Don Austen Donald Austen is an English puppeteer who worked on He began his puppeteering at Cannon Hill Children ' s theatre in Birmingham in 1981 . He then began working for the Jim Henson Creature Shop in 1986 on movies like Labyrinth and the Little Shop of Horrors . He was a valuable puppeteer for other blockbuster movies including Santa Claus : The Movie ( 1985 ) , Who Framed Roger Rabbit ( 1988 ) , The Bear ( L ' ours ) ( 1988 ) , and The Witches ( 1990 ) Austen ' s British TV puppeteering debut was on the irreverent cult ITV series Spitting Image . ( 1989 ) He would enjoy two Muppet movies : The Muppet Christmas Carol ( 1992 ) performing inside both the Ghost of Christmas Present ( dancing with Michael Caine ) and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come . Four years later it was The Muppet Treasure Island ( 1996 ) appearing briefly as Pirate Crew & Cannibals due to TV commitments . Austen voiced and puppeteered Sky One ' s DJ Kat for 2000 - plus award - winning DJ Kat Shows ( 1989 - 95 ) and 200 Breakfast Shows as Earl E Bird on Channel 4 ' s Early Bird ( 1991 ) EB ' s skiing and ballooning in Colorado a spectacular series finale . It was on the weekly live ITV Saturday morning show What ' s Up Doc ? ( 1992 - 94 ) that Austen teamed up with Puppeteer John Eccleston to create a winning partnership writing and performing a run of British TV puppet favorites . Firstly , The Wolves , a . k . a . Bro & Bro , who within weeks earn their own spin - off comedy drama series Wolf It ! ( 1993 - 96 ) Written by Austen and Eccleston , it ran for five series . Austen and Eccleston switch channels to BBC1 ' s live Saturday morning 3hr flagship Live and Kicking ( 1995 - 2000 ) offering cantankerous Leprechauns Sage & Onion - built by Darryl Worbey Studios . As Mr . Sage , sporting the rather dodgy hairpiece , Austen wrote and puppeteered comedy sketches year round for five years . Outliving three sets of in vision presenters he became the longest surviving presenter ( Eccleston taking time out to perform Rygel in the sci - fi series Farscape ) To cover Eccleston ' s brief sojourn an overbearing long lost sister was introduced . ' Shamrock ' was performed by puppeteer Rebecca Nagan . This series , hosted by Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston , received a BAFTA in 1999 . The Leps , as they were affectionately known , guest - starred on a wide range of British TV Shows , including ; The French & Saunders Christmas Special ; The Making Of Titanic ( 1998 ) , Jim Davidson ' s Generation Game [ ( 1998 ) , The National Lottery ( 1998 ) , and GMTV for St . Patrick ' s Day Celebrations ( 1998 & 99 ) During 1999 , Austen was hand - picked by master puppeteer Frank Oz to help him portray Yoda in . For this complex puppet , Oz would need three helpers , including Austen , David Greenaway and Kathy Smee . Next a return to the Henson fold and all 250 episodes of BAFTA winning TV series The Hoobs ( 2000 - 02 ) Here he voiced and puppeteered the excitable , vulnerable , ' Iver . ' The series was the largest ever pre - school commission by an independent . Canadian Gemini Award nominations for three consecutive years , " Best Performance In A Pre - School Series . " Austen ' s long association with live TV could be seen again year round in the Saturday morning ITV series , Ministry of Mayhem ( 2005 ) voicing and puppeteering Scratch - one half of riotous duo The Hyenas . Scratch & Sniff were the third Austen - Eccleston collaboration . MOM changes its format and is renamed Holly & Stephen ' s Saturday Showdown ( 2006 ) retaining presenters Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern from the previous outing . It plays through to July with Scratch featuring large in the slimmed down line up . Austen was also called upon to write and voice the game commentary to ' Supermarket Sneak ' and , further to his portrayal of Ozzy Osborne on MOM , gave us Igor - the larger than life dancing Russian Cossack both in vision ! Austen has notched up 5 series as voice and puppeteer on the BBC ' s Basil Brush Show playing evil Cousin Mortimer and naughty Nephews Bingo and Bungo . The show was nominated for a BAFTA in 2006 . Basil & Bingo performed at Buckingham Palace for Children ' s Party At The Palace ( 2006 ) Austen puppeteers ' Wooly The Sheep ' in the Woolworths TV / radio commercials ( 2003 - 06 ) with Eccleston as side kick ' Worth The Dog . ' The nationwide ad campaigns shot in London and Prague . The Hyenas record 15 gameshows for Granada Kids – CITV ( 2006 ) Scratch & Sniff ' s Den Of Doom . Austen and Eccleston work on pilot for MTV . ( 2006 )