ROGER STEVENSON - MASTER PUPPETEER ROGER STEVENSON was born in Southport, England and was introduced to Puppetry at an early age when he saw a Marionette Show at the end of Southport Pier in the early 1950's. For his Birthday he was give a 'PELHAM PUPPET' and this was the start of collecting these puppets that would lead him to have a major collection, including many of Bob Pelham's prototypes and the original MacBoozle. The hobby grew but when he left college in 1958 he decided to go into the world of Insurance. However, the Marionette/ String Puppet Hobby still held his interest and he decided to make a String Puppet Act and enter into the somewhat unknown world of 'Show Business' ROGER STEVENSON has masterminded his Puppet Company since 1963 and they are generally regarded as the leading Marionette Company in Europe. Together with his late Partner, HARRY STUART, they dominated the Puppet Act area from the mid 1970's until the present day and have travelled the world with various Puppet Presentations. The exceptional success story stretches from the first of their highly acclaimed Royal Variety Performances at the London Palladium in 1978. Since then they have been called back for Royal Variety Show encores on no less than five occasions. The amazing puppets have been celebrated almost everywhere. From the vast auditorium of Toronto's O'Keefe Centre to the intimate cabaret setting of the Casino Monte Carlo; from the exclusive confines of No. 10 Downing Street, London, performing for the Prime Minister to the glitzy showrooms of the World's major Cruise Liners. ROGER STEVENSON was born in Southport, England and was introduced to Puppetry at an early age when he saw a Marionette Show at the end of Southport Pier in the early 1950's. The hobby grew but when he left college in 1958 he decided to go into the world of Insurance. However, the Marionette/ String Puppet Hobby still held his interest and he decided to make a String Puppet Act and enter into the somewhat unknown world of 'Show Business' In 1963, The Beatles were high in the Pop Charts and Liverpool, some twenty miles from Southport, was becoming a very fashionable and known City so he decided to launch 'THE ROGER STEVENSON MARIONETTES', as they were known then, onto an unsuspecting Club audience in the Liverpool area. The thought of a guy working puppets in these drinking clubs, seems an idea doomed to failure but the reality was that the audiences liked something a bit different, loved the sense of humour and possibly the 'bravura' of the Puppeteer and so the act was a great success. The Concert Secretaries as they were known then, quickly communicated with each other and the bookings went from strength to strength. The Company, Roger Stevenson Limited, was formed on 1st March 1963 and the first audition for the clubs, at Ozzie Wades in Liverpool, was early that month. Shortly after, Roger auditioned for a regular appearance at one of the Butlin Hotels in Blackpool and so did his first long summer season there. The Butlin Group were one of the largest leisure groups in the Uk with Holiday Camps and Hotels and this was the start of an association that would continue until the present day and would lead to what Roger Stevenson and Harry Stuart, would describe as 'their greatest achievement' - the creation of the 'PUPPET CASTLE' for the Skyline Pavilions at the three Butlin Resorts, in 1999. In 1965, Roger was introduced to the Comedian, Ken Dodd and suggested that it might be an idea to create String Puppets of 'The Diddymen'. 'The Diddymen' were a group of characters in Ken's radio show and also in skin costume for stage appearances but the idea was to create the Puppet characters for television and stage. The first versions were seen on 'live' TV Specials from the Opera House Blackpool in the summer of 1966 but it was not until 1968 that they would appear in the first of four series and specials for the B.B.C. These continued until 1972 when Roger decided that the Company should explore other areas of the entertainment industry. In 1969, Roger was offered a series for Yorkshire Television, by the Director, Jess Yates, and this would lead to over 150 puppet programmes being made for the Yorkshire based I.T.V. Company. The first series was 'Diane's Magic Theatre' and 'Witch's Brew', 'Nuts and Bones' and 'The Laughing Policeman' followed this. The series 'Play It Again Stewpot', presented by the Radio Personality, Ed Stewart, was made in 1973 and featured 'look alike' puppets of pop stars, Elvis Presley, Elton John and others. The late 1960's and the early 1970's saw other Puppeteers join the Company to present various shows on tours etc. In 1973, the Roger Stevenson Puppets, decided to expand into the Cruise Liner area and their first engagement was on the QE2. This was a market that the Puppets would play for the next sixteen years, until all the Puppeteers were brought back to England for the launch