John Noakes

John Noakes (born John Wallace Bottomley; 6 March 1934 – 28 May 2017) was an English television presenter and actor. He co-presented the BBC children's magazine programme Blue Peter in the 1960s and 1970s and is the show's longest-serving male presenter, with a tenure that lasted 12 years and six months. He was educated at Shelf Council School, in Shelf and then at Rishworth School near Halifax, where he excelled in cross country running and gymnastics. His parents divorced when he was nine and he went to live with his grandmother. He subsequently worked for BOAC as an aircraft engine fitter.

Acting When Noakes decided to become an actor, he took lessons at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which he paid for by doing a cleaning job and working as a hotel liftboy.

After spending six months in the Broadway production of Arnold Wesker's Chips with Everything, Noakes moved back to the UK to work in rep in Surrey where he met his wife-to-be, Vicky. He followed this with the role of Anselme Popinot in mini-series The Rise and Fall of César Birotteau on BBC2, a four-part dramatisation broadcast in June 1965. His last dramatic role on television before joining Blue Peter was in an episode of the crime series Mogul (later called The Troubleshooters), starring Barry Foster and Geoffrey Keen, broadcast on BBC1 in August 1965.

Blue Peter Presenter Noakes got the opportunity to join Blue Peter when producer Biddy Baxter needed a third presenter to join Christopher Trace and Valerie Singleton after the show went from a weekly to a twice-weekly format. Baxter noticed Noakes at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester where he was playing Willie Mossop in the play Hobson's Choice. Peter Purves replaced Trace in 1967, creating the "Val, John and Pete" line-up, often referred to as "the dream team", which lasted until 1972. When Singleton began to diversify her television career, former Young Generation dancer Lesley Judd joined the team. At a time when most BBC presenters spoke with Received Pronunciation (RP), Noakes's Yorkshire accent was a novelty. free-fall parachuting with the RAF's Flying Falcons display team and bobsleighing (his sled hit a hole in the ice and turned over, injuring him). After a free-fall with the RAF in 1973, Noakes held the record for a while for the longest free-fall parachute jump by a British civilian. His 1977 unassisted ascent of the Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square in London has been voted the greatest moment in children's TV programming.

Alongside his Blue Peter work, Noakes also presented the BBC's Christmas edition of Disney Time with his Blue Peter colleagues on 27 December 1971. He returned to host the show solo at Easter 1979. In August 1972, he hosted four editions of BBC Radio 1's Junior Choice. Overlapping with his period on Blue Peter, Noakes and Shep made six series of Go With Noakes in which they travelled around Britain getting involved in diverse activities like motor racing, rowing, aerobatics and painting. In each series Noakes used a particular mode of transport to get about such as a yacht, on foot, narrow boat, or classic car. A total of 31 episodes of Go With Noakes were broadcast between 28 March 1976 and 21 December 1980. Noakes and Shep left on the 26th June 1978 (just 3 months after Purves).

In October 1998, Noakes joined Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves in a special programme that celebrated 40 years of Blue Peter.

When Noakes left Blue Peter, they offered to let him keep Shep, as the dog had lived with him since his TV debut. Despite Shep living with Noakes, the dog was always legally owned by the BBC and in rules that also applied to himself whilst under contract to the BBC, he could not use Shep for advertising or commercial purposes.

However, shortly after leaving the show, Noakes was furious to discover that what he called his "dog money" ceased to be paid by the Corporation and he confronted Biddy Baxter in a phone call. Baxter was adamant that since Shep had left Blue Peter, the programme should no longer be responsible for any of Shep's costs, although she did sympathise with some of his argument and felt that the BBC should pay Noakes for Shep to appear in Go With Noakes or for 'personal appearances' the dog made. Regardless, she later wrote that Noakes was too angry to discuss the matter and the two rarely spoke again.

Departure and acrimony After 12 years with Blue Peter, Noakes left the programme on 26 June 1978. By this time, his working relationship with the show's producer, Biddy Baxter, was very difficult. The bitterness would last for decades; in a 1999 interview, he said she "was an awful woman, I don't want to talk about her". Eventually he was persuaded to pre-film a message for the programme, otherwise he would have been the only well-known presenter not to appear. The message was shot whilst he was on location filming the Go With Noakes episode "Around The Cheshire Ring", which allowed the show to explain his absence in a positive manner for the viewers. Five years later he did not appear at all for the silver anniversary programme in 1983.

On reflection, Noakes said that he was disappointed with the persona he had created on Blue Peter. Despite coming across as a natural presenter, he said his television personality was merely a role he played; one he once called "Idiot Noakes". He said of him: "Idiot Noakes has an extrovert personality, is light-hearted and jokey. A bit of a buffoon who would do anything for a laugh or a few pence." Biddy Baxter, for her part, denied Noakes's claims there was a lack of insurance for his stunts.

Later work In 1979, Noakes wrote a children's book, The Flight of the Magic Clog, In a second attempt in 1984, the couple stopped in Mallorca, Spain, where they initially planned a three-day stop, but instead settled at Andratx

Noakes also appeared in and voiced several television commercials throughout the 1980s, for products ranging from Andrex toilet tissue, Paper Mate pens, Everest Double Glazing and a public information film encouraging owners to keep their dogs on leads when in the countryside.

In the 2000s, Noakes trained in the Michel Thomas method of language tuition, and then became a language tutor, specialising in Romance languages. In 1999, Noakes co-hosted an ITV series entitled Mad About Pets He was found the same day, close to his home, having fallen into grass in a storm drain.

Noakes died on 28 May 2017 at the Son Espases Hospital in Palma. In accordance with his wishes, on 28 October 2017, half of Noakes's ashes were scattered by firework over the playing fields of his old school at Rishworth, while the other half were scattered in Mallorca.