Justin Fletcher interview
When Justin Fletcher left drama school back in the Nineties he started to create some comedy characters he thought would appeal to a children's audience. Little did he know that 15 years later, those same characters would form the backbone of his very own comedy sketch show - the first of its type to appear on CBeebies.
"When I left drama school I started creating all these comedy characters on post-it notes and envelopes and bits and pieces of paper," says Justin. "Then, recently, I wanted to create a dedicated sketch show for pre-school children as there isn't really anything out there like that so I took the idea with some of the characters along to Controller of CBeebies, Michael Carrington, and he was very keen. So Gigglebiz was commissioned last year but the majority of the characters are actually very old creations. They are 14, 15 years plus, some of them."
"I've had the voices, the mannerisms and the characters in my head and they've been flying around for a long time so it is wonderful to have an opportunity to give them an airing!"
Justin trained for three years as an actor at Guildford School of Acting and thought he would follow a traditional acting path until inspiration struck when he was watching Children's BBC's Broom Cupboard. He says: "In my final year I was watching Philip Schofield in the broom cupboard and I thought I would love to do something like that. So I put a showreel together called Justin Time and I did a little anchor piece and then went across to two different characters - Anna Conda, a myopic reptile house warden, and Arthur Sleep, a regional newsreader who has difficulty staying awake. And both those characters are now in Gigglebiz, so that shows how old some of them are! I sent my showreel out and luckily Iain Lauchlan, co-creator of The Tweenies, saw it and gave me my very first job in television in Fun Song Factory."
With Justin playing all 20 characters, most with extensive costumes and make-up, filming presented plenty of challenges. "It was obviously a challenge to tackle each character every day and sometimes we had up to four costume changes a day so it was quite physically demanding," he explains. "Professor Muddles was the most time-consuming without a doubt. He was a three-hour make-up job with full bald cap, and I had to be in the make-up chair by 5.30am with three make-up artists on board! I also had to focus on making them vocally and physically different from each other and make them believable too. And of course the hardest thing of all is to make them all funny because it is a comedy sketch show and has to be funny and engaging for both children and adults."
He adds: "We knew if things were going well because quite often crew members would have to kind of hold their laughter and turn their back to me when we were going for a take so hopefully we must have been doing something right!"
As the presenter of CBeebies shows Higgledy House, Tikkabilla and Something Special, Justin has become a huge favourite with children and something of a cult figure too. Does he get recognised a lot in public? "About two weeks ago I was at a local fete with my niece, Laura, who's two, and a young lad saw me in my normal civvies and shouted: 'Mr Tumble!' from the crowd," recalls Justin. "Laura looked at me and said: 'Justin, is Mr Tumble here?' I said I didn't think so and she said: 'If he is, can we please go and see him?' I think that's really interesting because the majority of children really separate the two people - Mr Tumble and Justin are different people in their eyes - and I love that. I just think that's just fantastic!"
"Another time I was filling up my car quite late at night in a service station and I had a cold and asked this young lad at the till if he had a packet of tissues. He said yes and shouted to his friend in the stock cupboard: 'Dave, can you bring out a packet of tissues for Mr Tumble!' There are lots of funny things like that but you know the feedback I receive is all very positive, particularly for shows like Something Special which does so much good for people, so I'm very lucky really".
As well as being loved by the public, Justin has also won professional and even Royal recognition for his work. Last year he was awarded an MBE for services to children's broadcasting and also picked up the Best Presenter award at the 2008 Baftas. "I was absolutely stunned with the MBE, as you can imagine," admits Justin. "Apparently, there was a great deal of public support and a government petition so I was thrilled to bits and incredibly honoured. And the Bafta was completely out of the blue - when Dannii Minogue read out my name I was really shocked as I think I'm the first pre-school presenter to ever win one!"
So after the physical rigours of filming Gigglebiz is Justin ready to take it easy for a while? "Well, it has been a great deal of hard work and commitment but I think it has just been a holiday for me as well because it has just been a joy to get up everyday and get out there and do it," says Justin. "I was taught very early on when I started in presenting to remember the 'three Cs' of children's presenting - clarity, commitment and contact. I always try to remember that and I think it's a very good way to go about presenting and acting."