Timmy Mallett
Mallett in Market Harborough 2008
Born
Timothy Luke Mallett

(1955-10-18) 18 October 1955
Marple, Stockport, Cheshire, England
Alma materUniversity of Warwick
Occupation(s)Radio/television presenter, artist
Years active1982–present
Spouse
Lynda Bingham
​
(m. 1990)​
Children1
Websitetimmymallett.co.uk

Timmy Mallett (born 18 October 1955) is an English television presenter, broadcaster, author and artist. He is known for his striking visual style, colourful glasses, colourful shirts, and giant pink foam mallet, known as "Mallett's Mallet", as well as his "utterly brilliant!" and "blaaah!" catchphrases.

Career

Radio

Mallett was born in Marple, Cheshire. He attended Rose Hill Primary School in Marple, Earnseat Prep School in Arnside, and Hyde Grammar School. 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 Capital Midlands) 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 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.

Mallett won two Radio Academy Awards for Best Local Radio presenter (1984) and Best pop music show (1986).

Television

In 1983, Timmy joined TV-am, where he interviewed the musical act and bands of the day for the pop news strand, Timmy also presented Summer Run on Saturday mornings for the new breakfast television station. In Autumn 1984 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 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 October 1985.

In the Wide Awake Club 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.[1]

Since then, Mallett has run his own production company, Brilliant TV.[2]

In 1993, Mallett starred in The Children's Channel's Around the World in 80 seconds as Captain Everything.[3]

From 1997 until 2002, he acted in Timmy Towers, for CITV.[4]

Other

In 2002, Mallett made West Ham United F.C. agree 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 withdrew the item.[5]

In 2004 he was a stand-in contestant for the ITV1 jungle-based reality series I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. In 2008 he entered the show as a full contestant.

In 2008, Mallett appeared on Big Brother's Little Brother.[6]

In September 2008, Mallett appeared on the BBC One politics show This Week talking about being positive when things get tough.[7]

In November 2008, Mallett appeared in the eighth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. He entered the show by being captured in an oversized 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 two in the public voting and taking part in a play-off bush tucker eating trial with Brian Paddick.

Music

With producers Nigel Wright and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Mallett formed the band Bombalurina, named after a character in Lloyd Webber's musical Cats. Along with female vocalists and dancers Dawn Andrews and Annie Dunkley, they released a cover of the single "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini".[8] It reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in August 1990.[9]

Follow up single "Seven Little Girls Sitting in the Backseat" reached number 18 in the UK in December 1990.[10]

The Bombalurina album Huggin' And A Kissin' with 14 tracks was released in December 1990.[11]

Ditching the Bombalurina name, but again working with producer Nigel Wright, Mallett released a cover of Kenny's "The Bump" under the name M.C. Mallett in 1991. This failed to chart.[12]

For "Tommy's Campaign", Mallett recorded "The Laughing Policeman" with producer George Martin in 1991.[13]

Under the name Del Costa, Mallett released a megamix version of "Hot Hot Hot" in summer 1992.[14]

In 2008, Mallett featured in Skepta's video "Rolex Sweep"[15] and accompanied Skepta to the MOBO nominations.[16]

In 2013, Mallett recorded Gilbert O'Sullivan's hit "Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day".[17]

Mallett's "Summer Holiday" video was made in 2014.[18]

Stage shows

Mallett has appeared in pantomime in Lewisham theatre, Cliffs Pavilion Southend, Hexagon Reading, Derngate Northampton, Arena St Albans, Wyvern Swindon, Forum Billingham, Pavilion Worthing, Grand Pavilion Porthcawl, Playhouse Weston-super-Mare and Theatre Royal Windsor.

In December 2016, he appeared in Jack and the Beanstalk at Theatre Royal Windsor.

While staying at Hartlepool, Mallett rescued a woman from the marina in December 2001.[19]

He toured the Pontins holiday camps with the "Utterly Brilliant Timmy Mallett Show" in 2014.[20]

He toured Park Holidays UK's sites doing the Timmy Mallett Show in 2016.

