Matthew Corbett

Matthew Corbett (born in Guiseley, West Yorkshire, England) is an English television personality best known forThe Sooty Show and laterly Sooty and Co. He is the son of Harry Corbett. He took over Sooty from his father Harry Corbett in 1976, and retired in 1998.

Corbett was born in Guiseley, then a town in the historic West Riding of Yorkshire. In the late 1960s or early 1970s, he had to choose another stage name, as there was already another Peter Corbett registered. He kept his surname, but when choosing his new first name he was told it must be a name that is long, and so he chose the name of Matthew; for television purposes he has always remained as Matthew Corbett.

He appeared in the 1971 Doctor Who serial The Dæmons and was a regular performer in the Thames Television children's show Rainbow, where he sang and performed and wrote with Rod Burton and Jane Tucker as Rod, Matt and Jane, later better known as Rod, Jane and Freddy.

In 1976 Corbett left Rainbow to take over The Sooty Show from his father, Harry Corbett, on his retirement. He himself retired in 1998 after twenty two years, and hand picked Richard Cadell to replace him, and the show is still going strong.

Of late, Corbett has withdrawn from most public and media attention and lives in Lymm with his wife Sallie. In 2005, he noted that he would be playing guitar with his friend John Gray around pubs in Manchester. For this, he has gone back to his real name Peter Corbett. He is now playing guitar and singing in local pubs without John Gray. He's kicking off his solo career at pubs local to his home in Lymm, such as The Star Inn and The Bull's head.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2008, Corbett reappeared on television, presenting Locks and Quays, a regional interest programme shown in the ITV Granada area (North West England), featuring a journey from the east to the west coast of England along waterways such as the River Humber, Aire and Calder Navigation and Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

On Sooty's 60th birthday in 2008, he said that the bear was "in, or should I say on, the right hands".

Corbett's great uncle was the famous chip shop chain owner Harry Ramsden, as revealed on his cable canal based series 'Locks and Quays'. Matthew returned as a guest on the new series of Sooty in 2011.

_{Biography from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA}