Jack's Throwback Attack Podcast - S4 E7 - A Chat With Dave Chapman

It's the final podcast of the fourth series and to finish it off I have a chat with the awesome Dave Chapman. 

Jack's Throwback Attack · S4 E7 - A Chat With Dave Chapman

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

Dave Chapman is an actor, puppeteer and voice artist who has an incredibly long CV. The main highlights we go over in this chat is Dave's beginnings in puppetry with the Jim Henson Company in the 1990's and then perhaps Dave's best known puppetry work which is Otis the Aardvark on CBBC which he did for five years. 

After that we discuss Dave's work on Dick and Dom In Da Bungalow where Dave did a whole range of roles from puppeteering 'The Neighbours Cat' and pretending to be various gameshow hosts. Dave continued his working relationship with the Da Bungalow team appearing on The Slammer and The Legend of Dick and Dom. 

We also discuss his work on the surreal Tiny and Mr. Duk's Huge Show and The Baked Potato Song on Shooting Stars. 

More recently Dave has worked on Star Wars and The Dark Crystal Age Of Resistance and currently works on CBBC's Saturday Mash Up as Stanley. 

A big thanks to everyone that has enjoyed yet another series of this podcast!

Jack's Throwback Attack Podcast - S4 E6 - A Chat With Chris Jarvis

 After a bit of a break I am back with a new podcast, this time I am chatting with Chris Jarvis.

 

Jack's Throwback Attack · S4 E6 - A Chat With Chris Jarvis

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

Chris has been a part of kids TV in the UK for 30 years. Starting in the early 90's as a continuity presenter on Children's BBC, presenting links from the broom cupboard. After a few years he appeared on the likes of The Friday Zone, Fully Booked and Playdays. 

During the early part of the 2000's Chris appeared on CITV as the second host of the adventure gameshow Jungle Run which he presented for two series. As well as voicing Amber and Scarlett plus Hot Rodney on the animated show Dream Street. 

Around the same time he also appeared as both Sad Man and Bad Man in the Channel 4 learning series Maths Mansion. 

Since it's inception in 2002, Chris has been a regular face on Cbeebies. Starting off a continuity presenter and then creating and presenting the hugely successful Show Me, Show Me and writing Old Jack's Boat which starred Bernard Cribbins. 

Chris can be found on Twitter and also runs Little Radio. 

Jack's Throwback Attack - S4 E5 - A Chat With The Cast of Rosie and Jim

Seeing as it's Christmas time I have a special podcast for you. My first ever interview with a group of people in fact, the cast of Rosie and Jim!

Jack's Throwback Attack · S4 E5 - A Chat With The Cast of Rosie and Jim

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

In this interview I chat with Rebecca Nagan and Robin Stevens who puppeteered Rosie and Jim and also Neil Brewer who presented the show between Series 5 and 8. 

I originally interviewed Rebecca in 2019 about her career in puppetry and after this chat asked if it would be possible to speak with Robin. We were put in touch with each other and an interview was agreed but for a while we couldn't find a mutual free time to do it as Robin now lives in America and also runs a cider business. Also Covid-19 happened soon after which delayed it further. 

Fast forward to 2021 and I decide to try and ask again, Robin had the great idea of having everyone take part. He was in touch with Neil as well, so a group chat was created and this very interview was organised. 

Originally I was intending for this one to have a visual element as well as the normal audio podcast as we all spoke with our webcams turned on and I did record the video and audio. Unfortunately afterwards I discovered the video side hadn't recorded properly and lagged really bad. Fortunately the audio recorded absolutely fine so this is presented as a normal podcast. 

In this interview we discuss how each person became involved with the show. Favourite memories and episodes and memories are also shared of the two presenters prior to Neil. John Cunliffe and Pat Hutchins who are both sadly no longer with us. 

Enjoy the interview and a Merry Christmas! 

Jack's Throwback Attack Podcast - S4 E4 - A Chat With Danielle Nicholls

This months podcast is one I was so proud to get as it's a chat with someone who was a big part of my childhood, it's a chat with CITV's Danielle Nicholls! 

  

Jack's Throwback Attack · S4 E4 - A Chat With Danielle Nicholls

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

Danielle's first showbiz break actually wasn't in kids TV but in music as she was a member of the short lived pop group Pure Gossip. Danielle didn't particularly enjoy her time there so after leaving the group, Danielle spotted an advert looking for new presenters for CITV and the rest is history!

Danielle alongside Stephen, 1998.

Danielle presented the in-vision continuity links on CITV alongside Stephen Mulhern (and later Andrea Green and Tom Darvill) between 1998 and 2001. Which back then came live from Birmingham every week. 

Presenter group shot from 2000. Danielle and
Stephen alongside Andrea Green and Tom Darvill.

During this time she was also one of the presenters on the second series of Mad For It and also made a guest appearance on Sooty Heights.

Sooty Heights, 2000.

Over on Channel 5 she co-hosted the karaoke show Night Fever alongside Madness frontman Suggs.

The Night Fever crew.

These days she can be found on Twitch with her sister Jodie, streaming and gaming regularly under the name Biignoobs. Additionally she has recently began stand up comedy. 

A big thank you to Danielle for taking time out of her day with her children during the school holidays to chat with me, some great anecdotes and memories are shared of those brilliant live days of CITV. Enjoy!

New video series - Kids TV shows you may have forgotten!

One thing I am fascintated by is looking back on or talking about TV shows which aired on the likes of CITV, CBBC, Milkshake etc etc. Which for whatever reason don't seem to be as well remembered as the likes of Art Attack, Chucklevision, Fun House and stuff like that. This may be for various reasons such as not running for very long, having little to no reruns or no home video releases. 

I have decided to start a video series on this topic. Here's part 1 and part 2 is definitely in production. I'm not sure how many I'll do, I'm thinking about 5 or 6. They'll be occasional, every month or two I'm looking at. 

Here's part 1, featuring the likes of Snug & Cozi, Against All Odds and Out of Sight. Enjoy!

Jack's Throwback Attack Podcast - S4 E3 - A Chat With Nigel Mitchell

 

It's podcast time once again and this time it's a chat with Nigel Mitchell!

 

Jack's Throwback Attack · S4 E3 - A Chat With Nigel Mitchell

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

Nigel was lucky enough to start his career while he was still at school. Presenting for the UK version of Nickelodeon in the mid 90's where he stayed for the next two years. 

Nigel in his Nickelodeon days.

In 1997, he made his first appearance on CITV on the magazine show Sticky which was an attempt to rival Blue Peter over on CBBC. A trial run was aired for eight weeks before never returning. However this wasn't to be Nigel's only foray on terrestrial kids TV...

In the meantime Nigel started presenting for the UK version of The Disney Channel. Something he continued to do for eight years. Starting in 1997 and leaving in 2005. A long side this he was able to take part in his original love of radio, presenting on Capital Disney for a number of years. 

His other ventures on CITV included being part of the presenting team for the second series of Mad For It in the year 2000. The following year he presented the game show Twister which was an attempt to refresh the Fun House format, however it would only run for a single series. 

Since his days in kids TV, Nigel has presented for the Sky channel Film 24 and also presented The Hub on ITV's This Morning. To this day, for a number of years Nigel has been the pitch side reporter for Arsenal FC. 

You can follow him on Twitter. 

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.