Biography
John Eccleston is an English puppeteer, writer, and presenter, best known for his role as the lead puppeteer of Rygel on Farscape, Groove on The Hoobs, and various characters on British children's television alongside Don Austen. He also created the character Gilbert the Alien (voiced by Phil Cornwell) on Get Fresh. Additionally, he performed as Worth the Dog in Woolworths adverts (opposite Don Austen’s Wooly The Sheep), Mervin J Minky on MTV's Fur TV, and Rattus Rattus on CBBC's Horrible Histories.
Eccleston’s on-screen television career began as one of the original presenters of the UK’s Disney Club, the Mickey Mouse Club adaptation. This success led to presenting roles on Run the Risk, The Big Dish, the children’s magazine show Brill, and Nickelodeon's Get The Picture. After seven years, he realized he disliked public attention and has since remained behind the scenes.
Originally from Cumbria, Eccleston collaborated with Don Austen on the Saturday morning children’s show What’s Up Doc?, performing and voicing the puppet wolves Bro and Bro. Their writing talents on the show resulted in the ITV spin-off Wolf It!. He was then invited to create new characters for BBC's Live & Kicking, joining forces again with Austen and Darryl Worbey to develop two puppet leprechauns, Mr Sage and Mr Onion, who appeared from 1995 to 2001, outlasting three presenter line-ups. The trio reunited to produce the hyenas Scratch and Sniff (with Eccleston as Sniff) for The Ministry of Mayhem, later known as Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown. These characters also featured in fifteen episodes of the Granada Kids game show Scratch 'n' Sniff's Den of Doom. Eccleston appeared in the award-winning short film The Box, directed by Michael J. Bassett and starring Paul Hendy, Richard Orford, and Laurence Akers. Between 1996 and 1997, he was involved in the second and third series of Jim Henson's Animal Show, operating the puppet Yves St. La Roache and others.
