to learn how to direct plays. [2] On holiday in France, he created a white lie story, The Spaghetti Man, in order to make his four-year-old son eat his dinner. [2] It was about a little boy who refused to behave at the kitchen table and is kidnapped by an invisible force, that takes him to a factory to turn him into lasagne. Rix took note of how the lie had made his four-year-old eat all of his meals without hesitations, which would inspire a series that could scare children into behaving themselves. [2] An unspecified time later, Rix was hired by the BBC to write and produce comedy, such as Radio Active , The Michael Bentine Show, The Wow Show, and The History of Rock for BBC Radio 4, and, for television, Alas Smith and Jones . [2]

The Spaghetti Man would be included in Rix debut book Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids , [3] which was published in 1990 by André Deutsch. Its popularity led to a Smarties Prize Children's Choice Award and three sequels: Ghostly Tales for Ghastly Kids (1992), Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids (1996), and More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids (2001), followed by a revived book series in 2007, now named Grizzly Tales: Cautionary Tales for Lovers of Squeam!. These were later adapted into two award-winning television animation series. He has written many books for many age groups, such as Johnny Casanova - the Unstoppable Sex Machine for older readers, and The Revenge Files of Alistair Fury , originally called The War Diaries of Alistair Fury , an account of an eleven-year-old boy desperate for revenge on his older brother and sister. [4] This series includes (in order): Bugs on the Brain, Dead Dad Dog, Kiss of Death, Tough Turkey, Summer HellidayExam Fever. The series was adapted into a successful CBBC series, which won a BAFTA in 2008. [5]

Little Brother Productions

In 1994, Rix founded a production company with Nigel Planer, at the time named Elephant Productions. [6] It produced the two book-to-TV adaptations of Rix's bibliography, as well as the children's programmes Animal School and Popskool for the BBC, Father Christmas, and the 2005 Willo the Wisp revival for Playhouse Disney, [2] and the adult programmes Not Going Out , Faith in the Future , and Let's Get Divorced with Jonathan and Libby Hughes. [7] [8]

Personal life

Jamie Rix is the son of actor-turned-Mencap President Brian Rix and actress Elspet Gray, and was raised in Richmond Park with his two older sisters (one of them being Louisa) and younger brother. [2] Rix admitted that Alistair Fury's odd relationship with his bullying siblings were based on the arguments he used to have with his siblings during childhood. [2] As a child he was involved with sports: he had a football trial with Chelsea FC and ran marathons until he hurt his back. [2] At school, an English teacher inspired him to write fiction: Rix realised how fun creating stories was when he wrote about mutilated bodies after the teacher encouraged him to write whatever he liked. [2] Gory humour might have been linked to his obsession with creating bloody monsters out of Airfix. [2]

Rix married BBC secretary Helen Murray in 1980. [2] They have two sons and live in Tooting, London. His aunt is Sheila Mercier, who famously portrayed Annie Sugden in the long-running soap opera Emmerdale . He is the son-in-law of John Middleton Murry Jr. and the grandson-in-law of John Middleton Murry. [2]

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<i>Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids</i> (book) 1990 book of short stories by Jamie Rix

Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids is the debut book by British author Jamie Rix and was the first book in the children's cautionary horror book series Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids. It was published on 17 May 1990 by André Deutsch Limited and contains 15 short cautionary tales. These stories featured a monster maths teacher, animal nannies, a barber that specialised in making rude children behave themselves, a giant that cannot stop growing, a magical hat, a magic book, magic scissors, and a sweet shop full of mannequins.

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More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids is a 2001 children's horror short-story collection from Scholastic UK by British author Jamie Rix and is the fourth book in the Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids book series. It was the first book to be written after the Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids cartoon adaptation by ITV, which aired on CITV. It was also the last book in the original book series before it was retooled in 2007 as Grizzly Tales: Cautionary Tales for Lovers of Squeam!, and is the book with the most stories at twenty, whereas the first and second had fifteen, the third had sixteen, and the rest that would later follow had six.

<i>Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids</i> (TV series) Animated television series based on a book series by Jamie Rix

Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids is a British animated horror television series based on the generic trademarked children's book series of the same name by Jamie Rix. After the first three books were published from 1990 to 1996, Carlton Television adapted the short stories into ten-minute cartoons for ITV, produced by themselves, Honeycomb Animation, and Rix's production company, Elephant Productions. It aired on CITV between January 2000 and October 2006 with six series and 78 episodes, as well as a New Year's Eve special that was over 20 minutes longer than other episodes. The series returned in a new format for Nicktoons with 26 episodes split into two series under the name Grizzly Tales, which aired between May 2011 and November 2012.

<i>Nasty Little Beasts</i> 2007 short stories by Jamie Rix

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References

  1. Rix, Jamie. "jamierix-cv-march2012.pdf [Jamie Rix's CV]" (PDF). jamierix.com. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "About — Jamie Rix" . Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  3. Rix, Jamie (17 May 1990). "The Spaghetti Man". Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids (1st ed.). Scholastic Books. ISBN   9780233985312.
  4. "Jamie Rix". Random House. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
  5. "Children's Awards Winners in 2008". British Academy of Film and television Arts. Archived from the original on 31 October 2008. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
  6. "Little Brother Productions — Official website". Little Brother Productions. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  7. "Productions - Little Brother Productions" . Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  8. "Jamie Rix - Little Brother Productions" . Retrieved 22 October 2019.