But Fletcher fixed on a career in children’s TV while at drama school after watching Phillip Schofield in the BBC1 broom cupboard with Gordon the Gopher. 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. Yet he is the central creative power within the twilit underworld of CBeebies, the BBC’s digital channel dedicated to 0-6 year olds. In an era when toddlers learn to swipe their thumb across a screen long before they’re out of nappies, Mr Tumble is doggedly traditional. He has a painted-on red nose, a gluey laugh and a limited supply of catchphrases ranging from the prosaic (“Hello, hello, how are you?

Mr Tumble Spotty Bag - Etsy UK Mr Tumble Spotty Bag - Etsy UK

presenters in the middle of the Thomas the Tank Engine Rap and you’ll realise what’s special about Fletcher: he’s genuine. If you don’t have pre-school age kids, you have probably been going blithely about your business blind to his existence. Switch over to Channel 5, catch one of the white-toothed, spray-tanned, hungry-eyed young Milkshake!He uses Makaton, a type of sign language to communicate with young children and lives in a house with spotty doors and furniture. Fletcher himself is a 40-something with one of those peculiarly, and rather touchingly, single-minded biographies. But while Fletcher has over 20 personas, including a bunch of women and a baby in a pram, it’s Mr Tumble with whom he has become synonymous.

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It's perhaps not surprising that the bag has been compared to the one carried by a children's character, because Yayoi Kusama is said to have been inspired by her own childhood growing up in 1930s Japan. So The Tale of Mr Tumble is worth heeding, and not just because its run will involve Makaton-signing choirs made up of 400 local school children. 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. He’s a custard pie in the face of technology, a raspberry to sophistication and he’s steadily covering the cultural fabric of the nation in crudely appliqued, primary-coloured spots. He learned from the best: Laurel and Hardy on VHS plus Fingermouse host Iain Lauchlan and queen of the pantomime dames Jack Tripp in person.It’s Mr Tumble who gets booked to play not only kids’ festivals such as Lollibop, but Camp Bestival – and not the kid’s tent, mind, we’re talking main stage. He made a showreel of himself reading imaginary birthday cards, then served his apprenticeship on Fun Song Factory and Playdays (kind of the Casualty and The Bill of the children’s entertainer’s CV). He is the mastermind behind three of their biggest programmes (Something Special, Gigglebiz and Justin’s House) and the voice of countless more. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page. 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.