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ABOUT CALICO TV
Calico TV was originally founded by CalicoBonEsterphon and Ben Gosling in 2006 when the company was called CMGI. Prior to 2006, Calico and Ben were also partners in a production company with two other people. When the two other people left, Ben and Calico renamed the company. Around 2008, CMGI changed it's name to Barkin' Mad Creationz and started to make Thomas & Friends TrackMaster remakes (some of which are available to watch on YouTube). When Calico's channel was set up, Barkin' Mad Creationz became more professional and started to deliver shows of a higher standard.
As mentioned above, Ben and Calico have a lot of experience in making shows. Prior to starting on YouTube, they co-created and starred in numerous projects including a show based on Pokemon, a soap opera and a show about spies. Their main show for many years was a spin-off to the famous Sooty Show which Ben started when he was just five years old. Calico and Ben have even been in the local paper twice doing this show live. The Sooty Show spin-off ended in 2009 after ten years. It was this experience which inspired Ben to make his own original puppet show - Ronnie the Mole!
After a decade, Calico exited the company in 2016. With such a blow, the company lost its footing and production on most shows was shelved indefinitely. The company seemed to be walking into the sunset with only the occasional video entering production. Jump forward four years and a new sun seems to be dawning! In 2020, long-time writer and collaborator Sam West was folded in as a partner in order to help with the Ronnie the Mole Christmas Special and other future productions. The outlook of Calico TV is now looking bright and both Ben and Sam are hopeful for the future.
ABOUT BEN, CALICO, AND SAM
Ben Gosling and Calico have been best friends for about twelve years. For most of that time, they lived just a stone's throw away from each other which is the reason Calico believes they became friends: "geographical convenience". To start with, Calico showed little or no interest in Ben's hobby of putting on shows for the younger children, however this changed when Ben was given a camcorder and offered Calico a job as a cameraman to film the shows. Even so, it wasn't until a couple of years later that Ben managed to persuade Calico to step in front of the camera. Ben created a soap opera which featured a lot of the neighbourhood kids - including a girl Calico had a crush on. Calico managed to persuade Ben to write in a kissing scene and Calico caught the "performing fever". Afterwards, Calico appeared in most of the shows Ben made and started participating in live shows which included doing a variety of things. Soon afterwards, Calico and Ben ditched everyone else and started up as a double-act and used a stage-name which included a combination of their real names.
Ben first met Sam West on the internet due to their mutual love of Thomas the Tank Engine. They began talking and a friendship bloomed as Ben introduced Sam to many British shows (including Sooty). Ben recruited Sam to write for his TrackMaster series and the final series of his Sooty spin-off. Their working and writing styles meshed beautifully. Ben is great at physical comedy and Sam's forte is in the written joke. A pairing like this doesn't happen by accident, so Ben snatched him up and Sam became a mainstay of the Calico TV writer's room, climbing the ranks from head writer on Ronnie the Mole, to producer, to partner as of 2020.
Away from Calico TV, Calico works as a manager in a local garage and has been in a relationship with his girlfriend for seven years. Ben makes a living by buying and selling and works for Calico TV on a full-time basis. Although it may look like he'd be the lazy sort, Ben is always happiest when he is busy and is a bit of a slave driver (well that's what Calico says anyway!). Ben is single because "he hasn't met a blind woman yet". There is nothing he enjoys more than listening to his Genesis, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel albums. Sam, who heads the US branch of Calico TV, works full time at a local school and spends most of his free time "researching" for future projects by watching television and reading books.
Why anybody would want to watch any show cheaply produced by Calico TV is beyond me. The world is obviously full of people with nothing better to do.
- Calico's Mother
Having recently worked with both SteamTeam and Calico, I have to say I found them both to be incredibly rude and arogant. Their lack of Yorkshire Tea and Jaffa Cakes was disturbing.
- The Mad Controller
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