HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Francis Wright (born 1958) is an English voice actor, puppeteer, and television presenter. He also teaches public speaking and communication skills.


Early life

Wright was born in
St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from ...
, the son of Dr Bedřich Bělohlávek and Joan Wright, and was registered under both names. His father was a Czech bookseller working in London, while his mother was a journalist then working for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
as a publicity officer, and both were authors. Wright was educated at
Colet Court St Paul's Juniors (formerly Colet Court) is an independent preparatory school for boys aged 7 to 13 in Barnes, London. It forms the preparatory department of St Paul's School, to which most Juniors pupils progress at the age of 13. The School w ...
and
St Paul's School, London (''By Faith and By Learning'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent school Public school , religion = Church of England , president = , he ...
, then studied drama, graduating with honours. He later noted “I decided to specialise in puppetry, which seemed to be a good way of never being typecast and/or doomed to a life mainly out of work.”


Career

Wright's work on screen began with ITV Entertainment's '' The Munch Bunch''. After that, he was a leading character in '' You and Me'', a
BBC Schools BBC Schools, also known as BBC for Schools and Colleges, is the educational programming strand set up by the BBC in 1957, broadcasting a range of educational programmes for children aged 5–16. From launch until June 1983, programming was based o ...
series, in which he played Dibs from 1981 until 1992.Creatives: Puppeteer Francis Wright
at braidman.com, accessed 21 July 2020
His first feature film was ''
Dragonslayer A dragonslayer is a person or being that slays dragons. Dragonslayers and the creatures they hunt have been popular in traditional stories from around the world: they are a type of story classified as type 300 in the Aarne–Thompson classific ...
'' (1981), and in the mid-1980s he worked as a puppeteer on ''
Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ov ...
''. He played Ludo's Eyebrows in ''
Labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...
'' (1986) and created and voiced the Psammead for BBC Television in ''
Five Children and It ''Five Children and It'' is a children's novel by English author E. Nesbit. It was originally published in 1902 in the '' Strand Magazine'' under the general title ''The Psammead, or the Gifts'', with a segment appearing each month from April ...
'' (1991), returning to the role in ''The Return of the Psammead'' (1993) and ''
The Phoenix and the Carpet ''The Phoenix and the Carpet'' is a fantasy novel for children, written by E. Nesbit and first published in 1904. It is the second in a trilogy of novels that begins with '' Five Children and It'' (1902), and follows the adventures of the sam ...
'' (1997), for which he also created the puppet of the Phoenix, a character which was voiced by David Suchet.Mark J. Docherty, Alistair D. McGown, ''The Hill and Beyond: Children's Television Drama - An Encyclopedia'' (Bloomsbury Academic, 2003), p. 102 In the 1990s he also worked on ''
Mortimer and Arabel ''Mortimer and Arabel'' is a BBC puppet comedy-drama series based on the book series of the same name by Joan Aiken (1924-2004) that was aired on BBC One as part of the Children's BBC strand (as it was known before October 4, 1997) from November ...
'', '' Jay's World'', ''
Gophers! ''Gophers!'' was a Channel 4 children's programme about a family of American gophers who move into a new neighbourhood, called Sycamore Heights, living next door to a family of uptight but well-intentioned rabbits, The Burrows. There were many ...
'', and ''
The Spooks of Bottle Bay ''The Spooks of Bottle Bay'' is a children's drama series shown between the years of 1993 and 1995 on CITV. The stories behind the show were created by Ian Allen of Button Moon fame, and the puppets and sets were designed by John Thirtle. Three ...
'', playing Sam the Seagull in '' Beachcomber Bay'' and created the
March Hare The March Hare (called Haigha in ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a character most famous for appearing in the tea party scene in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. The main character, Alice, hypothesizes, : "T ...
for the star-studded ''
Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' (1999). Wright played the Head in ITV's ''
Art Attack ''Art Attack'' is a British children's television programme revolving around art, currently hosted by Lloyd Warbey on Disney Junior, and originally airing on CITV hosted by Neil Buchanan from 1990 to 2007. The original programme aired on CI ...
'' (1990–2007), was Colin the bat and Lumpy in ''
Grotbags ''Grotbags'' is a children's television programme which ran for three series between 1991 and 1993 about a fictional witch named Grotbags, a spin-off of multiple earlier Rod Hull and Emu shows. Very much in the mould of the traditional pantomi ...
'' (1991–1993), was both a writer and a performer for ''
Bug Alert ''Bug Alert'' is a British children's television series, first shown on GMTV in September 1996. It featured the antics of a range of bug-like characters who lived in the kitchen of an unnamed house. These creatures apparently only came out wh ...
'' (1996–2000) and played Sweep in two series of the ITV children's show ''
Sooty Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in 1955, with the ...
''. He has also narrated two television series, ''B & B the Best'' for the BBC and ''Kitchen Showdown with Rosemary Shrager'' for ITV, and does voice-over work for commercials. Outside show business, Wright teaches public speaking and communication skills. He was an elocution teacher for '' American Princess'' (2005) and ''
Australian Princess ''Australian Princess'' is an Australian reality television show that first premiered on Network Ten on 5 October 2005. It is produced by Granada Australia, who are responsible for other programs such as ''Dancing with the Stars'', ''Australia's ...
'' (2006) and was hired to teach
Paul O'Grady Paul James O'Grady MBE DL (born 14 June 1955) is an English comedian, broadcaster, actor, writer and former drag queen. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag queen persona Lily Savage, very popular in ...
to speak English.


Notes


External links


Francis Wright
at
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

Francis Wright
at
IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

The Psammead Sings
at
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

The Return of the Psammead
at YouTube
Francis Wright
on
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Francis P A 1958 births English male film actors English people of Czech descent English puppeteers English male television actors People educated at St Paul's School, London People from Hampstead Living people