What’s Noel up to NOW?
Star dresses as a woman to rage at Beeb
NOEL Edmonds has dressed as a bearded woman for a bizarre online rant attacking the BBC.
In the three and a half minute video uploaded to YouTube, Edmonds, 67, poses as BBC executive “Priscilla Prim”.
Wearing wig, make-up and dress, and posing in front of the BBC’s former Television Centre, the Channel 4 Deal or No Deal presenter launches into an avalanche of criticism against the Beeb.
His female alter ego calls his axed 90s hit Noel’s House Party “jolly good family entertainment – not the kind with which we no longer wish to be associated”.
He adds: “By watching Noel’s House Party and telling your friends about it, you are reminding them of a bygone age when we of the BBC had an entertainment department.
“This was closed down when we ran out of ideas of how to entertain the public in a way they found entertaining. These days we don’t entertain the idea of such a thing as a family.”
The clip, which says it is a “partly political broadcast” for the Not The House Party, was uploaded to the site recently with little fanfare and has had only a few hundred views.
It is thought to be intended to promote a Noel’s House Party channel on YouTube, which contains clips from the BBC1 show which was acrimoniously shelved in 1999.
It is the latest controversial comment f rom Edmonds, who exclusively told the Sunday Mirror last week that BBC executives “haven’t a clue what makes a hit show”.
But bemused online viewers have criticised his latest attack on his former paymasters. One internet forum user wrote: “Still bitter after all these years that House Party was axed.” Another joked: “I’m going to have nightmares.” Edmonds says the Beeb has rejected a string of programme ideas he has pitched to them. He said: “You see a worried look in executives’ eyes. They don’t want to take a risk. They claim they don’t have the cash but in reality they haven’t a clue what makes a hit show.” Edmonds, who started filming new Channel 4 show The Odd Couple with comic Alan Carr this week, added: “I was offered one BBC2 show which would have taken up three months of my life. I did a few sums and worked out with the fee they were offering, I’d end up out of pocket.
“Some clueless executives are dragging the BBC down. They have no idea what makes good TV or what people want.”
Edmonds was attracting 12 million Saturday night viewers with House Party.
Last year it was suggested Deal or No Deal could be axed. But he said recently he had signed a new contract. He was unavailable for comment yesterday