I had been puppeteering since 1996 (out of vision) when Lee Pressman, Associate Producer (and writer of Spatz and Mike & Angelo) asked me if I would like the part.
Polterguests
I never really thought I was tall enough to play a policeman, but I ended up appearing as PC Darren McNugget in an episode of this short lived series for ITV in 1999.
Polterguests was a series about a mother (Jessica Turner) and daughter (Laura Hauling) who buy a guest house and discover it is inhabited by three ghosts - medieval minstrel Tristan Shout (Ashley Artus), London gangster Eddie 'Kneecaps' McNugget (Emil Wolk) and Georgian dandy Sir Squiffington-Fopp (Richard Braine). In this episode I played Eddie McNugget's grandson.
What was so nice for me was that this show was filmed at the same TV studios where Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show was made in 1984 - Central TV (which became Carlton) studios in Nottingham. One studio remains as the building is now part of the University of Nottingham.
The DJ Kat Show
When I auditioned for The DJ Kat Show in 1993, I didn't get the job - but six months later, I was asked if I would play a small part in it.
My role soon grew and I ended up working on the show for three years as a presenter and actor.
The programme was based around a cool cat (puppeteered by Don Austen) who had his own apartment and hosted a daily show on Sky One.
I'm grateful that the children's department at Sky (which closed in 1996) was so creative and our Executive Producer, Gale Claydon, along with brilliant writers such as Peter Corey, Dave Arthur and Terry Randall, came up with some great comedy sketches and storylines.
The show was recorded in three different locations - Marco Polo House Studios (Battersea, London), The London Studios (Waterloo, London) and Sky Studios (Isleworth, London).
Michael Knowles played out of work actor, Norrington Binge.
Actress Georgia Allen plays a 1940s femme fatale.
Mike & Angelo
The writers of Spatz (Lee Pressman and Grant Cathro) had also been writing this long running kid's sitcom for ITV and I was very grateful to them for asking me to appear in an episode in 1993.
I played a rather unsavoury character, Raymond, the boss's nephew, who had no problem stealing other people's ideas to get to the top - as well as threatening people with cream cakes...nasty.
In time honoured children's TV tradition, the baddie always gets their comeuppance... the classic custard pie in the face.
Mike & Angelo was filmed at The London Studios, Waterloo, London.
Mr Fogle (played by John Savident) introduces me to Rita (played by Shelley Thompson).
Megamania
"Megamania is the best children's show in the world". This is what the children shouted at the top of each programme. Unfortunately, this wasn't true...but it was a lot of fun to be part of, just the same.
This ITV game show had a kind of anarchic feel to it and, by today's standards, would have been considered a health and safety nightmare.
Lucy Alexander and I froze our... socks off for most of the time, while Mel (the director) sat in a warm OB (outside broadcast) truck.
We had games where kids were blindfolded and bumping into furniture, games where they were pantomime cows on a farm and games that involved running on sheets of plastic covered in washing up liquid.
Wizadora
In 1992, I was asked if I would like to play a scarecrow for a new kid's show on ITV.
Working alongside Wizadora (Wendy van der Plank), I played Tatty Bogle, although, in my straw wig, I looked more like Tina Turner.
The Wizadora puppets were built by Phil Eason.
This was the first time I had acted with talking puppets (Emu didn't have to say anything to get attention!) and, working with these crazy characters (and even crazier puppeteers!) was pretty surreal - but a lot of fun.
In between my scenes, I would assist the puppeteers by providing an extra hand (quite literally) here and there. This was to be the start of my next career in TV.
Wizadora was filmed at Fountain Television Studios in New Malden, London.
'One, Two, Buckle My Shoe'. In this 1992 feature length episode for ITV, I played Alfred Biggs, a dentist's pageboy.
The best moment in any episode of Poirot is discovering a dead body and, in this episode, the privilege was mine (although, in reality, I'm just looking at an empty space on the floor as it was the dead body's day off).
My scenes were all filmed in London... Harley Street, Richmond upon Thames and Twickenham.
My character was a smoker, but I'm not. When we filmed my main scene with David Suchet, I was smoking from 9.30am to lunchtime and spent most of the scene feeling sick and dizzy.
Poirot
I did a lot of opening and closing doors - some of my finest work.
In this episode, Poirot (David Suchet) doesn't like the dentist... apparently,
niether does the murderer!
Destination X was a children's game show which we filmed in a small basement studio in Wardour Street, London, for The Children's Channel. It was so small, there was no room for a studio audience - cheering and applause was sampled and played on a keyboard from the side of the studio!
