Millions of fans know her as the star of the beloved children’s television show Mr. Squiggle.
And now former presenter Rebecca Hetherington has paid tribute to the classic show which celebrates its 65th anniversary this year.
Rebecca, 62, features in a new exhibition which features a series of old photographs from the show created by her father Norman Hetherington.
She was the last host to appear on the show, which aired on ABC from 1959 to 1999.
One of the images shows a fresh-faced Rebecca and the “star” of the show, a puppet, Mr. Squiggle.
Millions of fans know her as the star of the beloved children’s television show Mr. Squiggle. And now Rebecca Hetherington will pay tribute to the classic show which this year celebrates her 65th birthday. Pictured: A throwback photo of Rebecca from the 1990s hosting the show.
Taken in the 1990s, Rebecca, who presented the show for ten years between 1989 until its final episode, can be seen sporting a perm that was fashionable at the time and a crew-neck top.
And in a new interview, Rebecca revealed that Mr Squiggle’s distinctive look was “based” on her father, who died in 2010.
“I was looking through boxes of old photographs and (I noticed) that they (Mr. Squiggle and Norman) had the same messy hair and the same big eyes,” Rebecca said in an interview with New Idea this week.
Rebecca, 62, features in a new exhibition which features a series of old photographs from the show created by her father Norman Hetherington. Pictured: Rebecca with Mr. Squiggle (right) and Steamshovel Bill (left)
Elsewhere in the chat, Rebecca joked that she “knew” Mr. Squiggle “before she was born.”
“He’s three years older than me,” she continued, adding that “Dad was wonderful to work with, he was a true visionary.”
The format of the show was based on children sending their ‘doodles’, that is, drawings.
A large collection of Mr Squiggle’s archive is now housed in the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. In the photo: a view of the successful program that ran for 40 years.
Mr. Squiggle, operated by Norman, would create a new image from the original, drawing the sketch using his comically large “nose”, which looked like an oversized pencil.
It is said that during the 40 years of the exhibition, Norman Hetherington completed 10,000 drawings.
Also included in the exhibition, which opened on Monday at the National Museum in Canberra, is the original Mr Squiggle, costumes, props and many photographs.
Over the 40 years the exhibition ran, Norman Hetherington (pictured) is said to have completed 10,000 drawings.
The original Mr. Squiggle series aired on ABC in July 1959. A family affair, the series’ scripts were written by Rebecca’s mother, Margaret.
The character Mr. Squiggle supposedly “lived” on the moon at 93 Crater Crescent.
Other presenters included Gina Curtis, Patricia Lovell, Jane Fennell and Roxanne Kimmorley.
The last new episode of Mr. Squiggle aired in July 1999.
In 2019, the iconic Mr. Squiggle was immortalized on a new $2 coin. Other puppet show characters also appeared on limited edition coins: Gus the Snail, Bill Steamshovel, and Blackboard.