Noakes knew what was swot

The death of John Noakes led to mass middle-aged reminiscing about blissful childhoods summed up by a vicar on Radio 4 saying the height of every kid’s ambition in the 60s and 70s was to win a Blue Peter badge. Erm, not in our house, where Blue Peter was deemed the work of the anti-Christ. With its badges for do-gooding and stamp-collecting, and the way it called Sellotape “sticky-backed plastic”, it seemed aimed purely at swots who wanted to wear shorts until they became prefects. To be fair to Noakes, it’s got worse down the years as the presenters all morphed into smiley, charisma-free, clean-cut clones, hoping to one day be given life’s greatest prize – co-hosting The One Show. Sorry vicar, but a Blue Peter badge was to some of us what the 666 sign of the devil is to you.