Gone with Noakes
May 29, 2017 5:06 AM Subscribe
RIP John Noakes, British children's television presenter - mainly on the long-running BBC show Blue Peter with his dog Shep - back in the days when health and safety concerns were a little more lax. He was also famous for being upstaged by a baby elephant.
Obituary
Helping to bury a time capsule in 1971... and opening it again in 2000
Go With Noakes (the show he did after Blue Peter) - Noakesy plays ruby, canoes down the Liffey 1, 2, 3
“I can’t say too much": The moment visibly emotional John Noakes broke down on TV over death of Blue Peter dog Shep
The comedy band The Barron Knights once wrote a tribute to Noakesy and Shep - 'Get Down Shep'
Obituary
Helping to bury a time capsule in 1971... and opening it again in 2000
Go With Noakes (the show he did after Blue Peter) - Noakesy plays ruby, canoes down the Liffey 1, 2, 3
“I can’t say too much": The moment visibly emotional John Noakes broke down on TV over death of Blue Peter dog Shep
The comedy band The Barron Knights once wrote a tribute to Noakesy and Shep - 'Get Down Shep'
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posted by dash_slot- at 5:35 AM on May 29, 2017
posted by dash_slot- at 5:35 AM on May 29, 2017
The '70s is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
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posted by misteraitch at 6:01 AM on May 29, 2017 [9 favorites]
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posted by misteraitch at 6:01 AM on May 29, 2017 [9 favorites]
Blue Peter itself is still going. In the modern days of YouTube I doubt the viewer numbers amount to much though: I don’t think my kids have even heard of it.
posted by pharm at 6:18 AM on May 29, 2017
posted by pharm at 6:18 AM on May 29, 2017
Another little bit of my childhood gone.
I'm surprised to see that Noakes was actually older than his co-presenters Val Singleton and Peter Purves.
That 1970s Liffey Descent footage brings back a lot of memories as well - I'd stopped watching both Blue Peter and Go with Noakes at that stage, but I knew a few people paddling the race.
posted by Azara at 6:18 AM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm surprised to see that Noakes was actually older than his co-presenters Val Singleton and Peter Purves.
That 1970s Liffey Descent footage brings back a lot of memories as well - I'd stopped watching both Blue Peter and Go with Noakes at that stage, but I knew a few people paddling the race.
posted by Azara at 6:18 AM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh my god that video of him climbing to the top of Nelson's column without a safety harness was WAY more effective than my morning cup of coffee in getting my heart racing.
posted by loquacious crouton at 7:10 AM on May 29, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by loquacious crouton at 7:10 AM on May 29, 2017 [5 favorites]
@pharm: from about 8m in Noakes' day to about half a million at the end of the analog TV era, and 100,000 now it's been moved to the CBBC channel.
posted by beschizza at 7:19 AM on May 29, 2017
posted by beschizza at 7:19 AM on May 29, 2017
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(Five mile record-breaking free-fall anybody? I doubt there were many would would have been willing to place a bet that he would make it to 83)
posted by rongorongo at 7:49 AM on May 29, 2017
(Five mile record-breaking free-fall anybody? I doubt there were many would would have been willing to place a bet that he would make it to 83)
posted by rongorongo at 7:49 AM on May 29, 2017
The deeo wellsprings of a certain cohort of British psyches just got a little drier.
As Half Man Half Biscuit sang:
They’ve been cooking on Blue Peter
Now they’re sampling the dishes
“I don’t normally like tomatoes, John
But this is delicious”
And of course, Blue Peter helped entrench the class system - nice families watched it, while coarse families let their little tykes watch the somewhat racier ITV competitor, Magpie. Whose "One for sorrow, two for joy" none-more-70s theme still resonates with the aforementioned cohort, because who didn't sneak a look at life on the other side of the airwave tracks, but the show's presenters escaped iconisation.
Unlike John Noakes, who will survive forever in his own time capsule of media memories.
posted by Devonian at 8:25 AM on May 29, 2017 [5 favorites]
As Half Man Half Biscuit sang:
They’ve been cooking on Blue Peter
Now they’re sampling the dishes
“I don’t normally like tomatoes, John
But this is delicious”
And of course, Blue Peter helped entrench the class system - nice families watched it, while coarse families let their little tykes watch the somewhat racier ITV competitor, Magpie. Whose "One for sorrow, two for joy" none-more-70s theme still resonates with the aforementioned cohort, because who didn't sneak a look at life on the other side of the airwave tracks, but the show's presenters escaped iconisation.
