Justin Fletcher's career – kick-started by Schofe to surprise Mr Tumble inspiration

• TV
• Bbc

It has been announced that Justin Fletcher otherwise known as Mr Tumble is stepping back from his role on 'Something Special' after 22 years in the job to make room for new talent

CBeebies legend Justin Fletcher is most famously known for his role as Mr Tumble on 'Something Special' - but he's now taking a step back and making room for new talent.

Justin, 54, made his debut on the show back in 2003 and has 12 series under his belt, after becoming a staple in helping kids communicate by incorporating Makaton signs, speech, and symbols.

To celebrate his impressive 22-year stint on the show, we are taking a deep dive into the surprising inspiration of the role and Phillip Schofield's influence.

He once spoke about how former This Morning host Phillip Schofield presenter inspired him to take a leap into a new career after watching him on screen. Justin previously studied drama at Guildford School of Acting and during this course, watched Philip Schofield in the BBC One broom cupboard with Gordon the Gopher.

He has stepped down from the role after 22 years(Image: WireImage)

He later met him and the host recommended that he should create a showreel to send to TV executives. Justin once said: "In my final year I was watching Philip Schofield in the broom cupboard and I thought I would love to do something like that.

"So I put a showreel together called Justin Time and I did a little anchor piece and then went across to two different characters – Anna Conda, a myopic reptile house warden, and Arthur Sleep, a regional newsreader who has difficulty staying awake. And both those characters are now in Gigglebiz, so that shows how old some of them are!

"I sent my showreel out and luckily Iain Lauchlan, co-creator of The Tweenies, saw it and gave me my very first job in television in Fun Song Factory".

He was influenced by Phillip Schofield(Image: ITV)

To Justin's delight, it worked! His first role was on GMTV in Fun Song Factory from 1998 to 2004 and then from 1999 to 2002 he worked on Tweenies for the BBC.

From 2002 to 2007, Justin presented Tikkabilla on the BBC but his big break came in Something Special in 2003. Going full circle, Justin once spoke to Schofe on air, where the former host teased him about the influence he had.

Sitting alongside Holly Willoughby, Phil said to him: "Strangely though, and you do seem to have done very well, oddly, I don't seem to have had any commission!" Justin laughed: "You are responsible for my career. That's very true!"

Justin has had an incredibly successful career(Image: PA)

He continued: "It was my third year at drama school and I met Philip. He very kindly gave me some advice and he said 'go out there and make a showreel, get it out into the ether' and I did. I got my job about three weeks later. My first job. You are my inspiration".

Justin also shared his other influences and once told The Guardian: "I think Rik Mayall had an amazing range of facial expressions and I picked up a lot of tips from him as I developed my own comedy characters."

However confident he is on-screen, he has also been sure to keep his private life away from the public glare. Back in 2012, he told The Mirror he one day dreamed of having a family lived alone at the time.