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Des of CITV's Diggit fame and other TV presenters who disappeared

Started by The Lurker, July 18, 2021, 06:55:45 PM

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The Lurker

I vaguely remember Diggit with a fresh faced Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates. The other presenter, who seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth, was none other than Des who according to imdb hasn't been on TV since 2001.

Either way, turns out he's called Paul Ballard and I just read he's facing jail for causing death by dangerous driving. A news article reads as though he's currently in custody.

A very strange blast from the past and sad story.

Either way, what of those TV presenters you occassionally remember but even Google has no clue of what they're up to? Searching for Mr Ballard - pre-crash - just brought up results of people (Fearne Cotton included) wondering what he was up to. Entertain us all below with your memories of TV presenters who faded into obscurity.

There's Huffty from The Word who comes up a bit - no idea why I thought of her seeing as I was a one year old when The Word was on TV. Either way, as far as I'm aware, she's never killed two people in a car pile up.

Magnum Valentino

I remember Des introducing Fearne Cotton to the world.

Curse him!

Loads of RTE kids presenters like Damo McCaul and Francis Boylan Junior still live in my head and are thought about regularly.

There was another lad who was a roving presenter for a late afternoon Den show for young teens with an astounding Dub accent and a love for the wrestler Kurt Angle who was really endearingly enthusiastic and I wish I could remember his name.

Spiteface

Adam Ay, who I mostly remember for Lee and Herring taking the piss out of, but he did video game coverage for Live & Kicking if I remember correctly.

badaids

I mean thank fuck it did happen but that prick V***** K** was on every programme cunting it up in the 00s and then just kind of disappeared off the four main channels and out of my eyesight, presumably into dogshit freeview cuntitude.

Gulftastic

Frances dodge, who used to present 'Ghost Train'. I fancied her a lot, and she had good legs, as she displayed when she portrayed 'Token Stonkina in David Schneider's 'Mr Zero Talent' sketches in now forgotten sketch show 'Up To Something'. No clips are to be foound.

BlodwynPig


phes

Used to know a couple of the Why Don't You Kids who were childhood sweethearts and blossomed into the drunk couple you stay the fuck away from because it's always heading for a domestic

Jasha

Wonder what DJ Kat's upto these days?. Not a presenter as such but there used a Pat Sharp early pre-Sky Sky show where people called up asking for a certain song and a guy called Ronnie who had to run to the library and grab it to a chorus of Run Ronnie Run

Quote from: Jasha on July 18, 2021, 07:48:03 PM
a guy called Ronnie who had to run to the library and grab it to a chorus of Run Ronnie Run

While thinking 'has I really gone from king of the East End underworld to this!?'

The once-ubiquitous Carol Smillie is now a humanist celebrant, under her married name Carol Knight.

https://www.facebook.com/CarolKnightHumanistCelebrant/

willbo

Daisy Donovan - I enjoyed her Louis Theroux-ish show she did

what about that American one with a young man (late teens -20 ish) in his parent's house and he wore a suit and had people like porn stars on


sprocket

Quote from: Magnum Valentino on July 18, 2021, 07:13:14 PM
There was another lad who was a roving presenter for a late afternoon Den show for young teens with an astounding Dub accent and a love for the wrestler Kurt Angle who was really endearingly enthusiastic and I wish I could remember his name.

Kevo?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5Z_nuoIbZc

Quote from: Magnum Valentino on July 18, 2021, 07:13:14 PM
Loads of RTE kids presenters

Marian from Bosco went on to be a voice-over person on RTE News, which amused me and my brother in the nineties.

mothman

There's the frankly unGoogleable David Copperfield who was in Three Of A Kind with Tracey Ullman and Lenny Henry. He totally shat the bed when choosing a stage name, there; not that I'm suggesting it was the sole reason to do with his lack of subsequent success.

Magnum Valentino

Quote from: sprocket on July 18, 2021, 09:40:47 PM
Kevo?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5Z_nuoIbZc

Fuck me I think that's him aye. I didn't know he was a 'character' like that, though, I only knew him from when he was older and was just acting like a normal fella. That's incredible, thanks so much.

Quote from: mothman on July 18, 2021, 10:36:33 PM
There's the frankly unGoogleable David Copperfield who was in Three Of A Kind with Tracey Ullman and Lenny Henry. He totally shat the bed when choosing a stage name, there; not that I'm suggesting it was the sole reason to do with his lack of subsequent success.

Medallion Man trying to chat up Tracey Ullman was his one shining moment.

Captain Poodle Basher

Quote from: thecuriousorange on July 18, 2021, 10:03:08 PM
Marian from Bosco went on to be a voice-over person on RTE News, which amused me and my brother in the nineties.


Re: Bosco.

I see Frank Twomey about Cork city centre occasionally. Dresses like it's 1989 and the "Second Summer of Love" has never gone away. I encountered him at a rather raucous and sordid house party at the time where he was extremely 'refreshed' of the nasal variety and loudly demanding "Dick!".

A couple of years later and a group of us coming back from a weekend in Dublin met him in Kent station where he was dressed in Hare Krishna attire and insisted on us all coming with him as we "Had no place to stay" despite us pointing out we were local and that one of our number lived only five minutes walk from our current location. I'll be charitable and say that it was merely a coincidence that he made a beeline for a group of young men to offer a bed for the night to rather than any of the other passengers.

