Sheila Clark
P U P P E T E E R & V O I C E A R T I S T
I have been a puppeteer in film & television for many years, working for many broadcasters and production companies including BBC, ITV, Channel 5, Netflix and Britbox.
I trained as a professional dancer and before becoming a puppeteer, I worked on many theatrical productions in London's West End and across the UK.
Here are some of the shows that I have been part of...
In 2020-21, I was one of the core puppeteers to work on the revival of Spitting Image, produced by Avalon for Britbox.
In the Christmas special, I operated Rishi Sunak who takes on the role of Scrooge in the Spitting Image version of A Christmas Carol.
This satirical TV show - first broadcast in the UK in 1984 - returned to lampoon politicians, pop stars and royalty with fantastically created caricatures from Roger Law and the Spitting Image workshop.
I operated a variety of characters including Priti Patel, Scott Morrison and Harry Kane.
This ten part Netflix original series was the biggest and most expensive puppet production ever made.
Assisting Warrick Brownlow-Pike inside his Skesis - The Chamberlain.
In 2018, Netflix and the Jim Henson Company joined forces to create the prequel to the 1982 Jim Henson film, The Dark Crystal.
Assisting Neil Sterenberg, on green screen, with one of his lead puppet characters - the Gelfling, Rian.
Dark Crystal...Dark Glasses! Protective eye wear for UV lighting - with Claire Roi Harvey, Victor Yerrid, Alice Dinnean, Joe Greco, Warrick Brownlow-Pike, Katherine Pettit, Louise Gold, (me!) and Neil Sterenberg.
The cast and crew on the set of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance at Langley Film Studios, Berkshire, UK.
In 2015, Mountain Dew embarked upon a unique adverstising campaign starring PuppyMonkeyBaby. I puppeteered the moves of this crazy hybrid as he danced his way into the living rooms of millions of viewers who were watching the 2016 Super Bowl.
For the same campaign, we also choreographed a dancing frog, a fish and a gyrating ginger cat for their 'Freakchain' ad.
Over the course of 104 episodes, I had the chance to play lots of different characters.
In 2014 and 2016, the BBC and Sesame Street joined forces to produce the biggest pre-school puppet show in the UK - The Furchester Hotel.
Run by a family of monsters, The Furchester Hotel hosted an array of muppet characters and animal guests.
I puppeteered Isobel - the pink, furry reception bell, super sleuth - Miss Marbles and the Teatime Monsters amongst others.
While on a grand world tour, The Muppets find themselves wrapped into an European jewel-heist caper headed by a Kermit the Frog look-alike and his dastardly sidekick.
Filmed at Pinewood studios and on Iocation, I operated a variety of muppet characters.
This was a dream job that every puppeteer would like to have been involved in...and most were!
Children were part of each episode and literally fell in love with the vegetables... now there's a miracle!
Mr Bloom (played by Ben Faulks) and 'the Veggies' became a huge hit with a new generation of cbeebies viewers (and their mums!)
I was fortunate enough to play Joan the fennel in series 3 of this hugely popular cbeebies series.
Joan was a great organiser when it came to sorting out the nursery and everyone in it.
A romantic candle-lit dinner and a chance to gaze into Basil's eyes!
With a seductive Russian accent, I had great fun playing Roxy, who proved to be an equal match for the mischievous Mr Brush!
Series 5 of Basil Brush saw the introduction of an old flame...Roxy - a white Arctic fox and the love of Basil's life.
I played Curly, Hacker's girlfriend, who ends up being the recipient of an antique wooden mushroom worth millions of pounds...if only she'd known that before she ate it!
Hacker and fellow newspaper reporter, Digby (played by Shaun Williamson) were always on the lookout for the next big scoop!
Girly chats.... Roxy waves the flag for girl power!
She also had a penchant for every kind of hat - if you want to get ahead...
In a male dominated environment on-board the Beachcomber (Salty Dog, Sam Seagull), Bertha always managed to find time for girly chats with presenter, Jenny (Casey-Lee Jolleys).
I also played the unbelievably dim Mrs Sludge to the even more stupid Mr Sludge - two sub-aqua creatures who lurked in the bilges.
As the bossy ship's cat Bertha, I managed to perfect my version of a shrieking fishwife with an accent based somewhere north of Watford!
Despite cooking up endless plates of sausages for her 'know-it-all' partner, Salty Dog, Bertha never missed a chance to tell everyone about her true pedigree..."I'm part Persian you know!"
We recorded 195 episodes of Beachcomber Bay and the show ran for many years on Channel 5's morning programme - Milkshake.
