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Timmy Mallett

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Timmy Mallett
Mallett in Market Harborough 2008.
Born
Timothy Luke Mallett

(1955-10-18) 18 October 1955 (age 68)
Marple, Cheshire, England
Occupation(s)Radio/Television presenter, artist
SpouseLynda[1] (since 1990)
Websitehttp://www.timmymallett.co.uk/

Timothy "Timmy" Luke Mallett [2] (born 18 October 1955 in Marple, Cheshire) is an English TV presenter and broadcaster. Mallett is known for his striking visual style, involving loud shirts, colourful glasses and the giant pink foam mallet, labelled 'Mallett's Mallet', as well as his 'utterly brilliant!' and 'blaaah!' catchphrases.

Career

Early radio career

His media career started while he was a student at the University of Warwick where he worked on the student radio station, Radio Warwick. After graduating with a degree in History he started working at BBC Radio Oxford. He later moved to Centre Radio (now Leicester Sound) as the station's launch presenter. He also presented on Radio Luxembourg and Manchester's Piccadilly Radio. The programme he hosted at Piccadilly was Timmy on the Tranny, a popular weekday evening show that ran from 8.00pm–11.00pm and took its name from Mallett's lunchtime and later afternoon shows on Radio Oxford. Among Mallett's team of helpers were Chris Evans (known as 'Nobby Nolevel), Andy Bird (who played the pirate radio character 'Radio Diggle') and Karen Walsh (the original 'Aunty Boney kneecaps'). This led to Mallett co-presenting the Manchester-based BBC2 youth music show Oxford Road Show for a year in 1984. In March 1985 he also stood in for David Jensen on the Network Chart.

Television break

In 1983 he helmed Summer Run on Saturday mornings for ITV's breakfast station, TV-am. The following year when he became a presenter of Wide Awake Club, a new Saturday morning children's programme on TV-am, with co-presenters Michaela Strachan, James Baker, Arabella Warner and Tommy Boyd. Future actor Mike Myers also had a minor role alongside Neil Mullarkey. TV-am found itself lacking a school holidays programme after Roland Rat was moved to the BBC, and he was offered the chance to present it. The replacement, a spin-off of Wide Awake Club, was called Wacaday (based on the addition of 'aday' to the initials 'WAC' for Wide Awake Club) and began broadcasting in 1985.

The programme was characterised by games such as "Mallett's Mallet", a word-association game where contestants were hit over the head by his famed mallet for getting answers wrong. In later years, a talking mini-version of the mallet called "Pinky Punky" was introduced (the name chosen after Mallett asked viewers to write in with their ideas) and soon became one of Mallett's established sidekicks along with Magic, his pet cockatiel. Wacaday ended in 1992 when TV-am lost its franchise to broadcast. This marked the high point of his career to date.[3]

Since then, Mallett has run his own production company, Brilliant TV.[4]

In 1993, Mallett starred in the Children's Channel's Around the World in 80 seconds as Captain Everything.[5]

From 1997, he acted in Timmy Towers, a Brilliant TV series of 3 for CITV, [6]

Recent work

In 2002, Mallett forced West Ham United F.C. to stop selling copies of their mascot, Herbie the Hammer, in their club shop after he complained that it looked too similar to Pinky Punky. West Ham United called the matter "trivial".[7]

In 2004 he was a stand-in contestant for the ITV1 jungle-based reality series I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. He did not become a contestant on the show, but recorded a video diary of his exploits in Australia, the setting for the series, for the ITV2 companion programme I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! Now.[8] In 2008 he entered the show as a full contestant.

From 2007, Mallett can be heard as the voice of Smelly Beep in the pre-school sitcom The Beeps on Five.[9][unreliable source?]

In 2008, Mallett appeared on Big Brother's Little Brother.[10]

In September 2008 Mallett appeared on the BBC1 politics show This Week talking about being positive when things get tough.[11]

In November 2008 Mallett appeared in the eighth series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!. He entered the show in a unique way: by being captured in an over-sized net and imprisoned in jungle jail. The celebrities were given an option to trade their possessions for him and David Van Day to enter. They refused. On 30 November 2008, Mallett was the fourth contestant eliminated from the show after being placed in the bottom 2 in the public voting and taking part in a (play-off) Bushtucker eating trial to Brian Paddick. [12]

Bombalurina

Mallett formed the band Bombalurina, along with female vocalists/dancers Dawn Andrews and Annie Dunkley, and released a cover of the single "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini". It reached no 1 in the UK charts in August 1990.[13]

In 2008 Mallett featured in Skepta's video "Rolex Sweep"[14] and accompanied Skepta to the MOBO nominations.[15]

Selected television programmes

References

  1. ^ By COLIN ROBERTSONin Australia (25 November 2008). "Timmy Mallett's wife Lynda talks to The Sun | The Sun |Showbiz|TV|Im A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here". London: The Sun. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
  2. ^ http://search.findmypast.co.uk/results/world-records/birth-marriage-death-and-parish-records/births-and-baptisms/england-and-wales-births-1837-2006?firstname=timothy&lastname=mallett&eventyear=1955&eventyear_offset=0
  3. ^ Wacaday - Index. Brillianttv.co.uk. Retrieved on 2013-02-18.
  4. ^ Brilliant TV. Brilliant TV. Retrieved on 2013-02-18.
  5. ^ Timmy Mallett - television, Around the World in 80 seconds!. Brillianttv.co.uk. Retrieved on 2013-02-18.
  6. ^ Timmy Mallett - television, Timmy Towers. Brillianttv.co.uk. Retrieved on 2013-02-18.
  7. ^ "BBC News: West Ham 'hammer' knocked on the head, 2002". 23 November 2002. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
  8. ^ He's a celebrity[dead link] BrilliantTV.co.uk
  9. ^ "The Beeps" (2007) IMDB.com
  10. ^ Timmy Mallett - television, Big Brother's Little Brother 2008. Brillianttv.co.uk. Retrieved on 2013-02-18.
  11. ^ "BBC This week: Timmy's Upside to the downturn, 2008". BBC News. 19 September 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
  12. ^ Timmy Mallett leaves jungle | The Sun |Showbiz|TV|Im A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. The Sun (2008-11-30). Retrieved on 2013-02-18.
  13. ^ UK number one singles of 1990
  14. ^ MistaJam: Timmy Mallet gets in on the Rolex Sweep. BBC (2008-04-26). Retrieved on 2013-02-18.
  15. ^ UK NEWS: MORE MOBO 2008 NOMINATIONS LAUNCH PICS / FULL LIST OF NOMINEES « WWW.MADNEWSUK.COM. Madnews.wordpress.com. Retrieved on 2013-02-18.

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