Art

Mallett is an oil painter and acrylic and watercolour artist whose work sells in galleries across UK and Europe.[21] His work is distributed and published in limited editions by De Montfort Fine Art[22] and Buckingham Fine Art[23]

In 2002, he painted 50 portraits for Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee including Wendy Craig, Jim Rosenthal, Lorraine Kelly, Ulrika Jonsson and Sir Clive Woodward.[24]

In 2012, Mallett won the Best up and coming artist Fine Art Trade Guild.[25]

In 2012, Mallett painted a telephone box in Windsor with likenesses of the Queen, Prince Harry and Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge.[26]

In the summer of 2018, Mallett discovered and painted his father's secret Galloway bridge scene from September 1966.[27]

Selected television programmes

Sport

Mallett is a supporter of Oxford United F.C. and Maidenhead United.[28]

Mallett is a long-distance cycling adventurer. In 2022 he completed a solo circumnavigation of the coast of Britain following in the footsteps of painter J. M. W. Turner.[29] There is an online map from Ordnance Survey showing the route, paintings and videos around nearly 5000 miles of coastline. [30]

He rode through Northern Ireland in May 2015,[31] Lincolnshire in summer 2015[32] and through Cumbria in May 2016.[33]

In spring 2018, Mallett cycled alone from home in England through France and Spain along the pilgrimage route, the Camino de Santiago to Santiago de Compostela Finisterre and back, a distance of over 4000 km, inspired by his older brother Martin with Downs syndrome.[34] The story forms the basis for his memoirs 'Utterly Brilliant My life's Journey' published in 2020 by SPCK which also includes some of the paintings produced on this adventure. [35]

References

  1. ↑ Wacaday – Index. Brillianttv.co.uk. Retrieved on 18 February 2013.
  2. ↑ Brilliant TV. Brilliant TV. Retrieved on 18 February 2013.
  3. ↑ Timmy Mallett – television, Around the World in 80 seconds!. Brillianttv.co.uk. Retrieved on 18 February 2013.
  4. ↑ Timmy Mallett – television, Timmy Towers. Brillianttv.co.uk. Retrieved on 18 February 2013.
  5. ↑ "BBC News: West Ham 'hammer' knocked on the head, 2002". 23 November 2002. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
  6. ↑ Timmy Mallett – television, Big Brother's Little Brother 2008. Brillianttv.co.uk. Retrieved on 18 February 2013.
  7. ↑ "BBC This week: Timmy's Upside to the downturn, 2008". BBC News. 19 September 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
  8. ↑ "10 people you totally forgot scored a number one single". Smooth Radio. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  9. ↑ UK number one singles of 1990
  10. ↑ "Timmy Mallett – recordings – 7 little girls". brillianttv.co.uk.
  11. ↑ "Timmy Mallett – recordings – Huggin an a Kissin". brillianttv.co.uk.
  12. ↑ ""The Bump"". 45cat.com.
  13. ↑ "Timmy Mallett – recordings – The Laughing Policeman". brillianttv.co.uk.
  14. ↑ "Timmy Mallett – recordings – Hot Hot Hot". brillianttv.co.uk.
  15. ↑ MistaJam: Timmy Mallet gets in on the Rolex Sweep. BBC (26 April 2008). Retrieved on 2013-02-18.
  16. ↑ UK NEWS: MORE MOBO 2008 NOMINATIONS LAUNCH PICS / FULL LIST OF NOMINEES « WWW.MADNEWSUK.COM. Madnews.wordpress.com. Retrieved on 18 February 2013.
  17. ↑ "Ooh Wakka Doo Wakka Day(Wacaday!)" – via YouTube.
  18. ↑ "Summer holiday" – via YouTube.
  19. ↑ "Timmy Mallett – Theatre – Cinderella, Billingham – rescue". brillianttv.co.uk.
  20. ↑ "Entertainment Breaks". pontins.com.
  21. ↑ "Mallett's Palette". mallettspalette.co.uk.
  22. ↑ "DeMontfort Fine Art". demontfortfineart.co.uk.
  23. ↑ "All work : Timmy Mallett". Buckingham Fine Art Publishers.
  24. ↑ "Cookham Jubilee – Categories – Mallett's Palette". mallettspalette.co.uk.
  25. ↑ "Timmy Mallett". buy-fineart.com.
  26. ↑ "In pictures: Timmy Mallett swaps mallett for palette". BBC News. 7 December 2013.
  27. ↑ "Timmy Mallett completes Galloway bridge painting". BBC News.
  28. ↑ "Manic Timmy Mallett toasts Maidenhead's dramatic equaliser". BT.com.
  29. ↑ "Timmy Mallett cycles Coast of Britain | Blog". 17 June 2022.
  30. ↑ "Timmy Mallett cycles Britain".
  31. ↑ "Timmy Mallett in Antrim".
  32. ↑ "Timmy Mallett in Lincolnshire".
  33. ↑ "Timmy Mallett visits Barrow and Ulverston on Cumbria cycling tour". The Mail. 4 May 2016.
  34. ↑ "My Camino Blog". Timmy Mallett.
  35. ↑ "'Life goes a gazillion miles an hour. You have to fill it': Timmy Mallett on what he did next". The Guardian. 30 June 2020.
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