ONE HE PREPARED EARLIER

EDITED BY JANE HARDY

Talking from a hotel at Gatwick Airport, Joel Mawhinney (25) reveals he’d already had a trial run at co-presenting the BBC’s most venerable kids’ programme, Blue Peter. Using the programme’s own lingo, you could say this move was one he’d prepared earlier. Mawhinney explains: “I’d done my magic a couple of times on the programme and they said ‘Have you ever thought of doing some presenting?’” Mawhinney didn’t need asking twice, took a screen test, auditioned, then got the thumbs up. “I had this phone call and thought it was a joke.” It wasn’t and Joel Mawhinney took over last month from Adam Beales as the programme’s 41st presenter. So how did it go? Mawhinney says it went well. “It was very surreal but I was itching to perform and I was happy with it.” They did a prerecorded show, then a live Blue Peter at 5pm on the same day. “It was a double record and I’m not sure if I am supposed to tell you this but although 95% of Blue Peter is live, one or two shows are recorded, like the Christmas show.”

Of course, it’s the live material one remembers, some of it very unrehearsed. We laugh about the famous episode in the ‘60s when Val, John and Peter entertained an engagingly incontinent baby elephant in the studio. Other than animal magic, Blue Peter has always demonstrated an adventurous streak and encouraged its presenters to lead by example. While John Noakes famously climbed Nelson’s column, Joel Mawhinney was asked to jump off a cliff for his first physical challenge. He recalls the trip to the location in deepest Scotland. “It took several hours to get there and they wanted me to do a cliff jump right into the sea, no line or harness.” It’s called tombstoning because of the straight posture you adopt going down, and the programme makers gave their newest presenter a get-out clause. “They said, ‘Are you sure?’ Bless, but I wasn’t going to say no to my first time on camera after a four-hour drive even if it was out of my comfort zone.” He did the jump, and the result is classic Blue Peter.

The guy from Bangor is a natural and his calling card has been a highly successful career in magic. Mawhinney now has some 20 million social media followers and has to adopt a disguise if he wants some personal space. “Recognition via Blue Peter isn’t an issue as all these people already know me from videos. I have to put on a hat when I go to the gym.”

Mawhinney started in magic when he was young, encouraged by his grandfather. He has said he developed tricks at primary school partly as a way of making friends and standing out in class. “I was pretty extrovert so it came naturally.” Nowadays, Mawhinney practises contemporary magic skills, revealing that he does a lot of mentalism like David Meade and Derren Brown. “I used to do hypnosis, not getting people to do silly things, but revealing secrets about them. It wasn’t psychotherapy and it’s not part of my routine so much now.” Mawhinney is very pleased the Blue Peter people have allowed him to introduce his tricks into the show.

The programme has been going for 64 years and has inevitably evolved, although the key elements of entertainment and a certain amount of sticky backed plastic educational content endure. Yet today there is the challenge of competing with Tik Tok and kids’ IT-dominated world.

On the question of TV technique, Mawhinney has clear views. “It isn’t acting. Although it’s rather a cliché, I feel you have to be yourself, albeit enhanced. If you don’t, the façade will eventually drop.”

Joel won Celebrity of the Year at the 2022 Ulster Tatler Awards. Here he is pictured with sponsor of Celebrity of the Year, Audrey Spence from IHS Incorporate Employee Benefit Solutions.

Mawhinney has an interesting background. Brought up by parents who both worked in the youth ministry of the Presbyterian church, Joel has a theory his confidence stems from engaging with grown-ups from an early age. “We had adults around a lot, for dinner and so on. I’d always talk to them.” Music is also part of the Mawhinney brand. He played the trumpet and developed eclectic tastes. “Guns and Roses, which Dad had on in the car, to classical music. I like listening to people like contemporary composer John Hopkins. After doing A levels in music, history and a couple of other subjects, Mawhinney chose not to go to college, but concentrated on his career. “I took a gap year, then another, then another and I’m still on one,” he jokes.

Clearly a hard worker, Mawhinney notes that the idea of one day working on Blue Peter crystallised when he met fellow Bangorean Zoe Salmon, who was in the BBC hot seat from 2004-2008. “She came to our school and I was inspired.”

Style is always crucial in the youth market. Mawhinney’s trademark cool haircut, a slight homage to Criss Angel, the US magician, is achieved by visits to a Belfast hairdressers; the style is now guided by the programme. “Now I have a wardrobe manager and my style is maybe softer.“ Mawhinney sports an acid pink jacket in one of the promo shots and has a nice line in dark nail varnish.

His manager Tristan McGavigan is a fashion influencer and has a completely different style. Mawhinney laughs infectiously. “Oh yes, Tristan wears suits and tweed and different things from me.”

In terms of his personal life, Mawhinney is super-busy, commuting to and from Northern Ireland and the BBC. He intends to buy a place in England although still has a Belfast apartment. He was involved with ex-Miss Northern Ireland Eden McAllister but says that he is single “at the moment”, largely because it wouldn’t be fair to get involved while living in two places at once. “It would be very difficult to find time to make that commitment.”

We discuss his future presenting roles and challenges. On the Blue Peter website, it lists an ice sculpture run-off between him and fellow presenter Richie. Asked what he might produce, Mawhinney says the idea is news to him. “You’ve come to me with an exclusive! They haven’t told me yet…” Undoubtedly something individual, possibly whacky.

It might be an animal as they’ve always featured in the Blue Peter annals. Today Henry the dog is one of Blue Peter’s key figures, following in the pawsteps of Shep, John Noakes’ dog, and other studio legends. So how do they get on? “Very well, as I give him bits of chicken to eat…” And what about relations with his human colleagues, co-presenters Richie Driss and Mwaksy Mudend? Mawhinney laughs. “Again very well, as I give them £10 notes. No, they’re absolute legends and when I started, let me get on with things. I’m so grateful.”

So what does the man with what he describes as his “dream job” want for Christmas. “More time to spend with friends” and he is looking forward to coming home and hanging out with mates and family. Whatever, Joel Mawhinney will enjoy it. “I always loved Christmas as a child and never bothered about birthdays, because that’s when I got bought magic kits and books.”