Sunderland circus performer on appearing on CBeebies series 'My First'

Martin appeared in the CBeebies episode.

On Thursday, December 12 at 4.10pm, CBeebies aired My First: Circus and Sunderland’s Martin Bloomfield, 57, a Freelance Circus Skills Workshop Facilitator and Entertainer, starred in the episode.

The children’s series with 10 minute-long episodes focuses on a different child experiencing something different for the first time.

In this episode, 6-year-old Isabella experiences the circus.

Isabella was the child to experience something new when her mum took her to the circus.
Photo: BBC/CBeebies — Isabella was the child to experience something new when her mum took her to the circus. Photo: BBC/CBeebies

Her mum takes her to the circus in town and after appearing on stage with a clown hula hooping at the circus, Isabella wants to try the circus life out for herself.

A clown, Sunderland’s Martin Bloomfield, teaches circus tricks to Isabella and her school friends in her school, near Wakefield.

Martin juggles and rides around the room on his unicycle in the P.E hall and then pretends to fall off, making the children laugh.

He teaches the children to juggle with silk scarves. Then, he teaches Isabella and two of her friends to plate-spin.

After Martin’s visit, Isabella and her mum held a circus in her back garden for her family with the skills she learned.

Sunderland-based MCC Media produce the show and he got his CBeebies calling after his friend who works there mentioned the idea for the episode.

Martin used to be a postman for Royal Mail until he was around 40-years-old when he turned his hobby into a business.

After filming the episode in October 2018, he was excited to finally see it on screen.

He told the Echo: “I was full of cold that day but I had to do it because otherwise I would regret it. I have seen no edits, so I can’t wait to see it.

“Going from postman to CBeebies is mad.

“It’s not really work. It’s play. There’s no stress and it’s all fun.

“Isabella was quite a grown up six-year-old. She was a great leader.

“My First is a successful series and I’m so proud to be a part of it in helping young people learn.

“I’ve hopefully added something memorable for them and it will be interesting to see what they have included.”

The episode is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.