A TALENTED teacher will tonight make his debut as the host of a TV show.

Alan Mechem, 28, will present Addicted To Gaming, which highlights the pitfalls of getting hooked on computer games.

Mr Mechem’s silver screen career began two years ago when he beat 5,000 hopefuls to become a GMTV showbiz reporter.

The media studies teacher at King John School, Thundersley, spoke to the Echo about the show.

He said: “It’s lots of different types of people talking about how gaming has taken over their lives.

“Some got divorced and lost their kids through their obsession, or got into terrible debt through gambling on games.”

He explained another worrying trend was for people to lose touch with real-life, through playing glamorous alternative-reality games on the internet.

Mr Mechem said: “They’re so realistic, people are choosing to live through the games, rather than sort themselves out.

“There’s an online reality game called Second Life, where players can get married, raise children and move into a dream house.”

The Echo reported in 2008 how Mr Mechem won the GMTV competition and was flown to Las Vegas to interview celebrities, including comedienne Roseanne Barr and Christopher Biggins.

Later this year he will also be presenting a four-part series called Retro-Spectacular, focusing on fondly remembered items from the past, including the DeLorean car, which featured as a time machine in the Back to the Future movies, and Pez sweets.

And Mr Mechem presented another show, screened two months ago on the same channel, called Viral Video School which showed funny YouTube clips.

He said: “It’s been pretty mad, because I’ve got so much on the go.

“I’ve also co-written and filmed a pilot show for ITV. It’s a sitcom about working in a record shop and the decline of the music industry.

“My school is very supportive and I think being involved in telly actually helps with my teaching.

“If you ask a child to write a programme for a television show, they will take more notice if you’ve actually done it yourself.”

Addicted to Video Gaming will be screened on Current TV, which is available on Sky channel 183 or Virgin channel 155, at 10pm.