of 'The Puppet Castles' in 1999. In 1973, following many other TV appearances, Roger was asked to make and animate a glove puppet Duck for a Tommy Cooper Christmas Special for Thames Television. The sketch was extremely successful and has played on televisions across the World up to the present day. 1975 was a turning point in Roger's career when he was introduced to HARRY STUART. Harry had trained in commercial art and had teaching experience in art schools in Lancashire. He had a great strength in his cartoon character designs and so he joined the Company to create a whole new set of characters and together he and Roger would work on the act that would eventually feature 'Pepe' a little boy puppet that animated his own puppet. At the same time the London based Agent ,Norman Murray and his Partner Anne Chudleigh, decided to represent the act and continued to do so until 1993. The partnership of Roger and Harry and the guidance and expertise of Norman and Anne took the Company to new heights and for the next 18 years the act would appear throughout the UK, in Summer Shows, Pantomimes and dozens of Television appearances. The character of 'Dooby Duck' was created in 1981 for a season at London's Talk Of The Town but was not fully exploited until he did a brief appearance on the Children's Royal Variety Performance of 1987. He was seen by a Children's BBC executive and was given the first of three series of his own. In 1994 Roger and Harry travelled to Japan to appear on a series of Saturday night Variety Shows and this resulted in a 'Dooby Duck Series' being filmed in Tokyo for N.H.K. along with a Christmas Special. In 1993, the agent representation finished and Roger and Harry decided to explore new overseas markets. This resulted in long seasons overseas at places such as The Wintergarten Variety Theatre in Berlin and then Stuttgart for the first six months of 1994 and also, for the first time, Roger and Harry created a new act to play on the stages of the larger Cruise Liners. One of the highlights of this period were two long engagements at The Follie Russe in Lowes Hotel, Monte Carlo. The combination of Cruise Liners, Tours and overseas Television Shows continued until 1997 when they were approached by The Butlin Leisure Group to create a Puppet Attraction for the Company's new Skyline Pavilions at their Bognor Regis, Minehead and Skegness Resorts. The project was a highly complex one and design work was started immediately. The brief was to create a Puppet Theatre at each Resort with Puppet Presentations throughout the day. This would mean designing the theatre - which would be known as 'The Puppet Castle'- create six new twenty minute productions and design and make all the puppets and sets for the shows. In the summer of 1998, Roger and Harry returned to their Studio and workshops to work on the project full time with opening dates planned for April 1999. The Castles opened in 1999 and the success has been sensational. Each year new shows and puppets have been added and the total of puppets created has reached over a thousand. Many original characters, both in Puppet and 'live' character costume form, were created and the lead 'Jingle Jester', who is the stage manager of the Castle, appeared for the first time in 2000. In 2005, Roger and Harry decided to make the Butlin character 'Billy Bear', into a string puppet and three new shows were created for his adventures. 'Billy's Story Book Theatre' was launched in the same year. This was a glove/ rod puppet show designed for younger children with stories featuring the character of Billy Bear and has now become a great attraction to play alongside the Puppet Castle Shows. In 2006, HARRY STUART was diagnosed with Prostrate Cancer, shattering news to them both but, in typical Harry style, he refused to accept the news and carried on creating new puppets and artwork until the very end of his life in May 2007. Harry and Roger prepared a blue print of what the Company would like to achieve in the coming years and this has been followed to the letter with Harry’s plans and designs for new shows being used to the present day. However, the Company has never stood still and has experimented in new technology for staging and lighting effects and these are now very much reflected in the present shows. 2014, the 15th year of the Puppet Castles, sees new shows, new elements and new Puppet Characters introduced and we are delighted to say that the Guest reaction is fantastic and The Puppet Castle remains in the top Family Attractions at the Butlin resorts. Currently 'The Puppet Castles', 'Billy's Story Book Theatre' and 'Puppets Go Live' are playing to the millions of Butlin Guests with new shows being added for Christmas and Halloween. Pre Production is already underway for future shows, some using designs that were blueprinted many years ago but adding new elements and modern technology to appeal to the Butlin Guests.