Sam & Mark

Last updated

Sam & Mark
Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes at BAFTA Children's Academy Awards 2015.jpg
Child interviews Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes at British Academy Children's Awards 2015
Background information
Genres Pop singers / Radio and television presenters
Years active2004–present
Members Sam Nixon
Mark Rhodes

Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes, known collectively as Sam & Mark, or simply Smark[ by whom? ], are an English popular music and television presenting duo. They previously competed on the second series of Pop Idol in 2003, where they finished third and second, respectively, behind winner Michelle McManus. Since then, Sam & Mark have had a successful career in radio and television in the UK.

Contents

Music career

After Pop Idol, they decided to form a duo and signed with Simon Fuller. They released as a single a cover of The Beatles' song "With a Little Help from My Friends", released on Fuller's label 'S'. The song entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 1.

The follow-up single "The Sun Has Come Your Way" released by UMTV, only reached Number 19 in the charts.

Consequently, the pair, while working for the CBBC, were informed they were no longer allowed to release music as Sam and Mark had signed a deal with Fearne Cotton for a period of 2 years to perform both live and pre-recorded show. This resulted in Simon Fuller signing the duo out of their label and contracts, as they were concentrating on Children's shows on the CBBC. This was revealed in episode 8 of ‘Out of the Broom Cupboard’ with Chris 'Yonko' Johnson. [1]

Broadcasting career

Radio hosts

In January 2003 Sam and Mark started on the radio. First they hosted Saturdays 10am-1pm and Sundays 11am-3pm on Gem before moving to weekdays 9am-1pm on 6 June 2005 with the chance to interview the biggest stars on their show. They left Gem on 2 June 2006. On 11 March 2007 they started to host Smash Hits Sunday breakfast from 7-11am then on 31 December 2007 hosted a whole night of DJ Sets on BBC Radio 1 to see in the new year from 6pm-5am. Their last Sunday Smash Hits Breakfast show was on 26 December 2010. Sam And Mark were Due to Come back to Gem on 1 January 2011 to host Saturday Night Gem Anthems however 3 hours before they were due on air they could not host it. On 5 August 2011 Sam and Mark were told that they could not host any more Radio Shows.

The duo present a radio show which can be heard on Free Radio across Coventry and Warwickshire. They present on Sunday mornings from 11:00 am until 1:00 pm.

Sam also now does cover work for BBC Radio Leeds.

Television hosts

Sam & Mark have had later a successful career as children's TV presenters, hosting various BBC programmes such as TMi , Top of the Pops Reloaded , Copycats , Sam and Mark's Guide to Dodging Disaster , Sam & Mark's Big Friday Wind-Up , Junior Bake Off , and Crackerjack! on CBBC.

The two have managed to carve a successful television career for themselves, hosting various programmes on the BBC, most notably Saturday morning children's shows TMi and Top of the Pops Reloaded . They made their national television debut on ITV1. Sam & Mark hosted CBBC's weekday morning breakfast show, Level Up for four months from 3 April 2006 to 1 September 2006. On 16 September 2006, they hosted the first episode of TMi, a new Saturday morning TV show for the BBC on BBC Two and the CBBC Channel, alongside presenter Caroline Flack. The third series of the show ended in December 2008 and the BBC have confirmed a fourth series of the Saturday morning series for CBBC. In 2007, Sam & Mark presented a show on CBBC called Do Something Different . Beginning on 3 January 2009, Sam and Mark's Who Wants to be a Superhero? began to air where children had to compete to be a new superhero for Stan Lee. They were also asked to perform on Children in Need 2007.

In January 2010, they began a new show called Jump Nation which is similar to Skate Nation. They were also on a celebrity special of Total Wipeout. Neither won, losing out to glamour model Danielle Lloyd. In Sam and Mark's Guide to Dodging Disaster for CBBC they were in non-speaking roles with a voice over by Hugh Dennis. They have also presented the competition segment of This Morning on ITV1. Also on This Morning on Wednesday 28 April 2010, Sam and Mark presented an "On The Box" segment where they reviewed the latest TV shows, DVDs and movies. They then appeared on a CBBC series called Copycats and are presenters on Skate Nation. A show similar to the TMi series, but called Sam and Mark's TMi Friday began in September 2010 and finished in December and was then cancelled.