Norton Canes

Quote from: Phoenix Lazarus on July 19, 2021, 06:25:08 AM
Medallion Man trying to chat up Tracey Ullman was his one shining moment

That wasn't a sketch, that was hidden camera footage from the BBC bar.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: The Lurker on July 18, 2021, 06:55:45 PM
There's Huffty from The Word who comes up a bit

That's the one that immediately sprung to mind for me. Her screen time to recognition half life is off the fucking charts. She was on telly for about two weeks in the mid nineties and it seems millions of people still remember. She was pretty memorable with her look and accent and I suppose millions of teenagers were watching The Word. I heard she works in a drop in centre or something.


dissolute ocelot

Quote from: badaids on July 18, 2021, 07:19:48 PM
I mean thank fuck it did happen but that prick V***** K** was on every programme cunting it up in the 00s and then just kind of disappeared off the four main channels and out of my eyesight, presumably into dogshit freeview cuntitude.
VK is still around but thankfully much less omnipresent. He did an ITV game show this year, and pops up on BBC radio occasionally. I guess Paddy McGuinness has replaced him as regional accent of choice.

Violet Berlin from Bad Influence! (and thus an icon to millions of boys who played video games) apparently now works designing interactive experiences for museums and tourist attractions. She's married to Gaz Top/Gareth Jones, who does motoring podcasts and a bit of TV. Her former colleague Andy Crane is apparently doing very obscure radio presenting.

A few months ago my employer made us watch a video on diversity training by June Sarpong of Channel 4 yoof fame. She's apparently a consultant on that kind of thing in the US.

Not a presenter, but Alex Parks who won the first series of Fame Academy is another one who dropped out of the system; allegedly working as a children's clown or something.

Quote from: badaids on July 18, 2021, 07:19:48 PM
I mean thank fuck it did happen but that prick V***** K** was on every programme cunting it up in the 00s and then just kind of disappeared off the four main channels and out of my eyesight, presumably into dogshit freeview cuntitude.

He hosts Formula E now. And not just the Eurosport or BBC coverage, but the world feed. Millions of people all over the planet having his chummy nonsense beamed into their homes.

I always wondered what happened to Paul Brophy off of Fully Booked. He was hilarious, but disappeared off the telly after G Force ended.

Spiteface


turnstyle

The other day I was channel hopping (I promise), and spotted Pop World's Miquita Oliver on Googlebox, which threw me for a loop as I hadn't seen her on anything for years.

I don't know what she's been up to, but her Wikipedia page is pretty sparse, although it does note some interesting projects, such as this Monkey Tennis-level pitch:

QuoteIn March 2010 Oliver made a programme for Channel 4's T4 called "Miquita's Oliver". She was set the challenge of starting a one-off urban production of the classic musical Oliver! from scratch

And this:

QuoteOliver said that she was sacked from BBC Radio 1 following a comment she made in an interview with NME magazine about Fearne Cotton, calling her a "Devil Woman"

Fair dos, nuff respect.

mothman

Alex Parks did some good music. Too good for the Fane Academy XFactor Lite throwaway karaoke pop that was all that the suits wanted from someone in her situation. Mark Lamarr gave her the time of day when she was on his radio show, and he likes proper musicians.

VK was only on I'm A Celeb eight months ago, so that doesn't seem to have boosted his visibility at all...


Quote from: checkoutgirl on July 19, 2021, 11:25:18 AM
Sorry are we supposed to know what the fuck that is?

Have you never been to a non-religious wedding or funeral?

The humanists are a secular organisation and the celebrants are the people that take the place of the priest or minister or whatever in presiding over the ceremony.

Although I've never felt the need to put a label on my own non-religiosity, they seem pretty ubiquitous now.

Quote from: turnstyle on July 19, 2021, 11:55:22 AM
The other day I was channel hopping (I promise), and spotted Pop World's Miquita Oliver on Googlebox, which threw me for a loop as I hadn't seen her on anything for years.

I don't know what she's been up to, but her Wikipedia page is pretty sparse, although it does note some interesting projects, such as this Monkey Tennis-level pitch:

And this:

Fair dos, nuff respect.

She was on that Richard Osman's House of Games thing a while back too. She didn't seem to be doing very well on the bit I saw.

At the games, I mean. Not life in general.

pigamus

Quote from: checkoutgirl on July 19, 2021, 11:25:18 AM
Sorry are we supposed to know what the fuck that is?

Well it's not hard to work out, is it? Some people want weddings and funerals without God sticking his oar in. Presumably she does the former.

paruses

Quote from: turnstyle on July 19, 2021, 11:55:22 AM
The other day I was channel hopping (I promise), and spotted Pop World's Miquita Oliver on Googlebox, which threw me for a loop as I hadn't seen her on anything for years.

I don't know what she's been up to, but her Wikipedia page is pretty sparse, although it does note some interesting projects, such as this Monkey Tennis-level pitch:

And this:

Fair dos, nuff respect.

Like almost everyone since March 2020 she does a podcast called Underground (or something) about the underground railway - Tubman not tube[-man]) -[nb]Moderately pleased with that[/nb] (or something) It's promoted at the end of  Wolf and Owl maybe or Monkey Tennis. I am very light on details about this, clearly.

Has gone up a huge amount in my estimation for the Fearne Cotton thing.