Cheggers A Potted History
Born: 17th Jan 1957 - Bootle - Liverpool Family: Mum & Dad (Colin & Margaret) Twin brother Jeff and big sister Janice
(Cheggers sister is Janice Long BBC Radio 2 presenter and his twin brother Jeff Chegwin does stuff too)
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Part Two
Part One
1966 - Cheggers first public performance: Aged 9 - He won a talent show in Rhyl singing a Des O'Connor ditty 'I Pretend'. Des was Keiths inspiration as a kid and he gave regular concerts to his family impersonating his hero.
After winning he was asked to join a concert party called The Happy Wanderers singing all over the country during which - He teamed up with is brother & sister doing cabaret gigs in clubs as The Chegwins
He appeared on the ITV show Junior Showtime (66) and was spotted by agent June Collins (Phil Collins Mum). He then went to London to audition for the stage show MAME (with Ginger Rogers) and still treasures a lovely letter from Ginger.
He stayed on in London and went to The Barbara Speake Stage School - where Phil Collins was also a pupil as well as Jack Wilde, Brian Conley, Naomi Campbell etc.
1st of 7 Films - Eggheads Robot starred with Roy Kinnear and Richard Wattis Followed by the sequel: Double Trouble with Dorothy Tuttin and Patricia Routledge
From 1968 onwards there followed a period of constant work: Films, TV Commercials (Pepsi, Robinsons Lemon & Barley Water etc) Stage shows: The Good Old Bad Old Days with Anthony Newly. Tom Brown School Days with Russell Grant, & Simon Le Bon. The first ever production of Captain Pugwash written by Bill Kenwright - during which time the London Evening Standard ran an article on Keith captioned The Gob Stopper Millionaire.
He starred as a young Robin in film Robin Hood Junior with Andrew Sachs. He played Fleance in Roman Polanski's Macbeth' where his Shakespearian Dad - Banquo (played by Martin Shaw) taught him to play guitar. He appeared in Melvin Braggs Aquarius, Black Beauty, Z Cars, The Liver Birds, The Tomorrow People, Open All Hours, My Old Man, The Wackers and more. etc..
He's worked alongside Michael Horden, Peter Sellers, Ronnie Barker, David Jason, Tom Courtney & Brian Glover in The Chester Mystery Plays The BBCs first ever CSO Drama production. Worked with Francesca Annis, Nerys Hughes, Polly James, Alison Steadman, Clive Dunn and more
He formed the boy band Kenny and had a major chart hit with The Bump
Record wise: There are 15 records singles in the BBC library under Chegwin.
In 1976 he craftily got himself hired to present the new BBC Saturday morning programme Swap Shop and at 18 and became nationally known as Cheggers
Other BBC series followedCheggers Plays Pop- Anything Goes Chegwin Checks It Out Cheggers Challenge and more..
Worked on Radio One for 4 years - also co-presented weekends with Tony Blackburn - Saturday Superstore with Mike Read & Sarah Greene. All Star Record Breakers - Royal Variety Show 1984 & 1987. He got sacked by the BBC after 14 fantastic years for being too old !! (which he never regretted) and joined the new Sky TV presenting Sky Star Search (A talent show - 287 episodes,& 2000 acts)
He presented on BBC Sport Horse of The Year Show at Olympia with David Vine and Tennis at Wimbledon and a daily show called Hard Hat & Hadley with show jumper Stephen Hadley - where Keith showed off his riding skills.
He wrote the music for Born Lucky (Jeremy Beadle series) and over 600 tunes for ITVs Keynotes.
On 5th November 1992 - Cheggers revealed his alcohol addiction on This Morning with Richard and Judy. From that day on - He stopped drinking. It was a milestone moment in television as well as for Cheggers. His book Shaken But Not Stirred was a best seller. After his appearance on Channel 4s The Word he's not stopped working. 1992 - Channel 4s Big Breakfast with Gaby Roslin & Chris Evans - His On your Door Step daily live broadcasts are now legendary television.
Other TV Stuff Sale of the Century Challenge TV - The Heat is On Living - Perfectly Pets ITV Cheggers Challenge BBC - Naked Jungle C5 - Its A Knockout C5 - Im Famous & Frightened X 2 Living TV - Presented BAFTAS - Variety Club Awards - GMTV, The Wall, Noels HQ, Ricky Gervais Extras and more
Films & Acting Stuff: What Ever Happened To Harold Smith - Death At The Funeral Parlor BBC3 - Extras BBC - Film 'House' - Shaun Of The Dead
His Web TV Channel Cheggers Bedroom was watched by 7 million in just 5 weeks *His Album of Worlds Worst records Cheggers Choice sold 120,000 copies *He's presented over 4000 live network TV programmes *Hes recorded over 3000 network TV programmes *Christmas Swap Shop on BBC2 - had record viewing figures *Has his own internet bingo site www.cheggersbingo.com *He has two children Rose and Ted *Married to his lovely wife Maria *Has his own digital recording studio and Avid video edit suite *Loves driving playing guitar and piano *Has a dog called Poppycat a called Kit Kat - 2 chickens - Snowy & Storm
