Phil Fletcher

Last updated

Phil Fletcher performing his character Hacker T. Dog in the CBBC studio. Hacker T. Dog and Phil Fletcher.jpg
Phil Fletcher performing his character Hacker T. Dog in the CBBC studio.

Phil Fletcher (born 27 October 1976) is a British puppeteer. He established his puppet manufacturing and performance company, Gluvets, at the age of 11. After briefly working in manufacturing he found summer work performing in holiday camps and became a full-time puppeteer in 2002. In 2009 he was cast by the BBC as the puppeteer for Hacker T Dog for continuity segments on the CBBC Channel. Fletcher gave Hacker a voice for the first time and the character proved popular, receiving his own 63-episode TV series, Hacker Time , which was nominated for eight BAFTAs. From 2017 Fletcher voiced Sweep in Sooty and from 2021 has appeared as Larry the Lizard on Buffering .

Contents

Early life

Phil Fletcher was born in Hindley, Greater Manchester, on 27 October 1976. [1] He developed an interest in puppeteering as a child, after seeing programmes featuring The Muppets and, his favourite, Rod Hull and Emu. Fletcher was given a replica puppet of Emu at the age of four and used it, and puppets made from card and paper, to make performances. [1] [2] His first public show was a performance of Aesop's "The Tortoise and the Hare" at his local church. [1]

Fletcher attended All Saints Primary School and Mornington High School in Wigan. Whilst at school he was paid to perform at children's parties and founded his puppeteering company, Gluvets, in the break between primary and secondary school. Fletcher moved into making puppets from cloth and foam and retains the first puppet he made in this style, a blue creature named Josh. Fletcher studied design at Wigan and Leigh College for a year as there were no puppet-making classes available. He continued to make puppet performances whilst working on production lines at Ingersoll Rand and Alphason Design factories. After joining a number of talent agencies Fletcher found summer work at holiday resorts run by Butlins, Pontins and Haven Holidays and became a full-time puppeteer in 2002. [1] In 2008 he judged Puppet Contest 2008 : A Space Odyssey, a competition organised by Project Puppet. [3]

Television

Fletcher never aspired to appear on television, as he thought it too small a market, and concentrated on live performances. [2] He did put some of his performances on YouTube and was afterwards contacted by the BBC to audition for the role of Hacker T. Dog, an anthropomorphic Border Terrier dog puppet. Hacker had appeared in the television series Scoop from 2009 but was being brought in as a presenter sidekick and continuity announcer on the CBBC Channel for the following year. Fletcher initially declined to audition, stating he was too busy and the contract was short term (four months), but was persuaded to reconsider and was awarded the role. Fletcher has appeared as Hacker since then. [1]

On Scoop Hacker had only growled and barked but he gained a voice under Fletcher, who gradually introduced more dialogue to the act. Hacker first appeared alongside CBBC presenter Iain Stirling, with Fletcher hidden on screen by a trolley, desk or couch. [1] The performances were well received, with Stirling and Fletcher being nominated for a Bafta for best children's presenter in 2010. The Hacker character was given his own series Hacker Time which ran for 63 episodes and was nominated for eight Baftas, including best children's performer for Fletcher in 2013. [4] [1] The character has also appeared on breakfast news programming, Today at Wimbledon and Celebrity Mastermind (his specialist subject was The Pet Shop Boys). [1] Fletcher says that the personality of Hacker is based on himself and that "I just do what I find funny ... The bits that are always the funny bits are just made up – I'm always just trying to throw the presenter under the bus, really. I have no regard for the presenter, I just throw them under the bus because I think it'd make good telly". Fletcher claims that portraying Hacker is "the best job in the world". [2] He received a further Bafta nomination for best children's performer in 2017 for his work on the CBBC Channel. [4]

In 2022 a segment that Hacker filmed with co-host Lauren Layfield in 2016 became a viral meme. [5] A programme trailer featuring an interrogation scene preceded the segment. Fletcher told his sound operator not to play the usual background music during the segment and told Layfield to move her head close to the Hacker puppet. [2] Fletcher had Hacker look into her eyes and say "We're just normal men". Layfield asked "What do you mean, normal men?" and Fletcher, as Hacker, replied "We're just innocent men". Layfield struggled to maintain composure through laughing and snorted loudly, described by the Big Issue as "the most famous snort in the country". [5] Fletcher said "Her reaction was genuine because she didn't know what I was gonna say, nor did I, really. It just threw her over the edge, because what does that even mean? Why would you say that on kids telly?". [2] The scene was unscripted. [5] Although rumours arose claiming it was inspired by an interaction between Fletcher and the police after being arrested in Leeds he says it was not and was "just nonsense". [6] [7]

Fletcher's Gluvets company has made puppets for the Sooty TV series and replicas of famous puppets such as the Muppets, and Basil Brush, for his personal collection. From 2017 Fletcher provided the "voice" for Sweep on Sooty. [1] He has also appeared as Larry the Lizard in the ITV sitcom Buffering (2021–) alongside Stirling who wrote and stars in the programme. [8] [9]

Personal life

Fletcher has always lived in Hindley, except for his first two years at CBBC when he lived in London, and has two dogs. Fletcher also appears in a Pet Shop Boys tribute band, known as The Pound Shop Boys. As well as the band's hits he sings children's television themes and novelty chart hits. [1]

In 2018, Fletcher purchased at auction one of the few surviving Emu puppets used by Rod Hull; he paid £8,860 for the puppet, well in excess of its £750–£1,000 estimate. The puppet joined others in his collection, such as George from Rainbow , Keith Harris' Orville the Duck, and Sooty and Sweep. [10] [11] Fletcher also performs alongside Ricardo Autobahn in the duo Pound Shop Boys, covering theme tunes to children's television programs in the style of Pet Shop Boys.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon the Gopher</span> Fictional character

