Member Article

Kim's World Service To South Shields

Newcastle children’s TV star teams up with local business on BBC World Service radio show

Kim Tserkezie, star of CBeebies show Balamory, is to present a BBC World Service show about migrants settling in Britain – and one of her first stops is Minchella’s ice cream parlour in South Shields Newcastle-based actress, presenter, writer, producer, Kim Tserkezie will present a new BBC World Service radio documentary. The show, Migrants Mean Business, will explore what it means to be a migrant in the UK running a successful business and will air on Wednesday November 28.

Kim, perhaps best known for her role as Penny Pocket on the CBeebies show Balamory, recently set up her own production company, Scattered Pictures who produced the documentary after being commissioned by the BBC. Kim has extensively used diverse, creative north east talent including producer Andy Jones in line with her philosophy of promoting and using the best people from the region in her work. The documentary is the company’s first radio commission by the BBC.

Despite being voted as ‘the best representation of a wheelchair-user on screen’ because of her role as Penny Pocket, Kim admits that finding diverse roles as a wheelchair using actor has been challenging. Kim set up Scattered Pictures to create more varied and interesting roles for disabled actors as well as to highlight North East creative talent.

During the forthcoming BBC World Service radio documentary show, Migrants Mean Business, Kim visits three successful businesses to find out about their history and how they came to find a home in the UK. The first business Kim visits is Minchella’s ice cream parlour in South Shields.

Kim said: “Being brought up in a family of Greek migrants, I’ve always been fascinated by how people find their place in their adopted home. In this programme, I’m going to find out whether the experiences of families like the Minchellas, who built successful businesses after coming to the UK with nothing, still resonate with migrants arriving today.”

Producer Andy Jones is looking forward to the programme airing: “I work a lot on international projects, so I’ve loved working with Kim to find and share fascinating stories from close to home. Exploring the connections that different food businesses have made across generations, from Italian ice-cream, to Syrian cheese, really demonstrate how people travelling across borders have contributed to life in Britain in the past, and continue to do today. I think it’s a really timely story which will strike a chord with listeners all over the world.”

Michael Minchella is the third generation of Minchellas to run the award-winning ice cream parlour in South Shields. He said: “It’s been a fantastic experience to be a part of the World Service programme. At Minchella’s we are incredibly proud of our family history so to be able to explore that as part of Migrants Mean Business has been very exciting.”

Kim also visits a cheese business in Yorkshire and a dessert company in Edinburgh during the programme.

The show airs at 11.30am GMT on Wednesday November 28 on the BBC World Service .

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Keith Newman .