Keith Vincent Chapman (born 1 December 1958) is an English television writer and producer, known for creating various children's television programmes, most notably '' Bob the Builder'' and '' Paw Patrol.''

Early life

Chapman originates from

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

, though some of his formative years were spent in Basildon,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

where he went to Nicholas Comprehensive School. He attended art college at Great Yarmouth College of Art and Design in

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

Career

He worked for Jim Henson International, designing characters related to the Muppets, before leaving to pursue a career in

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

. While freelancing as an agency art director in the early 1990s, Chapman worked on his own creations, one of them being Bob the Builder, who was created after he spotted a JCB

backhoe loader A backhoe loader, also called a loader backhoe, loader excavator, tractor excavator, digger or colloquially shortened to backhoe within the industry, is a heavy equipment (construction), heavy equipment vehicle that consists of a tractor-like u ...

on a work site and thought they could bring it to life with cartoon eyes, which became the character Scoop (then named "Digger"), followed by other machines, and then thought the machines needed a human operator, which led to the creation of Bob, eventually showing it and his other creations to Peter Orton, executive chairman of

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (stylised as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Sophie Turn ...

, and Orton, sensing potential in Bob the Builder, acquired the

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

rights Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

and created a television show based on the property. The deal saw Chapman retain a share of the

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

and also a contractual clause which sees his name appear on all

merchandise Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of Product (business), products ("merch" colloquially) to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative w ...

related to the character including an appearance on the blockbuster film

Elf An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic peoples, Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in Norse mythology, North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda'' ...

. ''Bob the Builder'' was produced at

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

's HOT Animation studio, with Curtis Jobling's character and set designs. the show had generated around £1 billion in international retail sales. Chapman invested his share of the profits to set up his own television production and rights ownership company, Chapman Entertainment, stating his belief that "the closer involvement of creative talent can get more out of a property over the longer term". In 2005, Chapman created '' Fifi and the Flowertots''. In 2007, Chapman produced '' Roary the Racing Car''. In 2013, Chapman created Spin Master's '' Paw Patrol''. In 2020, a new show from Chapman named '' Mighty Express'' was announced, premiering on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

in September of the same year. In 2022, Chapman partnered with MXT to create an '' NFT'' project called ''Moonie Moo''.

Personal life

Chapman resides in Monaco. His son William is the co-founder of kid's clothing brand Roarsome.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, Keith 1958 births Living people Writers from Great Yarmouth Advertising directors British male television writers Muppet designers Alumni of Norwich University of the Arts British television show creators DreamWorks Classics people