Where BBC Broom Cupboard's Simon Parkin is now - from weather man to film star

A tiny room at the BBC became infamous when the corporation started to use the space as a studio where bubbly, young presenters would introduce children’s programmes. Thanks to its diminutive size, it became affectionately known as the Broom Cupboard.

Former This Morning host Philip Schofield presented the first ever slot on September 9 1985 and other famous faces such as Zoe Ball, Andy Crane and Andi Peters also sat behind the little control desk for CBBC.

There were a couple of much-loved characters who popped up in the cupboard on occasion too - Gordon the Gopher and Edd the Duck, for example. It comes after Richard Osman reveals an axed Ant and Dec show was 'expensive car crash'.

Another cheeky chappy who became a regular feature in the live slots was Simon Parkin. He began hosting from the Broom Cupboard in 1987 after starting out as a DJ on Radio Tees , the local commercial radio station for Teeside. He hadn’t had his job there for long when he read an article in the Daily Star revealing Phil was leaving the afternoon cupboard slot to host new Saturday morning show, Going Live. He called up the boss at the time, was invited for an audition and got the job presenting the Christmas holiday morning links.

He told thebroomcupboard.co.uk how it felt to be on national telly so soon after starting out: "I really couldn’t believe that I was there. I really didn’t have any training," he recalled. "But it was a very relaxed, friendly place in which to be and learn. And you know, to look back, I had BBC1 to play with for three minute chunks at a time - it wouldn’t happen now. There I was, and only five months previously I was on hospital radio."

Simon revealed that it wasn’t until Andi Peters, who he got on with immediately, started working there too that he honed his TV presenting skills. He said it was thanks to Andi’s visual brain and expertise that he learnt the ropes.

Describing his time in the cramped studio as "the best few years of my life", he remembers going out to lots of parties and having loads of fun despite not earning an awful lot. "We just genuinely had a really good time, on screen and off," he said. "Myself and Andi, and Stephanie Lowe and later Philippa Forrester, we all got on really well. We’d do a Sunday show and then all go out for lunch. I remember my flatmate used to moan at me for being on the phone at length to Andi. We’d just be chatting and coming up with ideas. It was just a really good, energised period of my life. I was very happy!"

Simon stayed at the Beeb for the next five years working on shows such The Ozone, But First This, CBBC2 and Top of the Pops. He also kept up his DJ work at the BBC ’s London station GLR and nationally on BBC Radio Five.

In 1992 he was tempted over to rivals ITV to present for its new breakfast telly station, GMTV where he was to be the children’s presenter. He went on to host programmes across the ITV network for Yorkshire Television, Granada and Westcountry. He ended up on Meridian in a slightly surprising slot - fronting the weather reports.

Despite knowing nothing about meteorology, he was relieved when he was assured he didn’t need to know about the science and was hired to cover maternity leave. He presented the nightly reports during the news until 2017.

Simon has lived in Somerset with his wife Celina, their two children, Emily and Charlie and dog Pebble since 1998. He has returned to his first love of radio and now presents the weekday news and magazine show Simon Parkin in the Morning on BBC Somerset.

Perhaps thanks to his time on front of the camera, he has also turned his hand to acting a few times. In 2018 he featured in horror films Grindsploitation 666 and Maneater, where, staying true to his roots, he was the radio announcer in both. In 2020 he played the lead role of Lester - a radio presenter - in Dead Air. The film’s IMDb description reads: "Lester is a boring man living a boring life. He presents the overnight show on local station, Cosmic FM to an average listenership of 1. Stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of monotony, one night Lester's world is changed forever when he begins to receive call after call from panicked first-time listeners."