Destination X
Our Director, Jimmy Nairn, was a big fan of the 1990 Tom Cruise film 'Days Of Thunder' and wanted the show to have a racing car feel. During the series, I crashed my car beyond repair and so, instead of scrapping it, they used the salvageable parts as set dressing. Doors, tyres and seats were placed around the studio.
Our Director wanted us to wear racing driver suits, but they didn't arrive in time (hence the publicity shots). I was looking forward to the whole Mello Yello Tom Cruise vibe, but what actually turned up was a cheap polyester romper suit that was too small. As soon as I put my arms in, the crotch raised about 5 inches. Let's not even go into what happened when I sat down!
With co-presenter, Nicki Ezer.
In 1990 I was told that I hadn't got the part of Vince in Spatz and it had been given to another actor. I was down-hearted to say the least, but a week later, my agent called and told me that the producers had made a mistake and would now like to offer me the role?
Set in a pink burger bar, Spatz was a co-production between Thames TV and Canada's YTV. This fast food sitcom ran for three series on ITV and focused on the relationship between the Canadian management and the British workers.
We had many guests drop into the restaurant including Rhys Ifans, David Harewood, Nicolas Parsons and Gary Lineker.
Spatz
It turned out that the Director, Baz Taylor and the Executive Producer, Alan Horrox had wanted me from the start, but the Canadian Producers wanted a more sophisticated and classically good-looking actor! I was overjoyed at getting the part, but not without feeling bad for the other guy, who had ceremoniously been offered the role and then un-offered it.
It's a cruel game.
Spatz was filmed at the Grip House Studios, Greenford, Middlesex.
The Spatz cast...Paul Michael, Ling Tai, Vas Blackwood, (me), Jonathan Copestake, Stephanie Charles, Jennifer Calvert and Sue Devaney
Motormouth (Spin Off)
In 1988, Saturday morning TV was all the rage...and so was Neighbours. What if you combined Saturday morning TV with a soap opera? And so Spin Off was born.
I played Jimmy Lane, the bell-hop. During the course of the series, Jimmy fought a gambling addiction, became homeless and ended up in hospital with amnesia, after a motorbike crash (around the same time that Mrs Mangle in Neighbours lost her memory).
The staff (Roger Sloman, Pippa Michaels, Richard Waites) provided plenty of drama. Hotel inspectors, love affairs and a fire helped to keep Spin Off in proper soap opera territory.
The Spin Off motel was so-called because it was a spin off from the motorway and a place where the guests, who appeared on Motormouth, could check in.
Filmed at TVS in Maidstone, Kent, the studio car park became home to the exterior of the motel.
I co-presented the Friday show, the Tent Stop (with Trish Cooke and Ricky Diamond), which was all about performance and putting on a show. I also introduced young viewers to Wobble the clown and Humphrey the strongman.
Humphrey and I became fully acquainted!
In 1988, I presented the successor show to BBC TV's Playschool - Playbus. I wrote to the Executive Producer, Cynthia Felgate, and was asked to audition and subsequently offered the job. I was 17 years old and this was my first presenting job since working with Rod Hull & Emu as a child. A year later, the BBC changed the name of the show to Playdays, owing to a complaint from the National Playbus Association.
Playbus
Filmed at Ewart Television, which later became Capital Studios in Wandsworth, London.
For me, this is where it all started. In 1982, I was one of the few fortunate kids to sing and dance their childhood away in Emu's World on ITV. I grew up on the show from 1982-1986 and, looking back, I now realise how lucky I was to be part of it. It was a truly magical time for me, full of memories I will never forget.
Emu's World / Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show
Rod Hull & Emu and Carol Lee Scott (Grotbags).
I got to unleash my spoilt brat as Grotbags' nephew, Nauseous - playing alongside the lovely Carol Lee Scott.
1984, on location filming "Can't Stop The Music"
"Hi, my name's Catrina..."
In December 2016, this clip from our very first live show in 1984 went viral across all social media, clocking up tens of millions of views around the world.
WHEN SOMEONE NEW STARTS AT WORK
In March 2017, we were asked to recreate it for Comic Relief, 33 years later. The Pink Windmill Kids reunited, complete with t-shirts and leg warmers. People around the world began to copy the meme and film their own versions with themselves as the Pink Windmill Kids to help raise money for Red Nose Day.
At the age of thirteen, I presented the Pink Windmill Post Office on live television - reading out letters with my co-presenter, Catrina Hylton.
Emu's World was filmed at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, Central TV studios in Birmingham and Central TV studios in Nottingham - where the show went live.
Me and Hugh in 1982 filming "Ease On Down The Road".
"I'm Joe To You". Time travelling back to my youth - me in 2017 and me in 1984.