who once presented alongside and after offers stopped coming through.
After graduating with a teaching degree, Michael Underwood was working as a researcher at Radio Northampton when he spotted an advert looking for a new children’s TV presenter.
Deciding to try his luck, he was successful, going on to appear on the show Whatever You Want, staying with CBBC for the next three years.
Michael then jumped ship to CITV, where he presented four seasons of Jungle Run, Eliminator and The Big Bang before joining ’s flagship Saturday morning show Ministry of Mayhem.
Starting in 2004, he worked on that series alongside Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern.
In subsequent years he also appeared on The One Show, Good Morning Britain and This Morning, competing on Dancing on Ice, Celebrity MasterChef and Celebrity Mastermind too.
He also met during that time, when she was also a presenter on CBBC.
The pair, who married in 2010, now share two children.
However, after presenting opportunities started to dry up, Michael decided to turn his attention back to his original career path.
For the past six years he’s been teaching Year 4 at Surbiton High Boy’s Prep School in south-west London.
This week Angellica, who has most recently been seen presenting on The One Show, spoke about her husband’s career change.
‘It’s funny. He couldn’t get any work. He had a teaching degree. He was like, “I can’t sit around†so he started teaching,’ she told.
‘It’s been amazing. It was hard at first because he really wanted to do TV and had no control over that.
‘But he loves it now. His students are like his extended children. They are blessed to have him. He thinks of creative ways to teach, to keep them engaged.’
She went on to explain how some parents of his students were also fans and told him they used to love watching him on shows like Jungle Run.
‘He’s now teaching their children. He’s like, “oh my gosh, this is greatâ€,’ she added.
However, she did reveal he might be seen on screens again soon as he’d had ‘a few offers’ and they’d ‘been approached to do some bits’ together.
The couple previously worked together on All Star Mr & Mrs and The Zone.
In 2021 Michael toldhis mum had encouraged him to initially study drama as a teaching degree to have ‘something to fall back on if the acting doesn’t work out’.
He also explained how his family ‘could never afford to send me to drama school’.
Speaking of deciding to make the change in 2018, Michael told publication he ‘needed to make a decision’.
‘The phone stopped ringing, it’s just not a nice place to be in,’ he said.
After finishing Real Stories with Ranvir Singh, Michael retired from TV in 2016.
He then explained how his skill set could be ‘put to good use’ to help build children’s confidence, help them with their oracy, and their presenting skills.
Michael said he then knew it was time to ‘grab the bull by the horns’ and try teaching.
In 2021 he also made a return to presenting, balancing his teaching work with fronting the Channel 4 series Tool Club.
This article was originally published on March 6, 2021.
