A bodybuilder so smashing he can blow up a hot-water bottle!

January 12, 2010 9:47 PM

“Muscles like melons – and a fantastic amount of puff!” Using vintage Blue Peter footage as your board, play the classic parlour game Gay or Foppish British Television Presenter? (SLYT. Via)
posted by joeclark (14 comments total)

>: Gay or Foppish British Television Presenter?

Jeremy Clarkson?
posted by dunkadunc at 9:58 PM on January 12, 2010

Noakesy! I was a big fan of Noakes, and Val Singleton too. But Noakesy had the sense of humor.

That segment made me very nervous, actually.
posted by carter at 10:22 PM on January 12, 2010

"It's more than a foot now; it's going up and up and up."
posted by Abiezer at 10:46 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

"I wonder how big it gets?"
posted by eatyourcellphone at 10:51 PM on January 12, 2010

*posts pissing elephant*
posted by tellurian at 11:19 PM on January 12, 2010 [3 favorites]

"Is it in?"
posted by sycophant at 11:40 PM on January 12, 2010

Are those two categories really exclusive?
posted by Skeptic at 11:42 PM on January 12, 2010

Thank goodness Tellurian stepped in with the pissing elephant just in time. It's an essential part of any Blue Peter related topic. I think it's actually a legal requirement now.
posted by BinaryApe at 12:11 AM on January 13, 2010

"Oooo-errr! I got hit in the head by the stopper!"
posted by benzenedream at 12:11 AM on January 13, 2010

Ho-ho-homopholiarious!
posted by rodgerd at 12:37 AM on January 13, 2010

John Noakes started life as an actor and he's admitted that the persona on Blue Peter was basically a part he invented for himself - a kind of semi-mad uncle figure fro the kids watching. If you watch the elephant bit; where he says 'he's stepping on my foot!' it's done nothing of the sort.... just Noakesy ad-libbing.

It's a real shame that his greatest hits seems to have been erased from youtube (climbing Nelson's Column, sky-diving, crashing on the Cresta run, being the button boy - the bloke who stood on top of the mast during Navy displays). He really is the greatest Englishman alive.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:05 AM on January 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

he's admitted that the persona on Blue Peter was basically a part he invented for himself

That's about what you'd figure. If you were the star of a children's education show, you would have to be a bit of a cheerleader for whatever you were presenting. Noakes couldn't very well have acted as if he wasn't interested in and excited by (in a non-sexual way, of course) meeting the wee man (5'3") with the big muscles.
posted by pracowity at 4:21 AM on January 13, 2010

@pracowity: Dude gross.
posted by Mister_A at 6:57 AM on January 13, 2010

Oh good heavens, I remember watching that edition, aged six or seven, and just about bursting a lung trying to blow up my hot water bottle.
posted by MinPin at 12:56 PM on January 13, 2010