Entertainment
Neil Buchanan is well up for Art Attack return ahead of CITV’s 40th anniversary-Sabrina Barr-Entertainment – Metro
We’re crossing our fingers for this to happen!
Neil Buchanan hosted Art Attack for almost two decades (Picture: IMDb/David Parry/PA Wire)
As a kid who grew up in the 1990s, I can’t tell you how many hours I spent making large artworks on my bedroom floor using random objects and getting crafty in every moment of my spare time – thanks to the wonder that was Art Attack.
So when Metro.co.uk had the chance to speak to TV legend Neil Buchanan – who hosted the beloved show from 1990 to 2007 and also co-created it – we had to know if he would be up for a return, should the opportunity ever arise.
In January, CITV (the channel on which Art Attack originally aired) is set to celebrate its 40th anniversary, which would surely be a brilliant time to bring Neil back onto the airwaves to spread his contagious creativity and unadulterated joy to the masses.
Neil, who’s partnered with easyJet for a campaign called Aircraft to encourage kids to do arts and crafts while on flights during the half term holiday, said that returning to Art Attack could be ‘great fun’.
When asked about the possibility of doing an Art Attack special for the CITV 40th anniversary, the 66-year-old replied: ‘It’s funny actually. Just recently I have thought about that sort of thing. It’s the 30th anniversary of Art Attack, so I would be open to that. Of course I would.’
Questioning whether they’d be able to get the rights to the show, considering a revival of the series aired on Disney Junior from 2011 to 2015, he added: ‘That would be great fun, as long as I could do it with the people who did it with me before.’
Many people across the nation grew up watching Neil encouraging them to explore their creativity (Picture: Tim Roney/Getty Images)
Despite having become synonymous with Art Attack throughout his career, with the presenter still frequently approached by fans who tell him how much the programme meant to him, Neil shared that he’s ‘never been asked’ if he would ever be up for returning.
‘It’s funny actually, because no one’s ever asked me that. You’ve got me thinking about it now,’ he said, unbelievably.
‘No one has ever said to me, “Would you come back and do it again?” The answer is yes, I would.’
Looking back fondly on his time on Art Attack, which encouraged children to think outside the box and expand their imaginations and creativity, Neil recalled how all of the people he worked with on the show were his ‘mates’.
Neil has teamed up with easyJet for a new camapign (PIcture: David Parry/PA Wire)
‘Over that period of time we employed our mates. It was as simple as that. We employed people we liked. We employed our friends,’ he said.
For around 20 years, they worked alongside one another at The Maidstone Studios in their own offices, which ‘started off very tiny’ before they eventually ‘had most of the building’.
‘It was huge, eventually. They were great days. They were really good days,’ he recollected.
For his new easyJet campaign Aircraft, Neil has been announced as the airline’s ‘Artist in Residence’, as creative kits containing pencils and drawing sheets are made available on over 160 planes heading to locations including Europe, North Africa and the Middle East until the end of October.
Neil is hoping kids will enjoy getting crafty on planes during the autumn school holidays (Picture: David Parry/PA Wire)
Neil has created video tutorials providing tips on how to create travel-inspired artworks, and today (Monday October 24) he’s at easyJet’s ‘Gateway’ lounge at London Gatwick airport to host live art classes for families travelling with the airline with children aged 12 and under.
‘It’s an obvious one for me, isn’t it? It’s Aircraft, so it’s craft in the air. easyJet were the obvious people to do it with because they fly to so many places. When I approached them, they were really into doing this for kids. They wanted kids to be creative on their airlines,’ he explained.
‘They did an initiative a couple years ago where they did a reading thing and that was very successful, but they really wanted to do a kids being crafty on an aeroplane. So the fit was perfect, it was great for me.’
A poll of 2,000 British schoolchildren recently found that only 36% of children say they draw or paint for fun when they’re not at school, while 82% admitted they’d like to spend more time drawing with their family or friends.
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