So ‘Jeff the Chef’ was no more. All those years of nurturing this character and all his friends was changing. We had lived with Jeff for a long time. We had spoken to friends and family many times over the years about how Jeff was one day going to be on TV. But now, it wasn’t going to happen. Don’t get me wrong, the fact that our little show had now found a home was AMAZING! It had finally happened and we were over the moon. But also, in some way, it wasn’t the character that we had come to know and love that was going to get his big break. But then, it’s all made up after all. So the search started for a new name.
I am sure you can imagine how hard that was. Seems like it should be easy, but think of another name that rhymes with Jeff. Go on, try. I know, right. there aren’t any. The closest that we ever got was the name Stef. Which would play well in Scandinavian countries, but in the UK it would seem a bit, odd. Talking of odd, we even played with the idea of changing gender. Not us. The character. If he was going to be called Stef, why not make him female. Stef works well as a female name in the UK. I even did a load of designs. So our chef character was going to be female, the child? could be a boy I guess. And the organic farmer friend was going to be a trendy hipster male type character. Yes, there are drawing for this. Might post them at some point. What was also interesting about the gender thing was that way back when the BBC didn’t want a male. So maybe (even though we were now with Channel5) female would be a good move? All those thoughts and then…. STOP!!!!!!
We were going back on the work we had done for many years. A lot of conversations had been had about the power of the father-daughter single parent setup and it worked well, and we were about to throw it all away for the sake of having a name that rhymes. So if a rhyming name isn’t available, how about a bit of ‘alliteration’. So. A name that starts with a ‘shh’ sound. Ready? Go!
First and obvious one is Sean. but as we all know, that has been used on a certain woolly character. Other possibilities are a number of Biblical names, but that wouldn’t travel well. The next obvious and widely used one is (drum roll) SHANE! So, those lovely people at HoHo took it for test drive. they tested it on focus groups and all that kind of stuff and it was a winner. Not only does it sound good, it is also a name that fits well with the Chennel5 audience. It is a name that they are familiar with and a name that is pretty cool 🙂
So we had it. Shane the Chef. Somehow, right as it was it was still a tricky one to get comfortable with personally. Then, a great little bit of advice from Helen at HoHo. She suggested that I do a search and replace of all files and folders on my computer. That way, when I go to open any folder with stuff to work on it will say SHANE and it will be that and nothing else. Good advice. I guess that opening JEFF folders to work on Shane would be like going through a dead man’s wardrobe 😮 And sure enough, for me, he quickly became the Shane that we now know and love.
On this mornings show Izzy was upset about missing her Mum. I’ve read through 1-6 of Back of the Oven but there’s nothing to say why she is just a photo on the wall. Can you tell me please?
Hi Linda. Great question and thanks for watching. It was left deliberately ambiguous. Shane is a single parent but it is not clear why the mum is not there so that it is relevant to any single parent families. That said, it is likely that she died rather than left. Maybe one day we will know the whole story.
Hi Andrew, will there be a series 2 at all?
Hi Liz. We are working hard to have a season 2 happen. Still more episodes of season 1 to come first 🙂
Fantastic! It’s all our toddler cares about in this world!
“Shane Shane, Mumma?”
At 6am – every day!
We love the show in this house. We’re always singing the theme tune with my wife and I always making up rude lyrics with the hinted relationship between Shane and Maggie.
For those home and away fans the Brody and Simone storyline makes me think the writers have been watching Shane the chef.
I do wonder why we never see Mario’s dad Al? I liked the joke about him in the Christmas episode but I’d love to see more about who could tame Madam Polenta!
Hi. Glad you like the show ☺️ We do eventually see a bit more of Al, but the idea is that he is a bit mysterious.
Please more episodes!! My 1.5 year is obessed!! We watch it every day and ive seen all the episodes hundreds of time! Hes not even two and now helps makes his own breakfast pouring porridge into a bowl, pouring the milk, adding some jam and raisins mixing it and putting it into microwave – we say ‘lets get cooking – Jenson the Chef! ‘
Awesome. I presume you are up to date with the recent batch of releases? And good news is, a Shane recipe book is coming out 6th November ☺️
I watch this over porridge with my 11-month-old every morning. He *likes* Thomas beforehand, but everything stops when Shane’s theme comes on – he laughs most when JG hits/breaks/explodes a gadget. The one thing he’d probably love is a Shane cuddly toy – any plans?
(Oh, and more episodes please!)
Hi Kevin. Porridge and Shane. What a perfect combo.
The only product that will be coming out this year is the Shane coocking book. Available to pre-order on Amazon now and in Bookshops November 6th. We would all like a Shane toy. Keep your fingers crossed. And hopefully more episodes in the not too distat future. 🙂
Is Munchington based on a real town?
Hi. Sort of. It it a cross between Mevagissey in Cornwall and Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. The basic layout is much like Mevagissey but a lot of the architectural details are based on buildings in Chipping Norton. Shane’s restaurant front is modelled on a bookshop called Jaffe and Neale. Google it and take a look 🙂