Patsy Biscoe (AM) | |
---|---|
Born | 1946 (age 77–78) Shimla, India |
Nationality | Australian |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1958–2000s |
Known for | Fat Cat and Friends |
Notable work | Here's Humphrey |
Musical career | |
Genres | |
Instruments |
|
Patsy Biscoe AM (born 1946) is an Australian children's television personality, singer and guitarist. She regularly appeared on children's national television shows, Here's Humphrey and Fat Cat and Friends . She has released many children's music albums containing nursery rhymes and similar children's songs and has sold in excess of 500,000 units in her musical career.
Biscoe was born in Shimla, India, to a British army officer and a civil servant in 1946. She came to Australia and settled in Sydney with her family during the Partition of India, and they moved to Sandy Bay in Hobart when she was nine. [1]
Biscoe won a classical singing scholarship after making an unscheduled appearance at the St Mary's College annual eisteddfod. While studying medicine at the University of Tasmania, she sang and played guitar at a Sunday night jazz club. Her studies and fledgling career were interrupted by a car accident which damaged her eyesight. [1] She covered a scar on her forehead from the accident with what became her distinctive long-fringed haircut.
Biscoe was a finalist in the Starflight International talent quest of the Australian television show, Bandstand , competing for an overseas trip and a recording contract. She recorded her first LP in Sydney in 1965 with CBS records. [1]
Biscoe gained fame in her adopted home of Adelaide when she regularly appeared on the Nine Network children's show, Here's Humphrey (1965–2008), which she hosted from September 1970. [2] Later she was a presenter on local TV children's show, Channel Niners. She also appeared as a singer on children's TV show, Fat Cat and Friends (1972–91), on SAS-10. In October 1980 she promoted wearing seat belts for children in a TV ad campaign by the Road Safety Council in South Australia. [3]
After retiring from performing, Biscoe became a naturopath. She has also been Deputy Mayor of the Barossa Council local government area and Chair of the Tanunda Town Committee. [4]
Biscoe was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2016 for her services to music and her local community. [5]
During the early 1990s, Biscoe was parodied by Adelaide comedian Glynn Nicholas, who played Paté Biscuit on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation television comedy show, The Big Gig . Biscoe appeared in several episodes with Nicholas, one time tying up Biscuit and taking his place on the show with Bongo, Biscuit's hand puppet. She also appeared on the show using her own hand puppet, Bongette—the female counterpart of Bongo. When on screen together, neither Bongo nor Bongette could hide their attraction for the other. [6]
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications |
---|---|---|---|
AUS [7] | |||
The Voice of Patsy Biscoe |
| – | |
Patsy Biscoe Sings Your Fifty Favourite Nursery Rhymes |
| 77 [upper-alpha 1] |
|
Games & Songs to Play on Your Birthday |
| – | |
Jesus Loves Me |
| – | |
Patsy's Christmas Album |
| 62 |
|
50 Favourite Nursery Rhymes Volume Two |
| 48 |
|
50 Favourite Nursery Rhymes Volume Three |
| 91 | |
Songs to Play on a Rainy Day (For Children of All Ages) |
| – | |
Come Waltzing Matilda |
| – | |
Who Built the Ark? |
| – | |
Hush Little Baby |
| – | |
Once Upon a Time with Patsy Biscoe |
| – |
Notes
Here's Humphrey was an Australian children's television series produced by Banksia Productions for the Nine Network, which first aired on 24 May 1965 and last went to air in 2008.
Today's Special is a Canadian children's television program produced by Clive VanderBurgh at TVOntario, originally broadcasting 120 episodes from 1981 to 1987. Much of the series was set in a department store, based on Simpson's then-flagship location in Toronto. Some store sequences were shot at the Queen Street West and Yonge Street store after hours. The show ran on TVOntario in Canada as well as Nickelodeon in the United States. Reruns of the series continued into 2000 on stations such as public television stations in the United States and on Treehouse TV in Canada.
"The Itsy Bitsy Spider" is a popular nursery rhyme, folksong, and fingerplay that describes the adventures of a spider as it ascends, descends, and re-ascends the downspout or "waterspout" of a gutter system or open-air reservoir. It is usually accompanied by a sequence of gestures that mimic the words of the song. Its Roud Folk Song Index number is 11586.
Playdays is a British preschool television programme which ran from 1988 to 1997 on Children's BBC. The show was the successor to Play School and, like its predecessor, was designed as an educational programme.
