Keith Chegwin was an integral part of the golden age of children's television
‘Cheggers’, as he was universally known, is affectionately remembered by the baby boomer generation who grew up with him fronting such widely loved BBC1 children’s shows as ‘Multi-Coloured Swap Shop’, ‘Cheggers Plays Pop’, and ‘Saturday Superstore’
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Your support makes all the difference.In 2013, I interviewed Keith Chegwin, who has died at the age of 60, on the set of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s BBC2 mockumentary, Life’s Too Short.
In this spoof documentary, “Cheggers”, as he was universally known, was one of a trio of showbiz has-beens (alongside Les Dennis and Shaun Williamson), who were being managed by actor turned impresario Warwick Davis. The triumvirate of showbiz troupers were being subjected to all manner of humiliations – all for our delectation and delight.
I remember thinking at the time: “I really like Cheggers. He doesn’t take himself in the least bit seriously.”
The ability to send yourself up is a trait we Brits value perhaps above all others – and Chegwin had it in spades.
He was always up for fun. Whether hosting the nudist game show, Naked Jungle, in just a hat (a job he later confessed was “the worst career move” of his life) or gamely trying to overcome his ineptitude at skating on Dancing on Ice before breaking three ribs and fracturing his shoulder on the first day of training, what seemed to interest the TV presenter most was having a laugh – principally at himself. We warm to anyone who makes us chuckle, especially if they are more than happy to make themselves the butt of the joke.
The baby boomer generation also feel a great sense of affection towards Chegwin because we grew up with him. He was an integral part of the golden age of children’s television. His boundless sense of enthusiasm became a vital element in many people’s TV education. He was an infectious, ubiquitous presence in our childhoods.
Born in Walton, Liverpool in 1957, Chegwin began his showbiz career at an early age. As a young boy, he was spotted by Phil Collins’s mother, June, on Junior Showtime, a Yorkshire Television children’s talent show. He joined June’s stage school in London and during a play there sang the first song Phil Collins ever composed.
Chegwin went on to participate in several children’s TV shows and ads, including for Pepsi and Cadbury Creme Eggs, before portraying Banquo’s son in Roman Polanski’s film of Macbeth.
But Chegwin really broke through when he shifted from acting to presenting in 1976. Over the next decade, he enjoyed a gilded period, fronting such widely loved BBC1 children’s shows as Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Cheggers Plays Pop, and Saturday Superstore.
In 1982, Chegwin and his Multi-Coloured Swap Shop co-presenters, Noel Edmonds and Chegwin’s first wife, Maggie Philbin, brought out a pop single, “I Wanna Be a Winner”. That proved the zenith of his career. His fortunes faltered badly when he fell into alcoholism in the late 1980s, a dark period which he charted in his 1995 book, Shaken But Not Stirred.
But after appearing on This Morning in 1992, he gave up drinking and managed to resurrect his career, presenting a segment on Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast.
He proceeded to host the revived 1970s game show It’s a Knockout on Channel 5 and from 2000 worked for seven years on GMTV. He also made numerous appearances in panto and on reality TV shows, including Celebrity Big Brother, Celebrity MasterChef, Celebrity Chase and Celebrity Pointless. In 2012 Chegwin was a deserving recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Reality TV Awards.
What invariably characterised Chegwin’s work was an irrepressible chirpiness. He was always eager to please, and it is quite appropriate that his “Down Your Doorstep” on The Big Breakfast involved him shouting, “Wake up you beggars, it’s Cheggers!” I can think of no more cheerful way of being woken up!
Even if for some that relentless bonhomie might occasionally have worn thin at that time of the morning, Chegwin was always redeemed by his capacity for taking the rise out of himself.
Maybe because for many of us Chegwin is inextricably associated with childhood, his death has appeared to hit people hard. His fellow presenter Phillip Schofield spoke for many today when he tweeted, “I’m so stunned to hear that the utterly lovely @keithchegwin has died. Can’t get my head round this. One of my original Saturday morning heroes.”
Comedian Paddy McGuinness added: “Such sad news. Very much a part of my childhood. RIP Keith Chegwin.” For his part, Gervais tweeted: “RIP, you national treasure.”
It is quite typical of Chegwin that he continued to try to entertain, even as he struggled with the long-term progressive lung condition, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Philbin announced this afternoon that she was “heartbroken” by his death. She added that in the course of his sister’s wedding two months ago, Chegwin was, “still attempting to be life and soul of the party despite being on portable oxygen”.
That’s a mark of the man.
Gervais will not be alone today in declaring Chegwin a national treasure.
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