SIDEKICK Andi Peters has been sidelined for decades, but now that could all be about to change.

Following Piers Morgan's dramatic exit from Good Morning Britain, rumour has it that producers want to shake up the format and that looks set to mean a promotion for "competitions man" Andi Peters.

It's about time the former children's telly presenter got his time in the limelight, 28 years after his big break on BBC's Broom Cupboard.

But what happened to the rest of the Broom Cupboard crew? We take a nostalgic look back to the stars of the famous kids' TV set.

Andi Peters

Andi, 50, landed the Broom Cupboard gig in 1989, having only previously worked in TV as a continuity announcer. He and Edd the Duck entertained the nation's kids for four years, until 1993.

He's been on our screen ever since, but you have to keep your eyes peeled. Andi pops up in the "roving reporter" role, promoting big prize competitions or surprising members of the public on both Good Morning Britain as well as Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. He's also a regular on Lorraine, and last year reunited with Edd the Duck on her show.


He appeared on the first series of Dancing on Ice and went onto host the fan show, Dancing on Ice Extra, as well as the Dancing on Ice tour. Andi was also on Live & Kicking, another children's show, alongside Emma Forbes and John Barrowman, who went onto star in the BBC sci-fi series, Torchwood.

Phillip Schofield

Phillip, 58, was the first person to man the tiny desk and it prepared him for a lifelong career in TV.

He once said:  "If you can introduce Newsround with a fluffy gopher squeaking next to you, you can handle anything."

While his Broom Cupboard co-star Gordon the Gopher has long since retired, Philip has become a national treasure and stalwart of daytime TV on ITV1's This Morning.


He has been at the helm for nearly 20 years, since 2002, joined by Holly Willougby in 2006.

The duo are genuine friends who often holiday together and are adored for regularly dissolving into fits of laughter on air and for presenting on hangovers after scooping yet more TV awards.

They also present Dancing on Ice.

Last year, Phillip came out as gay. He shares two daughters, Molly, 28, and Ruby, 25, with his ex-wife Stephanie.The pair remain good friends and this week, Phillip was spotted carrying a huge bouquet of flowers on what would have been his 28th wedding anniversary.

Toby Anstis

Baby-faced Toby Anstis was swept into the Broom Cupboard in 1992.

He left two years later, going on to the older kids' show, Going Live! then Live & Kicking.

He's done a few reality shows, like Famous and Frightened, Hell's Kitchen, Celebrity Fear Factor and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here in 2012.

Toby, 50, launched Heart Dance radio station 17 years ago and these days, hosts the weekday breakfast show as well as the Friday Night Club Classics Show.


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He is also a fitness fanatic, who works out with a personal trainer to get an enviable six-pack. He has been linked in the past to model Alicia Douvall and Love Islander Amy Hart but is now dating actress Cassie Bancroft.

Last September, he replied to a BBC One Tweet calling for fans favourite kids' TV memories, posting: "35 years ago, wow! Happy memories of my two year stint in the legendary #broomcupboard@BBCOne."

Andy Crane

Andy joined the children's team in 1986 and left in 1990. He also worked with Edd the Duck.

He revealed some secrets of the show, including that Edd was actually his female producer and there were three Gordon the Gopher puppets during the nine years.

He also said the broom cupboard was actually the booth where BBC continuity announcers would record their links.

He told the Daily Mirror: The pictures on the walls behind me, Phillip Schofield, Andi Peters, or whoever it was, stayed there all the time. So you'd have an announcer doing a serious intro 'Now on BBC1… ' and he or she would be surrounded by pictures of SuperTed," 


You'll also remember him for his occasional stints on Top of the Pops between 1988 and 1989.

Other jobs include presenting Bad Influence!, a kids technology programme for CITV as well as weekend morning shows, Motormouth and What's Up Doc.

Recently, Andy has switched over to radio, gaining a Best Regional Presenter Award at the Royal Television Society Awards North West in 2009 for his Channel M shows. He now works on Greatest Hits Radio.

He is married to Caroline and they have three daughters.

Philippa Forrester

The 52-year-old joined the BBC children's team in the late 1980s and stayed until 1994. Afterwards, she had stints on Tomorrow's World, The Heaven and Earth Show and presented several series of Robot Wars.

In 1999, Philippa co-presented the BBC's coverage of the solar eclipse. Two years later though, she was duped into appearing on a spoof Brass Eye in which she explained how paedophiles could use special gloves to touch children through a TV screen.  

Afterwards she told the Daily Mail: "I didn't even want to watch the programme when I heard about it.

'I felt physically sick. I took part in good faith because I was told it was a charity.


The mum -of-three now lives in Wyoming, USA with her wildlife cameraman husband Charlie Hamilton James and the pair run a production company that specialises in wildlife films.

In 2018, she revealed on This Morning that her son, Fred, had suffered a brain tumour when he was 15. He underwent emergency surgery and was making a good recovery.

Last year, she released her book, On the Trail of Wolves, detailing her stories of living alongside grizzly bears and wolves in America's Wild West.

Zoe Ball

Like Phillip Schofield, Zoe has carved out a lasting TV career.

From kids TV, including Alive & Kicking, to Top of the Pops and presenting the BRIT Awards and heading up BBC Radio One's coveted Breakfast Show, Zoe was hugely in demand during her "ladette" days in the 1990s.

With those heady days behind her, she is now known for Strictly's weekday show, It Takes Two, as well as her Radio 2 Breakfast Show.


She was married to Norman Cook – better known as DJ Fatboy Slim – for 17 years. They have two children together, a daughter, Nelly, and their son, Woody, who has appeared on Channel 4's The Circle and alongside Zoe on Celebrity Gogglebox.

Zoe's cameraman boyfriend Billy Yates died by suicide in 2017, something Zoe continued to torture herself about.

In 2018, she told The Sun: “Even now I sometimes think, ‘I’m a resourceful woman, I’m a bright woman. . . why could I not save him?’

She is now dating construction boss Michael Reed.

Josie D'Arby

The RADA-trained actress started her career on CBBC in the mid-1990s. She went on to present her own show, Josie, on Channel 5 in 1999.

Josie was another former Broom Cupboard member who did stints on Top of the Pops, as well as Big Breakfast spin-off show, Bigger Breakfast. More recently, she has focused on music shows such as BBC Young Musician of the Year, Eurovision Young Musicians, The Proms and Songs of Praise.


Acting-wise, she played WPC Jodie Finn in the BBC drama Merseybeat and guest appeared in the BBC comedy series Miranda. She has also worked in the big screen, appearing as herself in the 2003 movie Blackball with Vince Vaughan.

Lately, fans will have seen her hosting Life Drawing Live on BBC Four.

One piece of trivia worth knowing is that, back in 2005, she dated Hollywood hunk Gerard Butler.

Now what would Gordon the Gopher think of that?

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