The Linda De Mol/Steffanie Pitt/Catrina Hylton-Hull Years (1986-1992)
Linda de Mol was DJ Kat's side-kick when the series began in September 1986. De Mol was already a familiar face on Sky Channel as well as Dutch TV, where she had her own Talkshow simply called 'Linda'. In addition to her native language Dutch, she speaks fluent English and German. In later years she also branched out into German TV and hosted more of Endemol's programmes, including the original Dutch version of Deal or No Deal.
When Sky Channel decided to focus solely on broadcasting in the United Kingdom instead of Europe in early 1989, the production of the DJ Kat show moved from Hilversum to Blackbird Productions in London. Linda de Mol was unceremoniously dropped without much of an explanation. Her last episode (which was shot on location in Austria) was shown on Friday 3 February 1989.
The next Monday, 6 February, Steffanie Pitt (aka "Steffie"), daughter of Hammer Horror star Ingrid Pitt, introduced herself as Linda's replacement. Another puppet character, a scouse mouse called 'Yummy Tickle Mouse' was also added to the programme. Steffie left on 8 September of the same year, ostensibly to join the fictional all girl band 'The Sweet Patatoes'. At this time, Robbie Hahn handed over the DJ Kat puppet to British puppeteer Don Austen (who was already employed by Sky as Wally Blubb The Walrus on their Fun Factory weekend morning show).
Hahn swiftly rejoined Linda de Mol back in the Netherlands for the very similar TROS television programme 'De Billy Hotdog Show'. The main differences being that the title character was a dog and the show broadcast only once a week.
Katrina Hylton-Hull (aka "Treen"), daughter of the late Rod Hull of Emu fame, after numerous auditions, made her first appearance on 11 September 1989. The DJ Kat show did sketches around this time in an attempt to save the flagging format of the series.
Katrina Hylton-Hull lasted three years and proved quite popular with fans of the series initially, but with viewing figures falling Sky One came close to pulling the plug on the series. The acclaimed UK production/direction team of Patricia Mordecai, John Northover and Gale Claydon (who produced many series on ITV in the 1980s and 90s) were tasked with the job of creating a new look for the series, intended to begin in 1992. Katrina was initially contracted to continue as presenter with a "rotating" guest cast, but disagreements between her and the new production team about the direction of the new format saw her eventually opt to resign as presenter in mid-June 1992.
Read more about this topic: The DJ Kat Show
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