Noel Edmonds

Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948) is an English businessman, and former television presenter, radio DJ, writer and producer. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg before moving to BBC Radio 1 in the UK, presenting its breakfast show for almost five years. He presented various radio shows and light-entertainment television programmes, originally working for the BBC and later Sky and Channel 4.

After presenting children's Saturday-morning programme Multi-Coloured Swap Shop (1976–1982) and various other BBC TV shows like Top of the Pops and Top Gear during the 1970s, he became best known for presenting Noel's House Party on BBC One from 1991 to 1999. The show achieved 15 million viewers at its peak and originated the character Mr Blobby. He also presented the BBC TV shows Noel's Christmas Presents (1989–1999) and Telly Addicts (1985–1998). Following a hiatus from broadcasting, Edmonds presented the game show Deal or No Deal on Channel 4 from 2005 to 2016.

Early life

Edmonds was born in Ilford, Essex, the son of Dudley Edmonds, a headmaster who worked in Hainault, Chigwell, and Lydia Edmonds, an art teacher. He attended Glade Primary School in Clayhall and Brentwood School in Brentwood, Essex.

He was offered a place at the University of Surrey but turned it down to focus on his radio career.

Radio career

Edmonds began working as a newsreader on Radio Luxembourg, which was offered to him in 1968 after he sent tapes to offshore radio stations.

In 1969, Edmonds moved to BBC Radio 1, where he began by recording trailers for broadcasts and filling in for absent DJs, such as Kenny Everett. In April 1970, he began his own two-hour Saturday-afternoon programme, broadcasting from 1 to 3 p.m., before replacing Everett on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon in July that year. In October 1971, he was moved to a Sunday slot from 10 a.m. to noon before being promoted to host The Radio 1 Breakfast Show from Monday 4 June 1973 to Friday 28 April 1978, taking over from Tony Blackburn. Edmonds then moved back to Sunday mornings, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., in 1978 and also presented Talkabout, an hour-long talk show broadcast on Thursday evenings. Edmonds left Radio 1 in March 1983.

Edmonds made two temporary returns to Radio 1. First in 1985, when he sat in for Mike Read hosting the breakfast show for 1 week, and again in 1992 to celebrate Radio 1's 25th birthday.

In 2003, Edmonds made a brief radio comeback, taking over the drivetime broadcast on BBC Radio 2 for eight weeks while Johnnie Walker was treated for cancer. His stint on Radio 2 lasted from 4 August until 3 October. In December 2004, Edmonds played a detective on a radio murder mystery play on local station BBC Radio Devon.

In 2020, Edmonds set up an online radio network in New Zealand, called Positivity Radio.

Television career

Edmonds hosted Top of the Pops at various points between 1972 and 1978, during which time he also presented a phone-in programme for teenagers called Z Shed on BBC1 as well as a programme called Hobby Horse. He hosted the children's Saturday-morning programme Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, which ran from 1976 to 1982. With fellow Swap Shop regulars Maggie Philbin and Keith Chegwin, Edmonds was a member of the trio Brown Sauce, which recorded the single "I Wanna Be a Winner" in 1981. It reached number 15 in the UK singles chart. In 1980, Edmonds took part in the Eurovision Song Contest, introducing the UK entry live on stage at the final in the Hague. During Swap Shop's run Edmonds hosted Lucky Numbers, a Saturday evening phone-in quiz programme which required viewers to call in and answer questions based on clips of films shown, and a revival of the 1960s pop music series Juke Box Jury.

Edmonds was one of the original presenters of the BBC's motoring series Top Gear during the late 1970s. During his time on the programme he mocked the Fiat Strada, saying it "wasn't very good", which caused Fiat to threaten to sue the BBC unless he apologised for the comments. Edmonds reappeared in one episode of Top Gear in the 1990s, to road test the classic 1960s Ford GT40 supercar, of which he owned two, because the host Jeremy Clarkson – at 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) tall – was unable to fit into the cockpit. In 1997 Clarkson was one of Edmonds' star team for the 1997 Le Mans race which was featured in Noel's Le Mans Dream, a two-part documentary for BBC 2. In the 1980s Edmonds hosted a series on BBC1 called The Time of Your Life, in which celebrities recalled the time they were at their happiest professionally. It ran for three series from 1983.