For Red Nose Day 2011 the two presented a series called Comic Relief does Glee Club, which had five 45-minute episodes, four of which were live, on BBC One. In 2012, this continued with Sport Relief does Glee Club , which had eight 30-minute episodes on CBBC and two live episodes on BBC One and CBBC. In 2013 a new series of Comic Relief does Glee Club , hosted by Naomi Wilkinson, aired in There were then which Sam and Mark joined Naomi for the last five of the 45-minute heats.

From 2011, the duo had their own series called Sam & Mark's Big Friday Wind-Up . Similar to a prank show, the programme featured celebrity guests each week.

In 2012 Sam and Mark competed against each other in ITV's Dancing on Ice which also included the likes of Rosemary Conley, Charlene Tilton, Jennifer Ellison and Chico: Mark was 3rd to leave, Sam left in Week 9.

In 2013, Sam and Mark co-hosted a Channel 5 special, The Great Christmas Toy Giveaway, alongside Myleene Klass. The two-hour show featured guests, toy reviews, music and VTs previewing the toys and games available for Christmas and included a competition to win over £10,000 worth of toys.

In 2020, the BBC revival of Crackerjack was presented by the duo.

They presented series 3 and 4 of BBC1's Junior Bake Off in 2015 and 2016.

Sam and Mark: On the Road Show (2017)

Sam and Mark began a tour of Butlins holiday camps from February 2017, performing a new game show similar to their TV shows such as Sam and Mark's Big Friday Wind Up, TMI and Copycats. [2] The tour ended on 3 September the same year.

Discography

Singles

TitleYearPeak chart positionsAlbum
UK
[3] 		IRL
[4]
"With a Little Help from My Friends" [upper-alpha 1] 2004122Non-album singles
"The Sun Has Come Your Way" [upper-alpha 2] 19—

Books

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Track listing:
    1. "With a Little Help from My Friends"
    2. "Measure of a Man"
    3. Enhanced content: "With a Little Help from My Friends" video and a picture gallery
  2. ↑ Track listing:
    1. "The Sun Has Come Your Way"
    2. "I'm Gonna Be With You"
    3. "These Days"

Related Research Articles

TMI may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoe Ball</span> British television and radio personality

Zoe Louise Ball is a British radio and television presenter. She was the first female host of the Radio 1 and Radio 2 breakfast shows for the BBC, and presented the 1990s children's show Live & Kicking, alongside Jamie Theakston from 1996–1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Nixon</span> English singer and television presenter

Sam Nixon is an English singer and television presenter. He came third on the Pop Idol television series in 2003 and is now one half of the duo Sam & Mark, with the other being fellow Pop Idol contestant Mark Rhodes.

Crackerjack is a British children's television series which was initially aired on the BBC Television Service between 14 September 1955 and 21 December 1984. The series was a variety show featuring comedy sketches, singers and quizzes, broadcast live with an audience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Sharp</span> English broadcaster (born 1961)

Patrick Sharpin, known professionally as Pat Sharp, is an English radio presenter, television presenter and DJ. He worked on the children's ITV programme Fun House, was one of the Sky Channel's VJs and presented the Coca-Cola Eurochart Top 50 and Nescafé UK Top 50.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Mayo</span> English radio presenter and author

Simon Andrew Hicks Mayo is an English radio presenter and author who worked for BBC Radio from 1982 until 2022.

