John Eccleston is an English puppeteer, writer and presenter known for his work as lead puppeteer of Rygel on '' Farscape'', Groove on ''

The Hoobs ''The Hoobs'' is a live-action/animated children's television series created and produced by The Jim Henson Company and Decode Entertainment for Channel Four. Five series of 52 episodes were produced. Concept Channel 4 announced in November ...

'', and his many roles on

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

children's television Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

alongside

Don Austen Don Austen (born 19 January 1958) is an English puppeteer. He began his career in 1981 at Cannon Hill Park's puppet theatre in his hometown of Birmingham. Austen joined the Jim Henson Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Creature Shop in 1986 for the m ...

. He was also behind the character Gilbert the Alien (voiced by

Phil Cornwell Philip Cornwell (born 5 October 1957) is an English actor, comedian, impressionist and writer. He is part of the '' Dead Ringers'' television and radio series, and was the voice of Murdoc Niccals in the virtual band Gorillaz. Cornwell has co- ...

) on ''

Get Fresh ''Get Fresh'' is a children's television programme that originally aired from 1986 to 1988 in the United Kingdom. Format A Saturday-morning kids' TV show, broadcast on the Children's ITV network, the show featured Gareth Jones (aka Gaz Top), ...

''. He also performed Worth the Dog in the Woolworths adverts (again opposite Don Austen as Wooly The Sheep), Mervin J Minky on MTV's ''

Fur TV Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket ...

'' and Rattus Rattus on the

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

Horrible Histories ''Horrible Histories'' is an educational entertainment franchise encompassing many media including books, magazines, audio books, stage shows, TV shows, and more. In 2013, Lisa Edwards, UK publishing and commercial director of Scholastic Corpor ...

'' series.

Career

John Eccleston began his career in 1981 with his then girlfriend, Suesan Craig, both from Cheshire. John and Suesan began phoning many local TV stations and John was given the opportunity to appear for his first TV appearance on "Billy Butler's Fun Factory" ITV. John and Suesan would entertain the children of their street from John's bedroom window with Suesan's siblings, Jane and Gerry, inviting the children to watch the performance. His first puppet "SAM". His "in vision" television career started as one of the original presenters of the UK version of the Mickey Mouse Club, ''

Disney Club ''Disney Club'' is the name of many television shows associated to Disney productions aired mostly in Europe and the Americas during the 1990s and early 2000s (decade). Americas * Brazil: aired from April 28, 1997, to December 28, 2002, on SBT ...

'', the success of which led to his presenting '' Run the Risk'', ''The Big Dish'', the children's magazine show Brill and ''

Get The Picture Get the Picture may refer to: * ''Get the Picture'' (game show), a children's game show * ''Get the Picture?'' (Smash Mouth album), 2003 * ''Get the Picture?'' (The Pretty Things album), 1965 *''Get the Picture: A Personal History of Photojournali ...

'', for Nickelodeon. It took seven years for him to realise he did not like being pointed at in the street and he has remained off screen ever since. Eccleston, who hails from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, worked alongside Don Austen on the Saturday morning children's show '' What's Up Doc?'', operating and providing the voices for the puppet wolves Bro and Bro. Their writing skill on this show garnered a spin-off ITV show called '' Wolf It!''. Eccleston was approached to provide new characters for the BBC series ''

Live & Kicking ''Live & Kicking'' is a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for ''Going Live!'', and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, c ...

'', once again teaming up with Don Austen and Darryl Worbey to create two puppet leprechauns, Mr Sage and Mr Onion. The characters appeared from 1995 to 2001, outliving three sets of presenters. Eccleston, Austen and Worbey teamed up again to create the hyenas Scratch and Sniff (with Eccleston playing Sniff) on ''The Ministry of Mayhem'', later renamed ''

Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown ''Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown'' (previously titled ''Ministry of Mayhem'' and ''MoM'') was a British children's entertainment programme, which was broadcast on ITV (later CITV) from 10 January 2004 to 1 July 2006. Overview ''Ministry ...

''. The characters recorded fifteen episodes of the game show '' Scratch 'n' Sniff's Den of Doom'' for

Granada Kids CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

. Eccleston also appeared in the award-winning short film ''The Box'', , work = , publisher = Michael Bassett , date = , url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/filmnetwork/media/magazine/thebox?size=4x3&bgc=C0C0C0&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&bbram=1'' , format = , doi = , accessdate = 30 November 2007 directed by Michael J. Bassett, and also starring Paul Hendy, Richard Orford and Laurence Akers. Between 1996–1997, he participated on the second and third series of

Jim Henson's Animal Show ''Jim Henson's Animal Show'' is an American children's television series from the Jim Henson Company The Jim Henson Company (formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc.; commonly referred to as ...

, manipulating the puppet Yves St. La Roache, among others.

References

External links

* Muppet performers British puppeteers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-tv-bio-stub