All White 'falls' into TV role

FRONTING UP: A screen-grab shows All White Aaron Clapham, left, on children's television show What Now, with Charlie Panapa and Gem Rose Knight.

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When All White Aaron Clapham returned from World Cup football duty and thought "What now?" he wasn't thinking about children's television.

So when he was whistled up by the long-running, Christchurch-produced TV2 show, he never dreamed where his one-off appearance might lead.

But the Canterbury United midfielder was snapped up to film several segments for Slam!, an obstacle course-type game that's part of What Now. Now he is keen to do more work in the TV field.

"It's something I just fell into," Clapham, 23, said. "When I got back from South Africa, they asked me to come on The Erin Simpson Show, an after-school kids' programme, as a guest and talk a bit about the World Cup.

"It's filmed at the same studio where they film What Now and the producers asked me if I'd go on What Now."

Producer Reuben Davidson said Clapham was "very comfortable on camera and great with the kids".

An interactive viewers' poll showed more support for football than rugby, "and a big part of that was down to Aaron's presence on the show that morning", he said.

Two weeks later, a What Now presenter had to pull out suddenly from a filming assignment in Wellington.

"We scrambled around and thought, `Who can we get to fill in at short notice?' We decided to give Aaron a go," Davidson said.

"Next day, at less than 24 hours notice, he was standing in front of the cameras in the middle of 500 kids. And he stepped up and did it three days in a row."

Clapham said he had been "thrown in the deep end".

"But I enjoy it, it's been fun."

- © Fairfax NZ News