The Late Late Breakfast Show

The Late Late Breakfast Show was Edmonds' first Saturday-evening light-entertainment show on the BBC. Presented by Edmonds live on Saturday evenings from 4 September 1982 to 8 November 1986, initially with co-host Leni Harper. It also featured Mike Smith and John Peel.

The programme is remembered for several accidents during its regular "Give it a Whirl" stunt slot; in particular the death of Michael Lush. The show was cancelled by the BBC on 15 November 1986, following Lush's death two days earlier. While rehearsing a bungee jump to be performed live on the show, Michael Lush plunged 120 feet (37 m) to his death when his rope came loose. Edmonds resigned from the BBC immediately afterwards.

Telly Addicts

Telly Addicts was a BBC1 game show hosted by Edmonds, who also owned the format. Telly Addicts broadcast for 13 years from 3 September 1985 until 29 July 1998. Questions were based on past and present television programmes, and generally took the form of a short clip being shown followed by a series of questions either specifically about the clip or more generally about the programme from which it had been taken. Two teams sat opposite each other on sofas.

In 1991 he presented a prime time series called Noel's Addicts, but this show had no similarity to the Telly Addicts format and only ran for one series.

Saturday Roadshow

Noel's Saturday Roadshow was Edmonds's second BBC television light entertainment show, broadcast on Saturday evenings from 3 September 1988 to 15 December 1990. Presented by Edmonds, it was his first major TV project since the demise of The Late, Late Breakfast Show two years earlier. The programme contained several elements found in its predecessor, such as phone-in quizzes, celebrity interviews and bands performing in the studio. The premise for the new show was that unlike The Late Late Breakfast Show, which had been broadcast from the BBC's studios each week, the Roadshow would come from a new, different and exotic location each week. These "locations" were in fact elaborate studio sets dressed to resemble each week's location, such as the North Pole, a space station, Hollywood, Niagara Falls. The irony of this was not lost on Edmonds, whose self-deprecating presentation style frequently made light of the low-budget production values.

The programme was a slow-burning success and, following the third series in 1990, Edmonds's popularity and reputation were sufficiently re-established with the public for him to pitch his idea for Noel's House Party to the BBC.

The show introduced regular features such as the Gunge Tank, the Gotcha Oscars and Wait 'Til I Get You Home, which would all be carried across and subsequently developed in House Party. Another item was Clown Court, in which a guest actor from a TV series would be on trial for all the bloopers made during the shooting of that show, for example Sylvester McCoy for the title role of Doctor Who, and Tony Robinson for his character of Baldrick in Blackadder the Third.

Noel's House Party

By 1991, the Saturday Roadshow morphed into Noel's House Party, which ran for eight years, from Edmonds' mansion in the fictional village of Crinkley Bottom. Regular features included NTV, in which cameras were secretly hidden in viewers' homes, often in VHS tape cases. There was also the "Gotchas", with celebrities caught in elaborate and embarrassing set-up situations.

In one incident NTV's hidden cameras caught celebrity psychic Uri Geller apparently bending a spoon with his hands while demonstrating his "powers" to a member of the public. When then-Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis was "Gotcha'd" live on Radio 1, he infamously yelled "Edmonds, you are a dead man!" He later participated when Edmonds himself was "Gotcha'd". Mr Blobby, a pink and yellow spotted character, initially appeared in the "Gotcha" section, and became a regular feature of the programme. The character even achieved the 1993 Christmas No. 1.

Noel's House Party was a staple of BBC1's autumn and spring schedules throughout the 1990s. The show regularly attracted audiences of over 15 million but along with the general decline in the traditional Saturday night ratings by the time it ended it was pulling in less than 8 million. In the final programme, broadcast on 20 March 1999, Edmonds signed off with thanks to the audience and the wish that history would be kind to the programme.