UKC

Sorry if this has been posted before, and shame its not longer but it still brings memories of Blue Peter flooding back from my childhood:
youtube.com/watch?v=MrnuhrqVN1M&

In reply to Mark Collins:

Great stuff!

I may be imagining this but I seem to remember him commenting that, after he left the BBC, he discovered he'd never been insured for accidents and the like. Horrendous, if so. He certainly seemed to feel that he'd been treated very shabbily by the BBC in general and one person in particular, in a position of key influence on the programme.

Our childhood hero deserved far better!

Mick

In reply to Mark Collins:

Can anyone else spot a belay rope or his harness? I can't.

In reply to Mick Ward:

I heard that they didn't even let him keep shep, as he was a "prop".

In reply to Mark Collins:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzasI7ZWUe0&feature=kp

In reply to davidbeynon:

The wiki for it says he was offered Shep on the understanding he couldn't be used for advertising or promotions so it seems under those circumstances John Noakes wasn't prepared to offer Shep a home, there's often two sides to every story.

In reply to stroppygob:

Health and Safety in the 70's? Nah

In reply to Mark Collins:

He did something at Wintours too I believe.

In reply to cander:


That is not quite true either. The conditions about advertising and promotions are true, but Shep left Blue Peter with Noakes in 1978 and lived the rest of his life with Noakes.

In reply to The New NickB:

Indeed, I remember a tearful Noakes returning to our screens to announce Shep's death. I'm filling up just thinking about it.

In reply to deepstar:

Cheers.

In reply to Mark Collins:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03x46dv/Brushing_up_on..._Series_2_Br...

Some of that footage was on the telly recently: skip forward to about 19:20. As well as the ladder, there's some proper old-schooly roped access.

In reply to Mark Collins:

I remember seeing him do a rope slide off Tower Bridge with (IIRC) the Royal Marines. He had a short length of rope looped at each end which formed a handle for sliding down the main rope. No harness, no safety gear, no other attachment to the slide rope, and it was looong way to the far end. That bloke was nails.

In reply to pasbury:


That was Peter Duncan that did men of Gwent for blue Peter. He Renamed the route Duncans dilemma. Original name has been restored in current guide.

In reply to The New NickB:

Soon as I wrote it I suspected someone would put me right - pleased that JN did have Shep.

In reply to Choss:


I used to play 5-a-side with Peter Duncan

In reply to Al Evans:

I once duelled with Peter Duncan on the Forest planet of Arboria. We took it in turns to thrust our arms into an old gnarled trunk, until poor Peter was bitten by the terrible scorpion and writhed in agony until I put the poor devil out of his madness

In reply to toad:

Nice one

In reply to The New NickB:


The version that I heard was - regardless of whether Noakes "owned" Shep - that he was not allowed (under draconian conditions forced on him by Biddy Baxter) to use him in any future television work (advertising or otherwise), so he got another dog and called it "Chep".

Probably not true but before the Internet came along and spoiled all these fun stories, it was a nice one.

In reply to Blue Straggler:



I've heard that, although possibly from you or at least on UKC, google doesn't throw anything up.

In reply to The New NickB:

I've written on here before. I picked it up from TV or a magazine or most likely a Popbitch email circa 2002.

In reply to Mark Collins:

It was John that inspired me to start climbing.
I am sure that he did "Bovine/Oxine" in the Gwynant valley above the camp site.
Anyone else remember that??

In reply to Blue Straggler:


#written it on here before...


Sorry

In reply to PaulHermes:


One wild and windy winter's day, after freezing up Ferdinand, soaking with melting snow (uugh!), we were romping around on Bovine. One of my mates shouted up, "You know John Noakes has done this, don't you? [I didn't.] He got his finger stuck in a pocket - right where you are, silly b*gger!"

To which I could only feebly respond, "You're not going to believe this, but..."

It's the only time that I managed to get a finger stuck in a pocket (more like a little hole, really). It came out, blue and wizened. An unconscious homage to a fantastic guy who marvellously enlivened our childhoods.

Mick

Noakes - got me into orienteering, helped inspire the backpacking and climbing. Definitely someone who improved a lot of lives.

A big hand for John Earle too, who popped up on 1960s TV doing climby things.

In reply to Fat Bumbly2:

>


I remember those John Earle programmes, the theme music was "A Walk in the Black Forest", inspired me and my mate to go on a weeks walking/camping trip to Exmoor, I think we were about 14 years old.