R.I.P. John & Roger.

[Doc Hudson]

Those of a certain age and from a bygone era of children's television, will remember it was either 'Magpie' or 'Blue Peter'. For the 'Blue Peter' audience of the mid 60's to late 70's there was only one key lineup; Val, Peter & John. John Noakes was a TV hero to a multitude of school children during his 12+ year stint at Blue Peter. From various press articles the twilight years of his life were impaired by health issues. RIP John Noakes and I think a few forum members would take a few moments to raise a glass to the enjoyment this man brought to our childhood. (get down Shep!)

Whilst on this thought, I notice how Roger Moore picked a bad day to pass away coinciding with the tragic events in Manchester. Respect and best wishes to an actor who added his mark on one of the many flavours of Mr bond 007, along with other classics like "the Saint".  (Thoughts and prayers also go to the families of those who did not return home after the concert at Manchester Arena.)

Doc H    

 

[phil d]

I was watching a piece on tv about John Noakes and his time on Blue Peter, and I remembered most of the clips first time around. The one for me was when he climbed Nelsons Column, no fall arrest kit, no ropes, nothing, he just put his hard hat on and off he went, wouldn't happen these days. We hear of people dying and it seems strange, half the time you can't believe they're gone because I suppose in a way we grew up with them, it makes you feel old when all those you did grow up with are dying off. Remember a few years ago when Jack Hargreaves died? For those too young to remember there was a programme called "how"  on TV, in the 60's and 70's , there was Jack and Fred Dinenage, and a couple of others, Jack always had a pipe in his mouth, can you imagine that these days! They showed you how to do and make all kinds of things, real things you could get hurt with, not like the soft safe fluffy world of today.

Blue peter was the kids programme for the "posher" kids, who lived in nice houses, for the more "common" kids there was Magpie, it was a bit less genteel. It was the same with Saturday morning TV, the BBC had Noel Edmonds and it was all nice and polite and respectable (boring), ITV had Tiswas, this was more anarchic, remember the "phantom flanflinger"?  It was fronted by Chris Tarrant and Sally James, now you'll all remember her, certainly your dad's will. She always seemed to wear that tight black pvc stuff that left very little to the imagination! I often chuckle to myself over her, we had kids I grew up with and their dad's never spent a lot of time with them, yet every Saturday morning, "come on son, lets watch Tiswas" the dad would shout, the poor kid quite often would reply, "but dad I want to watch Swapshop" , the dad would always win insisting that Tiswas was the better programme. It couldn't have been something to do with him wanting to ogle the sexy Sally James could it!

 

[ProDave]

If you think John's "working at heights" is a little iffy, you need to look at what Fred Dibnah used to do for proper "old school" working at heights.

 

[phil d]

If you think John's "working at heights" is a little iffy, you need to look at what Fred Dibnah used to do for proper "old school" working at heights.

I'll probably get slated for this, but a few years back I was called into work one Saturday morning, we had Gypsies camped nearby and one of the cameras had gone down. I checked everything and decided the fault was on the camera, the only problem was it was about 40 feet up on one of those narrow triangular lattice masts, and we had no cherry picker.

I decided to climb the mast and fix it anyway, the mast was about a foot wide and had loads of diagonal braces, they aren't made for climbing, anyway I got up there and then encountered a problem, having no harness and only 2 hands how to hold on and work at the same time. That's when I remembered Fred, I hooked one leg through the mast and hung on with that, repaired the camera and climbed back down, there was hell when the gaffer found out what I had done but hey wow, I fixed the camera.

Incidentally I had dinner with Fred Dibnah back in the 80's, it was a surreal experience, I was at a show and he was there with his traction engine, we got chatting and the next thing he say's "well lad I'm just goin, t'ave me dinner does tha want some?" I replied that I wouldn't mind joining him and he disappeared into his living van, he emerged a minute or two later with two cans of Stones bitter, " here yer are lad, gerrit down thy neck". We sat there drinking cans of bitter for "dinner", shame I didn't have a camera with me, a couple of years ago I was at another steam rally and his son was there, we got talking and I told him about the time I had "dinner" with his dad, he laughed and said that was typical of him. He was a really nice bloke was Fred. 

 

[ProDave]

When I was younger we (our radio club at the time) had the lease of a 160ft free standing radio tower. I climbed that once to install a new aerial. One of the guys worked for the GPO as it was so we had a set of borrowed GPO pole belts to secure us while working up there.

We did tie every tool in use to a bit of string and the other end tied to our belts, mainly because it was a hell of a climb if you had to go back down for another spanner.

 

[phil d]

When I was younger we (our radio club at the time) had the lease of a 160ft free standing radio tower. I climbed that once to install a new aerial. One of the guys worked for the GPO as it was so we had a set of borrowed GPO pole belts to secure us while working up there.

We did tie every tool in use to a bit of string and the other end tied to our belts, mainly because it was a hell of a climb if you had to go back down for another spanner.

Still got my old pole belt, they don't use them now, it's harnesses.

 

[steptoe]

I had a belt and a set of climbing spikes,

Got them from a girl in the pub that worked at NIE, 

She saw me putting up the xmas lights in the village, at that time they were simply festoon cables strung from telegraph pole to pole, and brought me them in that weekend as a surprise to make life easier for me, it was not only so much quicker than using a ladder, but a whole heap safer too,

 

[ProDave]

The spikes tended not to work on a steel lattice tower........

 

[Lurch]

I had a belt and a set of climbing spikes,

Got them from a girl in the pub that worked at NIE, 

Wasn't sure where this was going.....

 

[Evans Electric]

Those of a certain age and from a bygone era of children's television, will remember it was either 'Magpie' or 'Blue Peter'. For the 'Blue Peter' audience of the mid 60's to late 70's there was only one key lineup; Val, Peter & John. John Noakes was a TV hero to a multitude of school children during his 12+ year stint at Blue Peter. From various press articles the twilight years of his life were impaired by health issues. RIP John Noakes and I think a few forum members would take a few moments to raise a glass to the enjoyment this man brought to our childhood. (get down Shep!)

Whilst on this thought, I notice how Roger Moore picked a bad day to pass away coinciding with the tragic events in Manchester. Respect and best wishes to an actor who added his mark on one of the many flavours of Mr bond 007, along with other classics like "the Saint".  (Thoughts and prayers also go to the families of those who did not return home after the concert at Manchester Arena.)

Doc H    

I never seemed to see Magpie , but often saw Valrie Singleton...I mean Blue Peter  . 

John Noakes  ( Get down Shep!)  was a real top act in kid's presenting .

Roger Moore wasn't the greatest actor in the world but well liked , many stories of what a decent guy he was.      I know if you let him talk he was extremely funny with thousands of anecdotes etc . and was always self depreciating .       I last saw him on the Graham Norton Show ...which of course meant he couldn't get a word in edgeways once Norton starts waffling .