No safety ropes. No insurance. And snow! Scaling Nelson’s Column was his craziest feat

Tall order: On a chilly, blustery day in April 1977, Blue Peter daredevil John Noakes’s task was to scale Nelson’s Column — all 169ft 3in of it — and help the steeplejacks to clean the pigeon droppings off it

1 Here I come: With the cameraman and his assistant going ahead of him,John Noakes makes easy work of the column. He was 43 — with 11 years of daring Blue Peter stunts behind him

5 Dizzy heights: In the trickiest part of the climb, Noakes is transferred onto a wooden cradle and slowly lifted onto the base of the plinth

4 Helping hand: ‘It began to snow and the scaffolders said: “Maybe we should go down,” ’ said Noakes