Jason King and Joel Ross, known professionally as JK and Joel, were a radio presenting duo, best known for hosting the official UK chart on BBC Radio 1 between 2005 and 2007 and presented the CBBC show Hider in the House. In August 2012 JK & Joel confirmed they had split.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Rhodes</span>

Mark Thomas Rhodes is an English singer, actor and television presenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirsten O'Brien</span> British television presenter and actress

Kirsten Lindsey O'Brien is an English television presenter and actress. She is perhaps best known for her work presenting for the BBC, including the popular CBBC art programme SMart from 1999 to 2009, and CBeebies pre-school art spin-off programme SMarteenies in 2002.

<i>Top of the Pops Reloaded</i> British TV series or programme

Top of the Pops Reloaded, is a weekly children's music show broadcast as part of the Saturday morning CBBC schedule on BBC Two. It was based on the show, Top of the Pops, and was originally known as Top of the Pops Saturday from 2002 to 2005.

Sam & Mark's TMi Friday (originally TMi) is a British children's entertainment programme that was produced for five series by the BBC and aired from 16 September 2006 to 17 December 2010.

Ross David Lee is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television presenter. He is best known for his television shows Chute! (2007), Ross Lees Ghoulies (2008), and The Pranker (2011).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fearne Cotton</span> English television and radio presenter

Fearne Wood is an English broadcaster and author. She began her career in the late 1990s presenting various children's television shows for GMTV, CITV and CBBC. From 2002 to 2021, Cotton was a regular presenter on the BBC One music show Top of the Pops. In 2006, she co-presented the reality show Love Island, and the following year, she presented The Xtra Factor, an ITV2 spin-off from the main show. She has also co-presented some of the Red Nose Day and Children in Need telethons. From 2008 to 2018, Cotton was a team captain on the ITV2 comedy panel show Celebrity Juice.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ore Oduba</span> British television and radio presenter

Ore Oduba is a British television and radio presenter who has also worked as an actor. From 2008 until 2013, he presented the CBBC news programme Newsround. In 2018 he hosted the game show And They're Off! in aid of Sport Relief. In 2019 he began his musical theatre career, starring in the UK tour of Grease. He also appeared alongside Jason Manford in Curtains the Musical. Oduba made his West End debut in January 2020. However, he is best known for winning the fourteenth series of BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing in 2016.

<i>Sam & Marks Big Friday Wind-Up</i> British TV series or programme

Sam & Mark's Big Friday Wind-Up is a British children's entertainment series aired on the CBBC Channel since 16 September 2011. It is presented by Sam & Mark. It is effectively the replacement for TMi. A fifth series started airing from 18 December 2015, and a sixth series began airing from 16 December 2016 and finished on 31 March 2017. A seventh series began airing in January 2018.

<i>The Playlist</i> British childrens entertainment and music series

The Playlist is a British children's entertainment and music series presented by guest presenters, produced by Strawberry Blond TV for CBBC and first aired on 22 April 2017 and ended on 12 March 2022. The first series was narrated by Scott Mills. Each week the show has a different presenter with Greg James, Dev Griffin, MistaJam or Jordan North presenting the UK Singles Chart Top 10 segment and features various co-presenters since its 16th episode. The first presenters were Pixie Lott and Anton Powers. It is a replacement for the CBBC Official Chart Show, which ended in February 2017.

<i>Saturday Mash-Up!</i> British TV series or programme

Saturday Mash-Up! is a British Saturday morning children's magazine entertainment programme on CBBC and BBC Two, first broadcast on 30 September 2017. It is currently presented by Joe Tasker, Shereen Cutkelvin and a puppet monster called Stanley performed by Dave Chapman.

Children's BBC Presentation was the BBC's presentation of its programmes for children and which was the only part of BBC One and BBC Two's television presentation where the continuity announcer appeared on the TV screen rather than as a voice over.

This is a timeline of the history of the broadcasting of children’s programmes on BBC Television.

References

  1. ↑ "Out of the Broom Cupboard on Apple Podcasts". 23 December 2020.
  2. ↑ "Things To Do | Discover Butlin's | Butlin's". Butlins.com. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  3. ↑ "SAM & MARK | full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  4. ↑ "Sam & Mark". The Irish Charts.
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.