Gordon the Gopher, also known as Gordon T. Gopher, is an English puppet gopher who first appeared on Children's BBC (CBBC) between 1985 and 1987, listed on television shows by Phillip Schofield on the interstitial or in-vision continuity programme The Broom Cupboard. He is a yellow puppet gopher with red paws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sweep (puppet)</span> Puppet

Sweep is a British puppet and television character popular in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edd the Duck</span> Fictional character

Edd the Duck is a puppet duck featured on the CBBC interstitial programme The Broom Cupboard alongside presenters Andy Crane and Andi Peters

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otis the Aardvark</span> British television puppet

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justin Fletcher</span> British actor and presenter (born 1970)

Justin Fletcher is an English children's television presenter, actor and comedian, appearing mainly on the BBC pre-school television channel CBeebies. Speaking and performing in various, often self-created, roles, he specialises in slapstick comedy and works with children with special educational needs through his show Something Special.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Austen</span> English puppeteer

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).

John Eccleston is an English puppeteer, writer and presenter known for his work as lead puppeteer of Rygel on Farscape, 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 on Get Fresh. He also performed Worth the Dog in the Woolworths adverts, Mervin J Minky on MTV's Fur TV and Rattus Rattus on the CBBC Horrible Histories series and Gory Games.

David Chapman is an English actor, presenter, puppeteer and voice artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nev the Bear</span> Character

Nev the Bear is a small, blue puppet bear that originally appeared in the CBBC television programme Smile. Since 2007, Nev has starred in his own CBBC show Bear Behaving Badly, alongside Barney Harwood. His name was created from the name of his co-star Dev Griffin on Smile. He was last seen on Hacker Time when Derek puts Nev on Line 1 for Barney Harwood. Nev has patches in places on his body and is missing part of his ear. This is due to Bandit the cat, who is seen in some episodes of Bear Behaving Badly, biting it off.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warrick Brownlow-Pike</span> British puppeteer

Warrick Brownlow-Pike is a British puppeteer. He is best known for performing the character "Gonger" on Sesame Street and its spinoff series The Furchester Hotel and Dodge T Dog on the CBeebies Channel.

<i>Sooty</i> British puppet media franchise

Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in The Sooty Show in 1955. The main character, Sooty, is a mute yellow bear with black ears and nose, who is kind-hearted but also cheeky. Sooty performs magic tricks and practical jokes, and squirts his handler and other people with his water pistol. The franchise itself also includes several other puppet characters who were created for television, as well as an animated series, two spin-off series for the direct-to-video market, and a selection of toy merchandising.

Scoop is a children's TV series first broadcast by the BBC on the CBBC channel from 5 January 2009 to 10 August 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iain Stirling</span> Scottish comedian (b. 1988)

Iain Andrew Stirling is a Scottish comedian, writer, television presenter, narrator and Twitch streamer from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Christopher David Johnson is a British television presenter and actor. He began presenting on the CBBC Channel in January 2010, and continued until April 2016. His first television appearance was for BBC Three, introducing Family Guy. Chris also makes content on YouTube under the user name OfficialCDJ.

Andy Heath is a British puppeteer. He is most noted for working as the head puppeteer for the BBC Three situation comedy Mongrels, where he controls the main character, Nelson the metrosexual fox. He also puppeteered Hacker T Dog in CBBC's Scoop, who is currently performed by Phil Fletcher. He has also worked on television show Fur TV and on the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005).

Carl Chadd is a British puppeteer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hacker T Dog</span> Puppet-dog television presenter

Hacker The Dog, more commonly known as Hacker T Dog, is a Border Terrier dog puppet who appears on the CBBC television channel in the United Kingdom. He is performed by puppeteer Phil Fletcher.

<i>The Dog Ate My Homework</i> Childrens panel show aired in Britain

The Dog Ate My Homework is a British children's panel show hosted by Lauren Layfield. It was first broadcast on 17 January 2014 and was originally hosted by the comedian Iain Stirling. The show is produced by CBBC Productions Scotland for CBBC.

Lauren Layfield is an English television and radio presenter and journalist who has worked for CBBC, Capital FM and Radio 1.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Meet the Wigan puppet master behind Hacker T Dog". Wigan Today. 28 December 2019. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Ran, Dani (17 June 2022). "I Interviewed the 'We're Just Normal Men' Puppet on Zoom". Vice.com. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  3. ↑ "Puppet Contest 2008 : A Space Odyssey – Deadline : November 1, 2008". International Competition. 30 September 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  4. 1 2 "BAFTA Awards Search". BAFTA Awards. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 MacKenzie, Steven (27 June 2022). "Lauren Layfield: 'Normal men, innocent men' and me". The Big Issue. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  6. ↑ Fletcher, Harry (7 May 2022). "What is the 'normal men, innocent men' meme?". Indy100.com. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  7. ↑ Van De Peer, Hannah (25 April 2022). "Right, why are people saying 'we're just normal men, we're just innocent men' on Twitter?". The Tab. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  8. ↑ "Iain Stirling's sitcom Buffering returning to ITV2 for a second series". British Comedy Guide. 15 September 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  9. ↑ Baah, Nana (5 August 2021). "The Secret Life of a Kids TV Presenter". Vice.com. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  10. ↑ "Emu bought by Hacker the Dog puppeteer to sit alongside George the pink hippo". Antiques Trade Gazette. 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  11. ↑ "Rod Hull's Emu smashes estimate at auction". Sky News. 1 June 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.