Who was behind the Mulligrubs mouth and where is she now?

SHE was one of the biggest children’s TV stars in the 1990s, but not many people know who was actually behind the famous Mulligrubs mouth ... until now.

SHE was one of the biggest children’s television stars in the 1990s, but not many people know who was actually behind the famous Mulligrubs mouth ... until now.

In a news.com.au exclusive, we caught up with Diana Kidd who told us how she landed the role, why she never told anyone that she was the Mulligrubs woman and what she’s up to now.

Kidd was an actor in the late 1980s but she’d pretty much turned her back on the industry when she received a phone call that changed her life.

“It turns out that the show’s associate producer knew of me because we had both been at Flinders University doing drama at the same time,” said Kidd.

“They needed someone who could be expressive through their eyes and their nose and their mouth which were the only parts of the body that were visible.

“She thought of me and it went from there.”

Kidd got the job and filmed three seasons of the show between 1988 and 1989.

What does Diana Kidd look like now? Find out below.

She filmed all of her scenes for each episode in an Adelaide studio on Sundays, starting early due to the lengthy makeup process.

“The makeup was really half the battle,” said Kidd.

“Everything that you didn’t see, everything about the face and the head and the neck had to be blue (blue was the only colour that didn’t show up on the camera technology they were using to film the show).

“They had someone make a balaclava (with the face missing) and after that they had to ply my face with this sticky gooey blue solid makeup, except for the eyebrows which were yellow, the eyelashes which were also yellow and the lips which were red.

“To make the nose a little more prominent they had to sort of blackout my nostrils but also paint slightly larger nostrils at the end of my nose in black.

Kidd spent an hour in makeup each morning transforming herself into the Mulligrubs character but the character haunted her for days after filming.

“I’d have little bits of black and blue coming out from every little place around my face for days,” she said.

“It was quite strenuous really.”

The Mulligrubs voice is etched into the memories of most kids who grew up in the 1990s (the show aired from 1988-1996, each series was repeated on TV three times) but it turns out that’s not Kidd’s real voice.

“The voice of the Mulligrub was altered,” said Kidd.

Diana Kidd is now 63 years old.

“It went through a modulator. It was my voice but it was several times higher.”

“I had the huge advantage of claiming that I was a national children’s TV star but I largely went incognito. It was a good thing because the other kids characters like Humphrey B. Bear or Fat Cat, they would have to go and do shopping centre promotions and appearances, it was pretty difficult.

“But they couldn’t do that with Mulligrubs (due to the makeup).”

Not only was it convenient for Kidd that she wasn’t a recognisable star, it was much better for children for her real identity to remain a mystery.

“I do remember one day a friend of mine had a preschooler and she said, ‘Honey, you’ll never guess what? This is the Mulligrub!’” said Kidd.

“And the little girl just burst into tears and was inconsolable and it was horrible because her bubble had just been completely pricked to find that this ordinary, kind of dumpy old person was in fact her idol.

“So I never ever let anybody introduce me as the Mulligrub ever again after that. It ruined the charm and the magic of the whole thing.”

After filming three seasons of the show, Kidd once again turned her back on acting and worked in arts administration in Adelaide, where she still lives today.

She’s now 63 years old and semi-retired, but she keeps herself busy.

“I do a little bit of work as a nanny looking after a four and a half year old which is exactly the age range that Mulligrubs was gearing towards,” said Kidd.

“I’ve also taken up the ukulele. I’m part of a ukulele duo and we do a little bit of performing. We’re called Ukuliscious and we’re aiming to get a little show together and tour it around the old folks homes.”

As for Mulligrubs, will we ever see it make a comeback?

“I don’t think so,” said Kidd, “But you never say no in this business”.