Jack's Throwback Attack Podcast - S4 E2 - A Chat With Mike McClean

It's podcast time again and this month it's a chat with Mike McClean!

 

Jack's Throwback Attack · S4 E2 - A Chat With Mike McClean

You can also listen to the chat on Youtube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 

I was really chuffed to get this interview as Mike is someone I remember seeing during my days of watching Kids TV, especially on CITV. 

However, Mike's Kids TV career actually started on the then new UK version of Nickelodeon in the mid 90's, which he stayed with for four years. Presenting numerous live shows and continuity links and also The Red Lobster stage tours. 

Mike in his Nickelodeon days.

In 1997, he jumped to ITV to host the gameshow It's Not Fair which was part of the Saturday morning show Scratchy & Co. Which was a fairground based gameshow with crazy assault courses and lots of gunge. 

In 1998 Mike created the live entertainment show Mad For It for CITV which is what I best know Mike for. It was a thirty minute show filled with games, competitions, pop acts... oh and of course, more gunge! It ran for two series and 39 episodes before being (in my opinion unfairly) axed when it was hitting it's stride. 

Yiolanda and Mike - Definitely Mad For It!

My memory's of the show remained quite vivid, especially since I kept one episode on VHS tape for years. What's nice is a number of episodes have now popped up on youtube, some in rather nice quality! To this day I use the dance tune that became the Mad For It theme tune ("Harmonica Man" by Bravado if you're wondering) as the opening music to a radio show I host. 

After that, Mike went on to present for Channel 4, for The Big Breakfast and The Richard and Judy Show. As well as making a cameo appearance in The Office. In more recent years he's appeared on Shameless and My Mad Fat Diary. He regularly does panto and stand up comedy and in 2018 released an autobiography called Oh, I Remember Him! 

You can follow Mike on Twitter and you can find his website here.