Janet ellis young
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Janet Michelle Ellis (born 16 September 1955)[1] is an English television presenter and actress, best known for presenting the BBC children's television programmes Blue Peter and the award-winning Jigsaw between 1979 and 1987. She is also well known as being the mother of the singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor and the drummer (and former child actor) Jackson Ellis-Leach.
Early lifeEdit[]
Ellis was born in Chatham, Kent, England. Her father was a soldier, stationed during her childhood at various places in England and Germany. Accordingly, she attended seven schools in the two countries, including Russell House School between the ages of five and seven, and St Hilary's between the ages of 11 and 13 (both in Sevenoaks, Kent), and from the ages of 13 to 17 her last school was Richmond County School for Girls in Surrey. Having expressed an interest in acting since the age of five, she applied to and was accepted by the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, but was as
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28th April 1983 - 29th June 1987
Born: 16th September 1955
Presented withSimon Groom, Peter Duncan, Sarah Greene, Michael Sundin, Mark Curry and Caron Keating.
"I'm a great coward and I also don't like heights so it was quite amusing for me to see this person going 'How high is it? Right I'll go up it, where's my helmet?' I'm really not that in real life, not at all."
Janet trained as an actress before turning her talents to presenting. Her first screen credit was playing 'Susie, Marge's friend' in an episode of The Sweeney, but her big break was as Tika in the Doctor Who story The Horns of Nimon in 1979.
In 1982 Janet went on to present Jigsaw, the children's puzzle series alongside Adrian Hedley, the animated Jig, Mr Nosey Bonk and a pre-Doctor Who Sylvester McCoy as one-half of the O-Men. it was this show which brought Janet to the attention of the Blue Peter production team, who were impressed by her presenting and acting skills.
But Janet's appearance on the show wasn't the first time that she had appeared on television with Simon Groom, Peter
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Janet Ellis
Biography
Another presenter who started out as an actress. Janet had bit-parts in The Sweeney, Doctor Who and "Jackanory Playhouse" before getting the Jigsaw gig. She did three years presenting Blue Peter as well, then seemed to vanish for a while, occasionally popping up as an advert voiceover, or in those YMCA fitness videos she did when they couldn't afford Anthea Turner anymore. Anyway, she's back on proper telly now.
Trivia
She is the mother of erstwhile pop warbler, Sophie Ellis-Bextor. She also has a son: she left 'Blue Peter' when she was pregnant with him.
Apparently she did some of the voices for bizarre Mexican-themed cartoon series El Nombre.
During her time on Blue Peter, she did two parachute jumps - impressively so, given that she suffered from a fear of heights. She broke her pelvis in the first jump, but was persuaded by the programme's editor, Biddy Baxter, to get back into parachuting once she had recovered. Apparently, when Ellis told Baxter that she did not feel too confident about it, Baxter told her, "Think of your confid
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