Unlike John Noakes, who will survive forever in his own time capsule of media memories.
posted by Devonian at 8:25 AM on May 29, 2017 [5 favorites]
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And fuck Alzheimer's; what a terrible end to a life.
Blue Peter helped entrench the class system - nice families watched it, while coarse families let their little tykes watch the somewhat racier ITV competitor, Magpie.
Also the BBC summer-holiday replacement Why Don't You? which always felt to me just a bit too worthy to be enjoyable.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:50 AM on May 29, 2017 [3 favorites]
And fuck Alzheimer's; what a terrible end to a life.
Blue Peter helped entrench the class system - nice families watched it, while coarse families let their little tykes watch the somewhat racier ITV competitor, Magpie.
Also the BBC summer-holiday replacement Why Don't You? which always felt to me just a bit too worthy to be enjoyable.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:50 AM on May 29, 2017 [3 favorites]
Bloody hell, that Royal Navy training ship rigging-climbing is horrendous - and Noakes is obviously making his first attempt live on camera*. I mean I know we were all a lot fitter in the 70s but still. After the excerpt Mark Curry (must have been the 80's) says "It's 15 years now since the very last button boy ceremony took place, so unless they look at our film, no-one will ever see that extraordinary sight again." Thank goodness.
Then they wheel an old salt from the class of '48 on for an interview: "Oh, it was very exhilarating and quite exciting. Some boys - pause - fell off, at least one was killed falling off. Another was seriously injured but it mostly taught you to hang on and look after yourself."
* I wonder how they got him down.
posted by glasseyes at 8:59 AM on May 29, 2017 [3 favorites]
Then they wheel an old salt from the class of '48 on for an interview: "Oh, it was very exhilarating and quite exciting. Some boys - pause - fell off, at least one was killed falling off. Another was seriously injured but it mostly taught you to hang on and look after yourself."
* I wonder how they got him down.
posted by glasseyes at 8:59 AM on May 29, 2017 [3 favorites]
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I remember when he joined the show, apparently at the insistence of Chris Trace who threatend to quit if they didn’t add a third presenter (at least according to Trace’s obit — he died 25 years ago, for goodness sake).
Live TV with good presenters, and Val and Chris and were very good, has an extra excitment generated by its sense of barely controlled chaos; adding Noakes to the mix was a stroke of genius! He didn’t so much move unflappably through the chaos as surf on the top of it. It’s not surprising he was the longest serving Blue Peter presenter.
(As for the Blue Peter / Magpie divide, it was possible to watch both, when Magpie eventually arrived. Take that, class system!)
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 9:04 AM on May 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
I remember when he joined the show, apparently at the insistence of Chris Trace who threatend to quit if they didn’t add a third presenter (at least according to Trace’s obit — he died 25 years ago, for goodness sake).
Live TV with good presenters, and Val and Chris and were very good, has an extra excitment generated by its sense of barely controlled chaos; adding Noakes to the mix was a stroke of genius! He didn’t so much move unflappably through the chaos as surf on the top of it. It’s not surprising he was the longest serving Blue Peter presenter.
(As for the Blue Peter / Magpie divide, it was possible to watch both, when Magpie eventually arrived. Take that, class system!)
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 9:04 AM on May 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
BBC Archive have put a clip of his free fall parachute jump on twitter -
"At twenty thousand feet I'm upside down!"
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:05 AM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
"At twenty thousand feet I'm upside down!"
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:05 AM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Noakes trained as an actor and he basically made up the 'Noakesy' character for the show... I remember an interview with him that in order to do the things he did he had to channel each role "So when I had to climb Nelson's column I was a steeplejack, and when I went down the Cresta Run I was a bobsleigh driver, and when I jumped out of an aeroplane I was mad."
In real life you get the impression he was typical dower grumpy Yorkshireman. Still, he'll always be a hero to me. And he did all those stunts without any insurance!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:12 AM on May 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
In real life you get the impression he was typical dower grumpy Yorkshireman. Still, he'll always be a hero to me. And he did all those stunts without any insurance!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:12 AM on May 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
By coincidence, I saw "Alan Partridge interviews the Milky Bar Kid" today before hearing this news. John Noakes was, in many ways, another "where are they now?" figure from the same era. It is rather sobering to think of such a talent, horrors of Alzheimer's apart, living life out of the spotlight these last 40 or so years - and rather coming to resent the BBC as somebody who had treated him as a over-nannied, under-paid - and reputedly under-insured dog-loving dare-devil.
(although, looking at pantheon of 1970s BBC children's entertainment from that era - his reputation ended better than most).
