[Red Moon]

Timmy Mallett: I'm A Celebrity... top 10 facts

1. Timmy Mallett is 53 and was born in Marple, Cheshire.

2. For those of you too young to remember, he used to present 1980s children’s shows The Wide Awake Club and Wacaday on ITV breakfast channel TV:Am.

3. The Wide Awake Club also launched the career of Austin Powers star Mike Myers.

4. Mallett’s catchphrases are 'utterly brilliant!' and 'bleurgh!

5. Timmy invented the game Mallett’s Mallet, a word association game where contestants were hit over the head by his famed foam mallet for getting answers wrong.

6. In 1990, he once hit then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher over the head when she hesitated in the quiz.

7. He was the frontman of pop group Bombalurina who went to Number One in August 1990 with Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. It stayed at the top of the charts for three weeks and was produced by Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber.

8. Nowadays, he runs his own TV production company Brilliant and makes children’s shows, mostly for cable channels.

9. Timmy is an accomplished artist in both acrylic paints and water colours, and has painted the likes of Lorraine Kelly, Ulrika Jonsson, Wendy Craig and Sir Clive Woodward.

10. Still wearing his trademark loud shirts and wacky glasses, Timmy now mostly makes a living touring student unions with his Wacaday roadshow.

Source: Daily Mirror