episodes in 1972, over a year before Hayes joined the series. When asked to reveal what he is in interviews, he claims he is a 'Unique.' In a BBC online poll from March 2006, Zippy was named as Britain's favourite sporting celebrity fan by a landslide margin with 47% of the vote. Described as Dundee United's biggest fan, several newspapers including the Daily Record, The Courier and Sunday Herald also covered the story in print and online. The poll included lifelong Port Vale F.C. fan Robbie Williams and Delia Smith, a director at Norwich City F.C. In second place with 9.74% was movie star and Sheffield United F.C. fan Sean Bean. The poll attracted more than 15,000 votes. Later appearances In 2001, Zippy turned down the role of Alonso Harris in Training Day, stating that the character was not "street enough". It is rumoured that Zippy's rivalry with Snoop Dogg played a large part in the decision. In 2002, Zippy appeared in the "My Mate / I hate" advertising campaign for Marmite in the UK. In the TV commercial he zipped up his own mouth when confronted with Marmite, thus confirming his hate for the product. Roy Skelton would reprise his role many times from 2002 to 2009: the I Love Muppets documentary, Ant and Dec's Gameshow Marathon, an episode of Favouritism entitled "Zippy and George's Puppet Legends", The Weakest Link, Ashes to Ashes, TV Burp and The Official BBC Children in Need Medley before Ronnie Le Drew took over starting with Zippy and George's appearance on The One Show. Since then Zippy has appeared on Celebrity Juice, Children in Needs 2016 and 2021, a Pizza Hut delivery advert, The Last Leg 2017 and 2021 and The Big Breakfast. Further reading Climbing High: Life Under the Rainbow Exposed by V. S. Ganjabhang and Mike Anderiesz, Pan MacMillan (2002) The A-Z of Classic Children's Television by Simon Sheridan, Reynolds & Hearn (2007) Rainbow Unzipped: The Shocking Truth about Zippy, George and Bungle - In Their Own Words by Tim Randall, Headline (2009) Zippy and Me: My Life Inside Britain’s Most Infamous Puppet by Ronnie LeDrew, Unbound (2019) References External links A Zippy fanpage with sound files Television characters introduced in 1972 Rainbow (TV series) characters British comedy puppets Male characters in television