DS Icon: Andy Crane

When some people reflect on the CBBC Broom Cupboard, they think of Andi Peters. Others might recall the glory years of Schofield and Gordon the Gopher. A rare handful may even pick the long-forgotten cheeky scamp Simon Parkin. However, a name who is all too often left off the Broom Cupboard history books is Andy Crane. Usually found larking around during the breaks between Willy Fog and Byker Grove with Edd the Duck and Wilson the Butler, Crane was an unpretentious game-for-a-laugh born entertainer.


Crane and the 'Motormouth' gang

After he eventually left the Broom Cupboard, he ventured to the pastures of ITV, where he struck gold with the likes of super cool gaming series Bad Influence and Saturday morning Going Live! rivals Motormouth and What's Up Doc?. In recent years, he has retreated to his first love - radio and regional broadcasting with Channel M. And Andy knows as well as anyone, we won't be seeing another as skilled as himself on children's telly ever again. "These days every local radio disc jockey fancies themselves as a potential kids presenter. There are schools you can go to to learn how to be a presenter, and come out with a bloody showreel. And you send your showreel off, and they give you the list of people to send it to," he said in an interview two years ago. "Presumably the people on the list get 28 showreels all exactly the same from everybody who graduated the same media course. Which is fine, good luck to them. But it just wasn't like that. There weren't billions of us queuing up outside the Broom Cupboard to audition, like you might see with an X Factor show." You tell them Andy, you tell them!


Happy days with The Crane!