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John Eccleston is an English puppeteer, writer and presenter known for his work as lead puppeteer of Rygel on Farscape , [1] Groove on The Hoobs , and his many roles on British children's television alongside Don Austen. He was also behind the character Gilbert the Alien (voiced by Phil Cornwell) [2] on Get Fresh . He also performed Worth the Dog in the Woolworths adverts (again opposite Don Austen as Wooly The Sheep), Mervin J Minky on MTV's Fur TV and Rattus Rattus on the CBBC Horrible Histories series and Gory Games . [3]
His "in vision" television career started as one of the original presenters of the UK version of the Mickey Mouse Club, Disney Club , the success of which led to his presenting Run the Risk , The Big Dish, the children's magazine show Brill and Get The Picture , for Nickelodeon. It took seven years for him to realise he did not like being pointed at in the street and he has remained off screen ever since.[ citation needed ]
Eccleston, who hails from Liverpool, worked alongside Don Austen on the Saturday morning children's show What's Up Doc? , operating and providing the voices for the puppet wolves Bro and Bro. Their writing skill on this show garnered a spin-off ITV show called Wolf It! . Eccleston was approached to provide new characters for the BBC series Live & Kicking , once again teaming up with Don Austen and Darryl Worbey to create two puppet leprechauns, Mr Sage and Mr Onion. The characters appeared from 1995 to 2001, outliving three sets of presenters. [4] Eccleston, Austen and Worbey teamed up again to create the hyenas Scratch and Sniff (with Eccleston playing Sniff) on The Ministry of Mayhem, later renamed Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown . The characters recorded fifteen episodes of the game show Scratch 'n' Sniff's Den of Doom for Granada Kids. Eccleston also appeared in the award-winning short film The Box, [5] directed by Michael J. Bassett, and also starring Paul Hendy, Richard Orford and Laurence Akers. Between 1996–1997, he participated on the second and third series of Jim Henson's Animal Show, manipulating the puppet Yves St. La Roache, among others. [6]
Farscape is an Australian-American science fiction television series, produced originally for the Nine Network. It premiered in the US on Sci-Fi Channel's SciFi Friday, 19 March 1999, at 8:00 pm EST as their anchor series. The series was conceived by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by The Jim Henson Company and Hallmark Entertainment. The Jim Henson Company was responsible for the various alien make-up and prosthetics, and two regular characters are entirely Creature Shop creations.
Brian Henson is an American puppeteer, director, producer, voice actor and the chairman of The Jim Henson Company. He is the son of puppeteers Jim and Jane Henson.
Live & Kicking is a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for Going Live!, and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, comedy, competitions and the showing of cartoons. Once Live & Kicking had become established in series two, it reached its height in popularity during series four, when it was presented by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston; their final edition won a BAFTA award. After this, the programme's ratings dropped with the launch of SMTV Live on ITV and the show ended in 2001.
Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown was a British children's entertainment programme, which was broadcast on ITV from 10 January 2004 to 1 July 2006.
Adult puppeteering is the use of puppets in contexts aimed at adult audiences. Serious theatrical pieces can use puppets, either for aesthetic reasons, or to achieve special effects that would otherwise be impossible with human actors. In parts of the world where puppet shows have traditionally been children's entertainment, many find the notion of puppets in decidedly adult situations—for example, involving drugs, sex, profanity, or violence—to be humorous, because of the bizarre contrast it creates between subject matter and characters.
The Woodentops is a children's television series first shown on BBC Television in 1955. Created by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird, it featured on the Friday edition of Watch with Mother and regularly repeated until 1973. The main characters are the members of a family living on a farm. The aim of the programme was to teach pre-school children about family life.
Otis the Aardvark is a puppet of an aardvark that was a presenter on Children's BBC on British television. Otis mainly presented the afternoon links on BBC One alongside the main CBBC presenters. Otis was thought to be inspired by the 1992 Children's BBC idents which ended with a voice proclaiming "Tell that aardvark it's a wrap". These idents led to much speculation as to what the phrase meant. However, these idents were dropped just before the character of Otis appeared in late 1994.
