Mr Tumbles Rise: Fame, Fortune, and New Love

If you don't have young children, the chances are you've never heard of Justin Fletcher and should you bump into this slightly nondescript middle aged man in the street, you still might be none the wiser.

But if you do - or if your children have grown up over the last two decades - you'll know pre-schoolers think he is just about the biggest star in the showbiz universe and – if you're a mum – you might even have a secret crush on him yourself!

For Justin, aged 55, is the man behind the phenomenon that is children's TV megastar Mr Tumble, the colourful clown with a talent for slapstick and entertaining young children.

And his background is just as colourful - he has a link to Elvis through his father, was a regular at his home and he grew up as a big fan of Laurel and Hardy, the Muppets, adored Brian Cant in Playschool and, perhaps more surprisingly for a squeaky clean children's TV star, was a big fan of the late comedian Kenny Everett who specialised in a more adult kind of sketch.

His fame has even garnered him unlikely celebrity fans like , Simon Pegg and Bryan Adams along the way.

Beloved by generations of young children for his repertoire of characters and CBeebies daytime shows like Something Special, Justin has quietly created a brand that is believed to have amassed him a of more than £1.5 million.

He has done so by turning his talent for gentle clowning which appeals to tots into a winning commercial formula which has spanned television, panto, CBeebies live tours and been translated into stunning sales through DVDs

Sales of his Something Special DVDs alone are understood to have topped 100,000, bringing in an estimated £1 million for the star while an accompanying magazine is said to bring in another £180,000 a month.

He has been lauded for his work with children with special educational needs on and off screen, won the highest accolades children's TV has to offer - in the shape of three children's BAFTAs - and was even awarded an MBE for services to children's broadcasting in 2008.

In his downtime, he relaxes in his idyllic six bedroom £2.5m country mansion in Henley on Thames in Oxfordshire.

And now the slightly portly 50 something star – an unlikely sex symbol to millions of mums – some of whom have even sent him marriage proposals – finally has someone to share it with.

He has also struck it lucky in love, appropriately for the fairy tale that is Justin's life – with his on screen partner who is 21 years his junior.

Samantha Dorrance has been a part of Justin's life since she landed the role of silly best friend Tootsie in The Tale of Mr Tumble in 2015 when she was just 23. Now, 11 years later the pair are said to be an item and madly in love and on tour together in his Justin Live: Justin Time to Rock! Tour.

But how did this – let's face it – rather unlikely star make it so big and become so fabulously wealthy.

One reason is certainly that he has a work ethic like no other and when he is not filming his now various shows on the BBC's children's network, he is busy on tour or in panto promoting his brand.

His rise to fame coincided with the boom in children's television when standalone children's TV stations started to become mainstream and parents delighted in the 'electronic babysitter' that they provided.

And with the heritage of the BBC behind it, CBeebies and its programming was appropriately guiltfree in that respect. It was trusted by parents to educate and entertain when it was launched in 2002 rather than just to distract them.

Step forward Justin Fletcher who became the star of an innovative show aimed at normalising children with special educational needs while attracting a mainstream audience. No easy feat.

Justin was born and brought up in Reading and grew up in a showbiz home dreaming of performing. His father was celebrated songwriter Guy Fletcher who wrote hits for Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Ray Charles and Cliff Richard.

'I was brought up in that kind of creative world and I got to meet some very interesting people,' he once said in an interview with the Guardian.

'Dad wrote Cliff Richard's 1973 Eurovision Song Contest entry, Power To All Our Friends, and Cliff came over a few times. I was only three then but my big sister Juliet was madly in love with him and used to hug him and not let him go.'

But it was creating characters rather than music that Justin gravitated towards and he fell in love with making films when his Dad gave him a cine camera.

'From as early as I can remember I was much more into creating characters. I used to write little characters down and observe people. Particularly schoolteachers. I was quite good at mimicking people. But what really started it off was my dad giving me his Super 8 cine camera. That was it for me. I was out there making my own films,' he said.

In his first year of drama college at Guildford School of Acting in Surrey in the 1990s, he says he knew he wanted to do children's television and it is perhaps this desire to focus exclusively on the genre that has given him such enduring longevity.

He started his career at the BBC in 1999, voicing characters on shows like the Tweenies and presenting on pre-school show Tikkabilla.

But it was Something Special which launched in 2003 and was the brainchild of BBC producer and ex SEND (special educational needs) teacher Allan Johnston, that launched his career into the stratosphere.