Who is mr tumble

That's important. Slapstick is tricky. It's all about timing, and it takes quite a long time to film. We tend to do it on one single camera because you get a lot more without the editing, and that goes back to the days of Laurel and Hardy, [Buster] Keaton [and Charlie] Chaplin, who mostly filmed with just one camera on a mid-shot. Yeah, or adult comedy. Of course I would look at that. I would never leave children's completely. Never would. Because I love it, that's what I do. But I've spoken to some lovely people who I've got to know over the years, like Peter Kay, and who knows, if something came up that's right for me, of course I'd look at it because it would be a real challenge for me and take me out of my comfort zone.

No, no. I realise I'm very lucky doing something I love doing, but I work hard at it and I really try and make programmes that are watchable not just for children but for everyone.

I'm 45 now, and, as you get older, when you do all the falls and slapstick work and go onto crash mats, you get a bit slow at getting up, because it is a very physical, demanding role. I've got a lovely family around me. I do country walks. I go fishing a bit. I take the dogs for a walk. I visit friends, and I'm trying to give myself a bit more time off, but it always seems to fail because I am a bit of a workaholic. I'm quite into classic cars.

I'm quite fascinated by things like that. And I love film music. Film music is so important to me. I was brought up in the music industry. My father's a songwriter. So most of my ideas come from listening to music, and most of that is film music. I've got a couple of prop cars. They're two minis - they've been cut in half and then put back together so they're tiny. They've got little eyes as well. And I've got five s bumper cars. Makaton users have loved having 'their own' programme on television.

And over the years it has become one of the most popular children's programmes on television, loved by all children and adults alike! She has learned so much from it, as have me and her dad! The programmes use a simple repetitive format, making it easy to learn the Makaton symbols and signs used in each episode.

Children are encouraged to join in with activities, songs and games. He was the first clown who could juggle, unicycle and use Makaton a system of signing and symbols used to assist language development and the show immediately appealed far beyond its remit. Children of all abilities respond to this unwavering gale-force of benign energy, happy to don ill-fitting yellow trousers and lark about in damp English fields for their distraction. And they really like the in-between bits, when Fletcher, as himself, simply kneels down with his young guests for a bit of a chat.

Twelve years after the programme began, he still receives daily letters from parents whose children have spoken for the first time after watching Mr Tumble. So The Tale of Mr Tumble is worth heeding, and not just because its run will involve Makaton-signing choirs made up of local school children. Switch over to Channel 5, catch one of the white-toothed, spray-tanned, hungry-eyed young Milkshake!