Mr Coronavator

Mr. Motivator, aka Derrick Evans, is best known for getting the nation’s hearts racing in the 90s, with his fat-burning fitness routines. Now, at 67, the superhero of breakfast television is back. We meet the man behind the Lycra…

How did you become Mr. Motivator?

For ten years I tried to get onto television, and I kept getting turned down. I’d go to the TV-am studios trying to persuade them, and they’d say it had to be a woman, and she probably had to be blonde. I’d worked in marketing and I knew that marketing is critical with everything, so I looked at the people on television. There was Mad Lizzie who you wouldn’t remember, because all she ever wore were cardigans – they weren’t significant enough for you to remember her. And there was the Green Goddess, who stuck with me because of her green outfit. So I created Mr. Motivator, with the colours and the music, as a way of engaging and empowering people and making them feel good. If I’d worn a black t-shirt and a white pair of ...