Sir Stirling, the children’s TV star

For those of you who don’t have children under the age of six, you may not have heard of Roary the Racing Car, a children’s television programme. I must admit, neither had I, until I was approached by the company that makes it to run a competition on the website. Since then I’ve been amazed at just how popular it is. We’ve also been running a competition for a trip to Daytona worth thousands of pounds and already, two weeks in, Roary the Racing Car prizes are proving more popular than that!

With the entries mounting up I decided to investigate and, running the risk of being found by my sister watching children’s TV early in the morning, I caught my first glimpse of Roary the Racing Car. Of course it’s aimed at children but as Sir Stirling Moss, narrator of the programme set at ‘Silverhatch circuit’, says: “Adults can watch it and it isn’t stupid, I think that’s one of the great things. We laugh and that’s half the battle.”

Stirling was originally approached to play one of the characters but declined, saying that he wasn’t an actor, and as a result he ended up narrating the show. “I got involved because the makers came to me and said, ‘look, you’re well known among older people, but the really young people don’t necessarily know your name,’” he explains. “Usually when kids listen to things, they listen with their grandparents early in the morning. The grandfather is likely to say, ‘oh, I remember Stirling Moss’, and then those children will learn about me even though they’re only three or four years old.

“I never expected it to be such a huge success, it’s absolutely amazing. I find it quite fascinating what they’ve done – the whole promotion, it’s not just the show but how the show’s used.”

Roary the Racing Car is now aired in 110 countries worldwide, with Stirling’s voice used in all the English-speaking versions (apart from the US, where Indy 500 winner and NASCAR driver Sam Hornish Jr introduces each episode). And doesn’t look like slowing down. Stirling is about to go back into the studio to record another 13 episodes for series two and admits that he’s better now at the voiceover than he was when he started – three- to four-hour stints in the studio have been cut to a slick one hour. “Well now, you see, I use a lot of commas [to punctuate my speech],” he explains. “If there are two or three lines which normally have one comma, I’ll put in five purely to help me. It’s an interesting business.” Not one to be too self-congratulatory, the Grand Prix hero shies away when asked whether he’s become a bit of a pro: “Oh, I wouldn’t say that…”

(Sir Stirling Moss with Peter Kay who does the voiceover for Big Chris, Roary’s mechanic)

Don’t be fooled into thinking that they can churn these episodes out of the studio. It takes a whole day to record an 11-second piece and the puppets are moved 26 times just to finish a one-second shot, meaning that every episode is up to scratch. So why does Stirling continue to spend hours in a studio rather than at a race track? Well, it’s hard not to fall in love with the show and the CGI world is a fascinating one in which to get involved. “Obviously financially it’s a good thing to do, as with anything that pays,” admits Stirling, “but also there are nice people in it and it’s an extremely interesting concept.

(Keith Chapman who was the originator of Bob The Builder, Fifi and the Flowertots and co-creator of Roary the Racing Car)

“I’ve had people come up and ask for my autograph saying ‘my son knows you’, and when I speak to them they recognise the voice.” What’s more, on a recent trip to Number 10 none other than newsreader Jon Snow approached Stirling saying, ‘my grandson loves you’!

All this is far removed from what Stirling recalls from his childhood. “I remember very well at junior school, which was from six up to 13, we all had Dinky toys. God knows why as it was a hard, muddy area, but we dragged them all over the place. We didn’t race them particularly, but yes, they were the ones…”

Times change, but it looks like Sir Stirling is changing with them.

Check out the new series of Roary The Racing Car on Five’s Milkshake! at 7.30am and on Nick Jr. from 16th March at 4pm weekdays and 9pm all week.

For more information, go to www.roarytheracingcar.com