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Timmy Mallett

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File:Timmy 270.jpg
Timmy Mallett and Pinky Punky

Timmy Mallett (born 18 October, 1955 , Marple, Cheshire, England) is a TV presenter and broadcaster who achieved cult status in the UK during the 1980s on Manchester's Piccadilly Radio and then later on TV-am.

Mallett is most notable for his striking visual style, involving loud shirts, comedy glasses and the giant pink foam mallet, labeled Mallett's Mallet that he carried with him, sometimes bonking children on their heads with it, as well as his 'utterly brilliant!' and 'bleurgh!' catchphrases.

The son of a vicar, he attended Hyde Grammar School. His media career started while he was a student at the University of Warwick, where he worked for the student radio station, Radio Warwick. After graduating with a degree in History, he started work straight after his graduation day at BBC Radio Oxford. He later moved to Manchester's Piccadilly Radio where his energetic style won him many fans and Sony Awards. The program he hosted at Piccadilly was Timmy on the Tranny, a popular weekday evening show that ran from 8pm-11pm. Chris Evans as his radio persona Nobby Nolevel was a regular on the programme. This led to Mallett presenting the Manchester based BBC2 youth music show Oxford Road Show for a year in 1984.

It was in television that he was to see his biggest success. In 1984 he became a presenter of Wide Awake Club, a new Saturday morning children's programme on ITV's breakfast station, TV-am, which also launched the career of Austin Powers actor Mike Myers. Mallett's personality came to dominate the show to such an extent that when TV-am found itself lacking a school holidays programme after Roland Rat left to join the BBC, he was offered the chance to present the replacement solo. 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.

Wacaday was even more successful than its parent. 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 and soon became one of Mallett's established sidekicks along with Magic, his pet cockatiel (the name Pinky Punky was chosen after Timmy asked viewers to write in with their ideas for a name).

In 1986 he also became a presenter on pan-european music channel Music Box hosting the show called The Maggot, and for this reason he also took part in a sort of music group called The Rap Pack made up of some of Music Box's presenters, who released a single called Back To The Rhythm along with the accompanying video.

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The Utterly Brilliant Timmy Mallett

In 1990 there was an official magazine called The Utterly Brilliant Timmy Mallett.

Bombalurina

Mallett formed the band Bombalurina, along with female vocalists / dancers Dawn and Annie Dunkley, and released the single Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. The song, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber, entered the UK charts at number 23, rose to 13 the next week, then to 3 and finally to number 1 on August 19 1990, where it stayed for three weeks. More than 1,000,000 copies of the single were sold around the World and it topped the charts in over a dozen countries. Follow ups included "7 little Girls sitting in the back seat" "The Bump" , as well as an album, Huggin' an' a Kissin'.

Another memorable moment occurred when Mallett met the then-Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher - and introduced her to the mallet.

Wacaday ended in 1992 when TV-am lost its licence. Since then Mallett has made limited TV appearances, preferring to concentrate on his behind-the-camera career centred around his production company, Brilliant TV.

Mallett is currently to be heard as the voice of Smelly Beep in the new pre-school sitcom - The Beeps - on Channel 5.

As well as his broadcasting work, Mallett tours many students' unions, and clubs, performing his own show. He also regularly performs in panto.

Mallett was hailed a hero at the end of 2001 when he rescued a woman who had fallen into freezing waters at a marina in Hartlepool[1]. Timmy Mallett is an accomplished artist in acrylics and watercolour and exhibits regularly. In 2002, for the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, he completed a series of 50 portraits of people from around Cookham in Berkshire where he lives, including Lorraine Kelly, Sir Clive Woodward, Ulrika Jonsson, Jim Rosenthal, Wendy Craig, Stanley Spencer's grandson John.

Mallett was a trialist on The Match in 2006 [2]. Mallett is also a supporter of Oxford United and regularly attends matches there. He is a patron of Prime Minister Gladstone's St Deiniol's Library in Hawarden, North Wales and supported the campaign to re-route the AWPR in Aberdeen and protect the Camphill movement community at Newton Dee.

Television programmes

References

  1. ^ BBC News 2001
  2. ^ Timmy Mallett on The Match
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