The Big Gig was a popular Australian television sketch comedy music/variety series based on the British TV series Saturday Live. It was produced and broadcast on ABC TV in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was produced and directed by Ted Robinson, who started his career as the director of the second series of the acclaimed The Aunty Jack Show in the early 1970s, and Neil Wilson.
Fat Cat and Friends was an Australian children's television show starring Fat Cat, a costumed character, who is an orange/ginger anthropomorphic cat who wears red braces, a blue bow tie and a green bowler hat and striped socks. The show ran from 1972 to 1991, after which it was cancelled in controversial circumstances. However the Fat Cat character continues to feature on television in Perth, as the mascot of the Telethon fundraising organisation.
Holly Brisley is an Australian actress and television presenter. She began her career at the age of 16 on Agro's Cartoon Connection (1994–97) and more recently portrayed Amanda Vale-Baker on Home and Away (2005–09). Her most successful film roles include Garage Days (2001) and The Crop (2004).
The 12th Annual TV Week Logie Awards were presented on Friday 20 March 1970 at Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne and broadcast on the Nine Network. Bert Newton from the Nine Network was the Master of Ceremonies. Miss World 1968 winner Penelope Plummer, British television actor Peter Wyngarde and American actors Peter Graves and Robert Young appeared as guests. Peggy Lipton, star of the US series The Mod Squad, was also originally scheduled to appear but cancelled at the last minute due to a severe middle-ear infection. This article lists the winners of Logie Awards for 1970:
Norman Frederick Hetherington was an Australian artist, teacher, cartoonist, puppeteer, and puppet designer.
The Fairies is an Australian preschool live-action children's television series created by Jenifer 'Jen' Watts and is based on two fairies: Harmony and Rainbow Rhapsody. They also have friends, including Elf the Fairy Cake Maker, Barnaby the Bizzy Buzzy Bee and Wizzy the Wizard. Each episode of the third TV series would contain songs and dance routines. Originally it was a direct-to-video film series released by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Australia in 1998 and ABC Video in 2000, before becoming a TV series in 2005. ABC for Kids released the TV series on DVD in 2005–09, with merchandise releasing in Australia and America throughout the program's run and tours.
Shirley Abicair is an Australian-born singer, musician, television personality, actress and author. In the 1950s and 60s, she was probably best known as an exponent of the zither.
The Early Bird Show was an Australian children's television show that aired on Network Ten in Australia from 26 January 1985 until 10 June 1989. The show was so popular that a magazine about it was published in 1989.
Justine Clarke is an Australian actress, singer, author and television host.
Peter Charles Combe OAM is an Australian children's entertainer and musician. At the ARIA Music Awards he has won three ARIA Awards for Best Children's Album, for Toffee Apple (1988), Newspaper Mama (1989) and The Absolutely Very Best of Peter Combe Recorded in Concert (1992) and four additional nominations. His best-known tracks are "Toffee Apple", "Spaghetti Bolognaise", "Mr Clicketty Cane", "Juicy Juicy Green Grass" and "Newspaper Mama". His Christmas Album reached the ARIA Albums Chart top 50.
Mae Laborde was an American television and film actress, who began her career at the age of 93 and who was active until her death at age 102. She was best known for her appearances on Talkshow with Spike Feresten as well as portraying Gladys on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Mrs. Mendelson in Pineapple Express (2008).
Hi-5 is an Australian children's television series, originally produced by Kids Like Us and later Southern Star for the Nine Network, created by Helena Harris and Posie Graeme-Evans. The program is known for its educational content, and for the cast of the program, who became a recognised musical group for children outside of the series, known collectively as Hi-5. It has generated discussion about what is considered appropriate television for children. The series premiered on 12 April 1999 on the Nine Network.
Glynn Nicholas is an Australian actor, comedian, director, writer, and producer. In the early 1990s he developed several the comic alter ego Paté Biscuit, a parody of Patsy Biscoe, a fellow presenter on the TV show Here's Humphrey, which he later presented in The Big Gig. He has appeared in many stage productions.
Wendy Anne-Marie Stapleton is an Australian pop/rock singer-songwriter, musical theatre performer and television actress and presenter Stapleton has performed as a backing singer, session musician and a solo artist; she fronted various Melbourne-based groups including Wendy Stapleton Band (1976–1978) and Wendy & the Rocketts [sic] (1980–1985) which had a top 30 hit single with "Play the Game" in June 1983.
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Rosanna Mangiarelli is an Australian television presenter.