Also: for this child of a "nice family"; definitely not Magpie - my first encounter with a Yorkshire accent.
posted by rongorongo at 9:15 AM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
(although, looking at pantheon of 1970s BBC children's entertainment from that era - his reputation ended better than most).
Also: for this child of a "nice family"; definitely not Magpie - my first encounter with a Yorkshire accent.
posted by rongorongo at 9:15 AM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yes, it's been a bit sad reading his wikipedia entry and finding out about the lack of insurance and feelings of having been taken advantage of. He's also the longest running BP presenter, at 12 years.
He was a nice, gnarly, northern presence in kid's TV. Sun re-o.
posted by glasseyes at 9:17 AM on May 29, 2017
He was a nice, gnarly, northern presence in kid's TV. Sun re-o.
posted by glasseyes at 9:17 AM on May 29, 2017
Huh! I was just reading about the most famous garden in Britain last week.
posted by unliteral at 10:49 AM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by unliteral at 10:49 AM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by PippinJack at 11:11 AM on May 29, 2017
posted by PippinJack at 11:11 AM on May 29, 2017
They should bury him in a cardboard coffin held together by sticky-backed plastic.
posted by aeshnid at 11:25 AM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by aeshnid at 11:25 AM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
WOW. I just watched that mast climbing video and now my palms are sweaty. I almost fell out of my chair when the man at the top swung around to sit on that button.
Also, given how big cameras were back in those pre-GoPro days, it is impressive that they were able to film it as they did.
posted by 4ster at 11:32 AM on May 29, 2017
Also, given how big cameras were back in those pre-GoPro days, it is impressive that they were able to film it as they did.
posted by 4ster at 11:32 AM on May 29, 2017
I can never forget his appearance on another TV show years after Blue Peter when he told everyone that Shep had died. He cried as he said this and I did too. John Noakes was one of my childhood icons. My captain.
posted by Webbster at 11:48 AM on May 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Webbster at 11:48 AM on May 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
Also, given how big cameras were back in those pre-GoPro days, it is impressive that they were able to film it as they did.
Oh, the BBC was an old hand at that - in the 50s, it had done a two-day live TV broadcast of an ascent of the Old Man Of Hoy. A 450 foot sea stack on a remote Scottish island.
Which for the technology of the time was bonkers on stilts. GoPro? Don't make me laugh.
posted by Devonian at 12:28 PM on May 29, 2017 [4 favorites]
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I'm already soft today, and this did it for me.
(also, when I was 10, we moved back to Denmark, where speakers never spoke with an accent and it's quite fascinating to me to learn now that he spoke with a Northern accent because that was just English to me at the time)
posted by mumimor at 1:11 PM on May 29, 2017
I'm already soft today, and this did it for me.
(also, when I was 10, we moved back to Denmark, where speakers never spoke with an accent and it's quite fascinating to me to learn now that he spoke with a Northern accent because that was just English to me at the time)
posted by mumimor at 1:11 PM on May 29, 2017
John Noakes was a formative part of my youth. There's a time capsule in my psyche that he and BP placed there many years ago.
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posted by arcticseal at 1:34 PM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by arcticseal at 1:34 PM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
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It got really dusty in the room when I heard about this this morning. Noakes - although the persona might've been an act - was kind of like a dad you wished you had. At least he's with Shep now.
To translate the feeling for those on the other side of the pond: Mr Rogers and Evel Knievel died for us today.
posted by scruss at 3:19 PM on May 29, 2017 [4 favorites]
It got really dusty in the room when I heard about this this morning. Noakes - although the persona might've been an act - was kind of like a dad you wished you had. At least he's with Shep now.
To translate the feeling for those on the other side of the pond: Mr Rogers and Evel Knievel died for us today.
posted by scruss at 3:19 PM on May 29, 2017 [4 favorites]
Cripes, I'm not even British and have never seen a single episode of Blue Peter and I sat here this afternoon and cried watching some of those video clips.
posted by briank at 3:30 PM on May 29, 2017
posted by briank at 3:30 PM on May 29, 2017
Oh, the BBC was an old hand at that - in the 50s, it had done a two-day live TV broadcast yt of an ascent of the Old Man Of Hoy. A 450 foot sea stack on a remote Scottish island.
Just watched it. An amazing documentary.
And rest in peace, John Noakes.
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posted by 4ster at 5:49 PM on May 29, 2017
Just watched it. An amazing documentary.
And rest in peace, John Noakes.
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posted by 4ster at 5:49 PM on May 29, 2017
In mourning the daring, charismatic John Noakes, we also grieve for our childhood - Janet Ellis
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:29 AM on May 30, 2017
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:29 AM on May 30, 2017
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