Icelandic sporting champion Magus Scheving couldn't find a TV programme to promote fitness for children, do he wrote one himself. he tells Viv Hardwick how he penned LazyTown and changed the world.

AS the personal trainer to millions of children, Magnus Scheving (pronounced Skeving) from Iceland is far better known as the brightly blue and white coloured superhero Sportacus, who constantly saves the day in TV's LazyTown.

The BBC and Nick Jr show the series in the UK and it's beamed across 169 other countries which is an incredible success for what is essentially a message to under-nines of eating well, doing exercise and going to bed at a reasonable time (Sportacus sings a song about hitting the sack promptly at 8.08pm).

World class athlete Scheving began his quest to halt obesity in Iceland's youngsters nine years ago with a book which inspired a live show and led to the TV programmes being made at £500,000 a time - the most expensive in world children's TV.

Now there's a stage tour based on the TV show, which will be visiting York's Grand Opera House and Newcastle's Theatre Royal in May next year, where Scheving's "slightly above average superhero" thwarts Robbie Rotton's schemes to trick LazyTown's residents into a couch potato coma.

"Basically, Lazytown started when I looked back at my life and Sportacus was a little bit of me when I was a little kid. I used to run with telegrams in a little town. Not everybody had a phone and people in the main telephone room in the centre of town would call out the window 'we need Magnus'. The message went from person to person and I would throw my toys away because someone was needed on the phone and I would pick up a little note and run to a house and tell them they were needed in town. It was quite amazing. So Sportacus has a crystal that beeps and when children are in trouble he throws in everything he's doing and just goes and helps.

"Mainly, with Lazy Town, I saw that there was no role models for kids about 15 years ago and thought 'can I do anything about this'."

He feels most children's TV shows are either kid-driven emotional stories or the superhero and the villain.

"I wanted to combine the two and the problem was that no one could write this for me. I said to people that kids don't understand health because it's like the word 'freedom' or 'humour' and you can't explain it. What is a medium healthy person? It's different for a little girl and boy and a man who is 45. So there's no recipe for it. Kids don't understand the concept of being healthy in later life because they're never going to go there. So, basically, I wanted to put it into a show using LazyTown as a tool where there was lots of action, but non-violence, associated with sport. When I tried writers they couldn't do it. In the end I just did it by myself.

"I wanted to motivate kids, not by saying 'you have to eat broccoli' but by calling it Sports Candy which dropped from my airship to the ground. I also go to sleep at 8.08pm and now parents, particularly in Iceland, don't have to say to kids any more 'you have to go to sleep' they say 'it's almost 8.08' and the kids feel its important that they jump to bed."

Sportacus and LazyTown came out of Scheving's travels to more than 50 countries where he talked to children as part of the enormous homework he did.

Scheving calls his character the "slightly above average superhero" and set himself the hard task of Sportacus only having "doable" skills rather than superpowers to climb buildings.

"When I meet kids today, even some as old as 25, they show me stuff saying 'Magnus look at this' and they do push-ups with one arm. It's amazing to see teenagers doing splits and stuff for you when you're walking down the street. So I would say that kids want to imitate."

He doesn't use the expression TV phenomenon and tells instead of a little sick US boy who asked for help from Sportacus.

{I remember the moment that LazyTown was working. There was a little boy in the US who was really sick and he watched LazyTown every day which has the message 'there's always a way'. He was really living it, and his parents called me and said could I come to New York to see him because he was extremely sick and I said 'of course, I'll come tomorrow' and I asked them what I should bring him and he said 'I want one Sports Candy... one apple'. I was then flying halfway around the world with one apple in my hand and then I realised how extremely big the responsibility was involving this character. Integrity was important. The feeling was 'does it really work' and I have to say 'absolutely yes'." LazyTown actually started as a book. Two years later it became a live musical show which sold out for four years in Iceland. Scheving admits he always thought in terms of live shows because he enjoys the interaction with youngsters. "You can ask a kid where's the sports candy?' and they have to jump up to help you. So I wrote it as a live show and I think it became Iceland's most popular show ever."

He's very proud of the UK shows which begin in London next month and will be seen in York and Newcastle in spring next year.

"It's really hard to take the world's most expensive TV show and put it on the stage but they didn't want to compromise and they put in a lot of effort. The new Sportacus (Julian Essex-Spurrier) came to Iceland and we trained together after he was picked from a huge test in the UK. The reason I did this was because I knew I couldn't do the show three times a day. I could maybe do one but not three so I said 'let's go for a younger guy'. I know that tickets have nearly sold out already and I'm very proud of it. I know that LazyTown is stronger live than on TV."

He tells of a show for autistic children in Iceland where he didn't understand why parents were crying when children took up the invitation to join him on stage.

"Then the parents told me that their children had never been on a stage before, some of them had never moved like that before. They told me it was the speed of the show and the colours which autistic children like. I have seen people using LazyTown programmes with their kids and was amazed and pleased about that." Being a slightly above average superhero and dad to three children, ranging seven, 11 and 18, is also challenging, although he reveals that at least 20 youngsters from the neighbourhood can be visiting at any one time over a weekend.

"It's been like a kindergarten school for some time because I enjoy working with people. I lived LazyTown three times, I lived it when I created it, then I played it and then I had to do it at home on weekends and nights... telling the stories all over again. When you have kids suddenly you start to write and drive differently and you don't tend to take on things like parachuting or diving. You think differently. So I really wanted something of more value from TV for my kids, but the strongest sales of LazyTown was normally in my house."

Although LazyTown is supposedly aimed at the nine and unders there are teenagers who still follow the adventures of Sportacus.

"I'm getting a little bit older I have to admit and sometimes to get out of bed like Sportacus in the mornings is a little hard. This has been part of me for over 17 years and I've done thousands upon thousands of jumps with kids right up to 16,000 running a mini-marathon with me three weekends ago. They keep me in shape. I was on a TV show and did straddle jumps and the host said 'can you do five in a row?' and I said 'that's not possible' but there was a lot of pressure and I did 15. Then the whole country knew and the next time it was 16, then 17. In the end I was doing 42. Basically, they don't give you time to rest. When I'm in the costume there's no time to rest. So maybe I'm a lucky man because I'm the personal trainer to millions of kids."

* LazyTown plays York's Grand Opera House on May 14 and Newcastle Theatre Royal on May 16-18. Box Office: 08701-283-607.