The DJ Kat Show was a children's television programme presented by the puppet DJ Kat and his friend Linda de Mol, the sister of Endemol founder John de Mol, which ran from 1 September 1986 to 31 December 1995. The show was first broadcast to Europe on satellite and cable channel Sky Channel and later on Sky One and Sky Europe. The show was aired every weekday morning and afternoon, and throughout its life was home to a particularly large number of imported animated series. A separate version of The DJ Kat Show was later created for the United States where it was aired on stations affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, including WNYW, Fox's flagship station. This article focuses primarily on the original European version.
Wolf It is a British television series produced by Scottish Television and broadcast on CITV for 4 series between 1993 and 1996. The show is a spin off from the Saturday morning television series What's Up Doc? and features Bro and Bro, two English wolves who featured regularly in the aforementioned show. The programme was filmed in and around the Maidstone television studios, where it was also set, with Bro & Bro having set up home in a film vault.
Don Austen is an English puppeteer. Austen joined the Jim Henson Creature Shop in 1986 for the movie Labyrinth. He was a puppeteer for other blockbuster movies including Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), The Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Bear (L'ours) (1988), The Witches (1990), and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999).
What's Up Doc? is a British children's entertainment show that aired on ITV on Saturday mornings from 5 September 1992 to 29 April 1995. It was hosted by Andy Crane, Yvette Fielding, and Pat Sharp. Jenny Powell replaced Fielding for the final part of the series.
The Ferals was an Australian children's comedy television series which screened on the ABC from 1994 to 1995. It was created by Wendy Gray and Claire Henderson and featured a mixture of people and animal puppets known as the "Ferals". It was lauded for its irreverent humour and distinctive characters, some of which featured on other ABC programming. Garth Frost was responsible for the puppet design. The opening theme was written by Peter Dasent and Arthur Baysting and performed by Dave Dobbyn. In the UK, the show aired on satellite television via Nickelodeon UK.
David Chapman is an English actor, presenter, puppeteer and voice artist.
Richard Coombs is a British puppeteer who has worked extensively on television shows, feature films, commercials, and music videos. From 1987 to 1988, he worked on the ITV Saturday morning children's show, Get Fresh, where he operated the puppet Gilbert the Alien, alongside fellow puppeteer John Eccleston, with the character's voice performed by Phil Cornwell.
Scally the Dog was a puppet mongrel dog character, who co-presented the Children's ITV afternoon service from January 1989 – March 1991 in the United Kingdom.
Scott Brooker is a British puppeteer, puppet maker, puppet designer.
Horrible Histories with Stephen Fry is the name given to the six-part re-version of the hit children's sketch comedy Horrible Histories for an adult audience. Broadcast in a Sunday-night time slot from 19 June 2011 to 31 July 2011 on BBC One, the programme features a compilation of sketches from the first two series of Horrible Histories, as chosen by that show's producers. As a concession to the more mature audience, comedian and QI presenter Stephen Fry replaced puppet Rattus Rattus as host, presenting "added insight and historical nuggets".
Horrible Histories is a British children's live-action historical and musical sketch comedy television series, based on the bestselling book series of the same name by Terry Deary. The show was produced for CBBC by Lion Television with Citrus Television and ran from 2009 to 2014 for five series of thirteen half-hour episodes, with additional one-off seasonal and Olympic specials.
There has been more than one Horrible Histories Prom in the BBC's annual Proms concert series. The Horrible Histories entertainment franchise is aimed at children, and these concerts have introduced children to classical music.
Emlyn the Gremlyn was a CBBC puppet-presenter for the live ("Continuity") links on Children's BBC from 1999 until 2002. Created/owned by BBC Worldwide, built by Darryl Worbey Studios and puppeteered by Tim Cherry-Jones and Grant Mason, Emlyn the Gremlyn assisted the human presenters between shows to promote the channel's programming and provide an interactive element through competitions and various sends.