Jack's Throwback Attack Podcast - S5 E3 - A Chat With Lee Pressman

 

In this edition of the podcast I am chatting with Lee Pressman who talks about his career writing for children's television. This is the first time I have interviewed someone who has entirely written for kids TV rather than appear on it. 

You can also listen to the chat on spotify, soundcloud and apple podcasts

In this chat we discuss Lee's career beginnings in the early 1980's, writing for shows such as Play Away and Rainbow. In the mid 80's he formed a writing partnership with Grant Cathro, where they created a number of shows for the next 15 years such as T-Bag, Spatz, Mike and Angelo, Cone Zone and Polterguests. All of these shows are discussed including how they came about and why Mike and Angelo survived the loss of Thames Television but T-Bag and Spatz did not.

We also talk about Lee's writing work since the 2000's which has included Shaun the Sheep, Thomas and Friends and Fireman Sam. 

Enjoy this interview, some really interesting anecdotes are shared! 

Also a big thanks to VideotapeFTW on Youtube who made this interview possible. 

Jack's Throwback Attack Podcast - S5E2 - A Chat With Marc Silk

It's podcast time once again and what an interview I have for you this month. For this episode I am chatting with voice actor Marc Silk. 

The podcast is also on Spotify, Soundcloud and Apple Podcasts

Marc's CV is extraordinary, with thousands of adverts, cartoons, TV announcements, video games and films under his belt. Marc's voice is one I heard a lot during my childhood, as during the late 90's/early 00's his voice was frequently heard on Cartoon Network, CITV and adverts for Tomy Toys. It wasn't until 2015 I would learn who the man behind the voice was...

Back then I was involved in Big Centre TV, the then local TV station for Birmingham and The Black Country on Freeview Channel 8, which unfortunately only lasted 18 months. I attended the launch of the channel and one of the people speaking was Marc and as soon as I heard his voice I instantly recognised it. 

Fast forward to Christmas 2022 and I attended a comic con in Telford which Marc was appearing at and we got chatting and I asked if he would like to be on my podcast and he agreed and this is the result. Over the course of just over an hour we discuss Marc's career beginnings in radio and CITV which lead to job offers from The Disney Channel and Cartoon Network because of his ability to create a range of voices and mimic famous cartoon characters. Which has led to him being the UK based voice artist for Scooby Doo and Shaggy and Johnny Bravo.

We discuss his voice work on the likes of Fifi and The Flowertots, Bob the Builder in the US and Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace.

Also this is the first one I'm uploading with the video included as well as the audio in the youtube version. I did this with most of the interviewees this series. Just testing the waters really, I have always been more an audio guy but I thought I'd give it a go. 

Jack's Throwback Attack Podcast - S5 E1 - A Chat With Nic Ayling

After a break, I'm back with a new bunch of interviews and to start off I'm talking to someone who has worked more behind the camera than in front of it.

The podcast is also on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

I have been in touch with Nic since the early 2010's as Nic worked on some of my favourite shows from my childhood and he has always been happy to answer my questions, tell me great anecdotes and has helped with some of my research for this project for which I am very grateful.

In this chat Nic talks about how his love for No.73 (an 80's Saturday morning show) lead to him a few years later working in television at The Maidstone Studios in Kent. This lead to working for The Media Merchants, working on shows such as Zzzap!, Art Attack and It's a Mystery. Doing everything from making art work to appearing an an extra. As well as when he briefly did some presenting on Quid's In for Channel 4 and Slop's Diner on Telegantic Megavision for CITV.

Nic with Francis Wright, working on 'The Head' segments
for Art Attack in 2004.

Since The Media Merchants closed in 2007, Nic worked on other kids art shows Finger Tips and Mister Maker for The Foundation production company. 

Since 2016, Nic works for Terrific Television a production company set up by himself and business partner Driana Jones (who also worked on all the same shows I've just mentioned) which is based at The Media Merchants former home of The Maidstone Studios. Terrific TV has produced My World Kitchen and Nick Cope's Popcast for Cbeebies, The Makery for Sky Kids and the third version of HOW for CITV. 

Some updates...

I don't really write on here much these days as most of my traffic and interactions come from Twitter and Facebook but in true old school style, I thought I'd write a blog post. 

2022 saw no regular podcast series in the Autumn as has been the case for the last few years. This was due to two reasons, firstly my mental health had taken a bit of a bad turn and I just didn't want to overload myself with projects and work. Secondly I actually found it very difficult to get anyone on board to take part. With lockdowns somewhat over, everyone is playing catchup and is busy I guess!

So what does 2023 bring, well the first week of January was certainly a busy one with a lot of anniversary's. Firstly we had CITV's 40th anniversary, fans of CITV will remember that in 2003 and 2013 that there were big celebrations on TV to mark the 20th and 30th. However, disappointingly (but not surprisingly) there was nothing this time around. So it was up to the nostalgia anoraks to do something, I was really busy with another project so just quickly chucked together a compilation of idents. However HalfbrickVHS did a week of clips from his VHS collection, so do check out that. 

Tots TV hit 30 years on January 4th and I had nothing really planned for it, I was just going to do a post on my social media feeds with some photos. I am still in touch with Robin Stevens (who played Tom) after our Rosie and Jim chat a while ago. We managed to organise a video call and this is what was created...

The big anniversary for me was the 30th of Zzzap! I had spent a month or so working on it nearly everyday and wanted to cram as much material as I could. The end product was this 25 minute documentary which I am incredibly chuffed has been well received by fans and production crew. Even if it does feature a cameo from me doing some terrible Zzzap! style acting!

The future of the podcast is still a bit uncertain. I have a few irons in fires currently about potential interviewees. I am finding that my wish list is getting shorter and everyones way more busy than 2 years ago. So it may be a case that interviews are more sporadic instead of a series. I'm going to see what I can get recorded in the next 2-3 months and go from there. 

Jack's Throwback Attack Podcast - A Chat With Steve Ryde

 

I recently announced via my social channels that I'll be taking a bit of a break and a full podcast series won't happen this autumn/winter like it normally does but I hope to start up again in 2023. However, I had recorded one interview in March of this year and I didn't want to save it for a whole year. It's too good not to let out! So here is a one off special interview with Steve Ryde. 

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

In the chat we talk about Steve's time with the Central Television Junior Workshop where he appeared in Your Mother Wouldn't Like It and Palace Hill between 1985 and 1991. 

Between 1993 and 1998, Steve voiced the out-vision continuity pres links for CITV live for 5 days a week, nearly every week. Sometimes he'd appear in the promos too, donning many daft outfits. He'd take a few weeks off to film Wizadora where he played Tatty Bogle the scarecrow, taking over the role from Joe Greco. 

Steve as Tatty Bogle with Wendy Van
Der Plank as Wizadora.

In May 1998, CITV underwent a big relaunch and returned to in-vision pres continuity. Steve was chosen to be the producer and was responsible for choosing Stephen Mulhern and Danielle Nicholls to be the new faces of CITV. 

In the early 2000's, Steve moved to CBBC where he devised Dick and Dom in da Bungalow and leant his vocal talents to commentating every single games of Bogies.

Steve's other CBBC credits include devising the likes of The Slammer, Chute, Hoopla, The Legend of Dick and Dom and the revival of Crackerjack. 

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.