Jack's Throwback Attack - S6E2 - A Chat With Richard Cadell

It's time for another interview and I'm really pleased to say this time I am chatting with Sooty's right hand man, it's Richard Cadell. 

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I was really glad to get Richard on the podcast, he is someone I'd wanted to interview ever since I started this project. In April 2024 a one off event was held in Nottingham called 'Sooty This Is Your Life' which was a look back at Sooty's career, with some interviews and behind the scenes bits that was intended for older fans. Afterwards there was a meet and greet where I met Richard where I was able to ask and here we are! 

Richard has always been a magician, starting at a young age. In 1985 he won Young Magician of the Year and part of the prize was to appear on The Sooty Show. Little did he know that in 13 years time, his life would change forever based on that one off appearance. In-between this he also ran funfairs and amusement arcades with his brother. 

In the 1990s, Matthew Corbett the then current owner of Sooty decided to retire. He sold the rights to the format and a new presenter was needed. They needed someone who had an understanding of magic and a performance background and one of the names suggested was Richard Cadell. 

After many months of auditions and being on a list with several other names, Richard was picked and the rest is history! Richard was selected along with Liana Bridges to front the show and they first appeared on the final series of Sooty & Co. The first series without Matthew was Sooty Heights where Richard, Liana, Sooty, Sweep, Soo and Scampi ran a hotel, it aired for two series. 

In 2001 the show was revamped, the title was reverted to just Sooty and was still set in a hotel (albeit a very different looking one to the one previously). Richard Cadell remained but Liana was dropped from the show and Vicki Lee Taylor became the co-host. This was a bit of a rocky time for the show as by this point the format had been sold to another company that deals with children's television formats and a lot of changes were made which didn't go down well with fans. Richard had no control over the format at this point, he was incorrectly blamed for the route the show went by viewers. In 2004 ITV axed Sooty and Richard went back to running his theme park. 

In 2008, the rights to Sooty had been put up for sale and Richard decided he had to put things right and bought the rights meaning he had full creative control of the format. He worked incredibly hard with the old Sooty crew to get the show back on TV. After producing a pilot in 2009 called The Big Day Out, Richard was able to convince ITV to have the show back and in 2011, Sooty returned to our screens and has become a hit all over again with a new generation of fans. 

This is a real treat of an interview, Richard talks about his early career, how he got the job of Sooty, the rocky period in the early 00s and how he brought the show back. There's some great anecdotes!