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  • Writer's pictureJon Bolitho-Jones

That time I interviewed Michael Rosen...

Updated: Feb 2, 2022


Hello again,


I’m back to share some more of my odd little life with you all. As most of you are aware I am an actor and performer kind of person. This has meant I have ended up doing some rather weird things in a range of interesting places. I have done A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the rain, gone back to the late Cretaceous Period and seen dinosaurs, met Santa at the north pole via Cheddleton, as well as play a comedy Irish Vicar in deepest Wales whilst the audience were drinking weak cups of tea (Mrs Doyle was way too popular). However one of my earliest, and only claims to fame (and perhaps most relevant to my efforts as an indie author) was my interview, on camera with this guy…



Yes, that’s right, the legend that is Michael Rosen. This trendy and colourful looking show was made by Poquito/Dorling Kindersley/someone to be part of an educational piece of software called Knowledge Box. The box itself was about the size of a Nintendo Gamecube, and would be plugged into the back of T.Vs and computers so students could gain access to a range of videos, activities, and fun interactive work. And that’s about all that I know. Despite my efforts searching I can’t find anything. It kind of just disappeared. The last thing I heard was that it was quite popular in places like Hong Kong and Singapore. Who knows a load of primary school aged kids, on the other side of the planet, might have watched me awkwardly chat to Michael Rosen.



I got this job through the drama group I was part of. They did auditions and I got the role of interviewer. This was back in 2002 and as you can imagine a very young me was very excited. The money I would earn would buy me a lot of Warhammer too! Somethings never change really... This was the KS2 English part and the filming lasted for a week. I, with my co-host were the older team, so our footage would be used for kids in primary school aged 10 and 11. And yes we met Michael Rosen and interviewed him. He’s a lovely man, full of energy. I had no idea who he was at the time. My co-host adored him however, and now I’m older I’ve kinda learned why. So without anymore chatter here is my interview with Michael Rosen. Warning though – I do feel I am pretty rubbish in this. Please understand this is in no way indicative of my current talents as a performer. Just thought I would get that out of the way and said…



That’s not all the footage, there is some other, more embarrassing material. You might have noticed the quality too. That’s because it has been cleverly copied off a VHS and transformed into an MP4 for your viewing pleasure by my tech clever father-in-law. He gathered some more footage too. Go on! I’ll treat you to this as well. Here I am being a formal/proper newsreader, opposite an energetic/informal/improper one. The other child actor is actually my bestfriend, and was even my best man at my wedding. We have grown up a lot since then…



Anyway that’s all I’ve got to share. I hope you enjoyed it. Plus if you do hapeen to be either Michael Rosen, Poquito, or even Mr/Ms Dorling Kindersley and you want to chat about this footage please get in contact.


With that it’s bye for now. I’l be back soon.

Jon




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