Comedian Johnny Ball spent decades on the television, popularising maths programming, but says his desire to work with daughter Zoe and grandson Woody keeps hitting a big stumbling block
Zoe Ball’s dad Johnny has revealed he is keen to film a show with his daughter and grandson – but faces a major hurdle. Johnny, 87, started out life as a Butlin’s Redcoat before moving into stand-up comedy.
His television career began in 1967 when he was unveiled as one of the hosts of Play School on the BBC. He later became known for his educational programmes that are said to have helped “popularise mathematics,” including the BAFTA-winning Think of a Number.
He shares daughter Zoe, 55, with his first wife Julia, and two sons from his second marriage. He describes BBC Radio star Zoe as “capable, bright, open and engaging”.
In a conversation with The Times, Johnny revealed he is keen to work with Zoe and her son Woody, who the TV presenter shares with ex-husband Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim. However Johnny says he has met a major stumbling block.
He said: “I’d love to work on a TV project with Zoe and my grandson Woody. But I can’t get anyone to pick it up.
“The idea is that we look at the history of Greek maths from three generations and examine how relevant it is. Pythagoras was a terrible idiot. He didn’t write anything down, but he did produce the first music theory.”
He says his family are “always laughing” whenever they are together, something he explains Norman would point out whenever he was around. Johnny added: “We are always laughing, and that’s a joyous thing.”
Zoe recently fuelled speculation that she herself could be about to land a new television role. She is currently one of the favourites to replace Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman on the next series of Strictly Come Dancing.
It comes after she competed in the third series of the hit BBC show and previously presented the companion programme, It Takes Two. She has previously described Claudia and Tess as a “tough act to follow” but admits she would “love” to host the show.
During a recent episode of her Dig It podcast with fellow BBC Radio star Jo Whiley, Zoe appeared to drop a hint that she could be set to take over on the main show. When asked by Jo what plans she had coming up, Zoe admitted she was preparing for a “glamorous” job, though couldn’t share further details.
She replied coyly: “Absolutely nothing going on my end, nothing going on my end at all,” before acknowledging that she sounded suspicious. Laughing, Jo replied: “Well I may or may not believe you.”
Zoe added: “Hopefully afterwards, I’ll be able to tell you about it all, but obviously at the moment I can’t say anything about it.”
She went on to say she had to “look glamorous” for something before joking it was for “doing the garden”. In what appeared to be a playful nod to the rumours, Jo quipped: “Strictly gardening,” before Zoe quickly moved on from the topic.
Joining Zoe on the list of potential presenters for Strictly are famous faces such as Rylan Clark, Fleur East, Janette Manrara, and Hannah Waddingham. Last week it was reported that nine presenters had auditioned for the role.
Former presenter Claudia recently revealed how she felt leaving the show. She told the new issue of Closer magazine: “It’s not that I wasn’t excited at the end, but both of us were a bit like, ‘Oh yeah, cool. All right, so then I do that…’”
She also admitted she couldn’t stop crying ahead of the final show. She added: “All week we were like, ‘We’re fine,’ but I could not stop crying. It has been my entire life.
“You know, sometimes when you decide something, like, ‘Let’s move house,’ then you pick up the final box. It’s not that you’ve done something wrong, but it just feels big.”
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