Go With Noakes was an early spin-off show spun from Blue Peter. Removed from the deadweight of his fellow presenters John Noakes was free to indulge in the daredevil antics of the shows resident action-man.
Peter Purves prolly had a sicknote exempting him from such activity and Valerie Singleton was a woman in a time when washing up was all the adventure and exercise needed of that 52% of the population. Anyway those two had to get John “gooseberry” Noakes out the studio from time to time for reasons Valerie felt the need to reveal in The Daily Mail.
We don’t need to know it, but clearly enough people want to know it that it sells newspapers which in turn must mean bigger payouts to those flogging their personal lives in exchange for another turn in the spot light and a few quid.
If I have digressed, sorry, but not half as much as Val by the looks of it.
Noakes did all manner of things un-ordinary. I might have a fleeting memory of him in spandex on a trapeze, its buried deep under layers of motivated forgetting.
I remember clearly him playing a game of rugby as a hooker in scrum cap. More like it John.
But the clearest of all memories is him hiking “The Pennine Way” (the internet tells me he also did some of the SW coastal path, I don’t remember it).
I had never heard of the Pennine Way, but it made a huge impression on me. This action man role model had a dog, a digital watch and a tent.
He also had some bad weather and a free pint at the end of it.
What he did not have was equally important, basically he had nothing else bothering him. His Ma was not telling him to pick his stuff up and there appeared to be no homework.
Heady stuff.
This was the beginning of my desire to explore the great outdoors, which was clearly much more extensive than anyone had led me to believe up this point.
But it also began my list of wants. I wanted to walk the Pennine Way just like Noakes (a prototype hero for me). My success with the National Trails has been notably zero up to this point. This could be depressing when viewed in the context they were the very first thing on my walking “to do” list.
I would like to be able to watch the program again but YouTube seems to let me down on that front and the BBC seem to only have a clip of the Red Arrows.
But, there is always a but, in a clear example of life being just an exercise in loss management my young memories have been trampled on.
John Noakes had a backpack stuffed with newspaper and was transported out to the bits of the walk they needed to film before being transported back.
I bet it was not even morning when that very cool digital watch woke him from his slumbers, hanging as it was on a strap above his head.
It was not only Purvey and Singles that had a naughty secret.
In a very odd way it diminished my desire to follow in the footsteps of my childhood hero, coz there were very few footsteps to follow.
In the absence of The Pennine Way, here is Noakes having a go at the Liffey Descent. Pay special attention to some of the spectacular “safety” helmets most competitors were sporting. Perhaps most impressive was the chap that sported extra curly hair just in case he came into contact with a rock.
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