Picture source, Rebecca Keatley
Picture caption,
Rebecca Keatley and her partner Jim, pictured in Worthing, are gazing for his or her first child in December
For parents across the land, Rebecca Keatley is one of these magical these that can perhaps well give them a transient breather while she entertains their diminutive ones by means of the screen.
But quickly the CBeebies presenter of 11 years will likely be viewing the task from the other side, as she prepares to give initiating to her first child this chilly weather.
The actress from Port Talbot, who now lives in Manchester the place CBeebies is filmed, has seen from “this side of the fence” how crucial exhibits love Let’s Play can turn into to families.
Keatley used to be drawn to working in kids and adolescence television from a younger age.
She had an early brush as a teen, getting down to the last three and a presenting trial after an audition for The Disney Membership, which used to be at last received by Fearne Cotton.
Picture source, Rebecca Keatley
Picture caption,
Rebecca Keatley with CBeebies’s Mr Maker, Mr Bloom and Basil Brush at an match in the summertime
She first caught the performing bug from a team of drama students “down the support of the bus” who had been “so powerful fun” on journeys to Gorseinon College in Swansea, the place she signed up to assemble A-phases.
She quickly persuaded her oldsters to let her moreover steal a BTEC in performing arts, and from there went on to peep performing at Mountview drama college in London.
Her transfer to CBeebies came after a amount of years working in theatre, TV dramas and promotions when her friend, CBeebies presenter Andy Day, stated she can even nonetheless audition for a brand unique lisp being made for the channel.
Despite being “a bit leisurely” transferring into touch, the producers let her come in and skim for the half and she ended up getting the characteristic to work alongside Sid Sloane on Let’s Play, and presenting on the CBeebies Residence.
Working in kid’s television meant adapting to a assorted components of working for Keatley.
“Prior to, I’d hang stated the worst thing is that there isn’t any preparation time,” she stated. “Or not it’s low finances, or not it’s fleet exclaim, they want to obtain stuff out as rapid as they’ll.”
Picture source, Huw Evans image agency
Picture caption,
Rebecca, pictured on a cruise to Norway, studied performing in London after leaving Port Talbot
“I frail to obtain very apprehensive about that in consequence of I’d deem ‘I want to put together’,” she stated.
“Whereas now, I obtain it a blessing, in consequence of not having time to deem and fair true being spontaneous, fairly often you obtain your most effective stuff.
“You must perhaps perhaps well presumably also very successfully be not so treasured, and I deem that’s one thing I’m in fact ecstatic that kid’s television has given me.”
The prospect of changing into a parent has given her a assorted stare on the work she produces.
She defined: “Talking to the other forged participants who’ve already got kids, you know the highest plan crucial it is.
“[They have talked] about how they really relish the exhibits and the characters, and how they turn into half of your loved ones life, so I’m going to hang that to look forward to.
“I assemble obviously obtain that from being in the business. Assembly families, assembly kids, I assemble obtain that as soon as I meet them in consequence of it is particular to be on this side of the fence, and I deem I’m going to in fact, in fact be grateful for CBeebies when my child comes alongside.”
Picture caption,
Rebecca doing the Halloween CBeebies Residence with Evie Pickerill
Pregnancy is often a time for food aversions and exhaustion, nonetheless for Keatley the reverse has been true form.
She has an auto-immune situation which is in a blueprint to be precipitated by diversified issues, together with the obtain-up necessary for television work.
“I’ve got heaps of chemical sensitivities, so your physique’s having a response to heaps of meals and chemical substances,” she stated.
“That used to be a loyal trouble with the principle series of Let’s Play in consequence of of glues, moustaches, obtain-up. It used to be in fact tough in consequence of I used to be having all these issues,” she stated.
She manages the situation by being very careful about the meals she eats.
Like some others with auto-immune stipulations, her symptoms eased with pregnancy.
“The first trimester used to be unheard of, in consequence of in fact I felt in fact energised and I used to be in a blueprint to luxuriate in and drink the full lot. I felt in fact appropriate,” she stated.
She has had immunotherapy, which entails exposing her to very tiny quantities of substances she has a response to in uncover to desensitise her system.