Saturday 2nd April 1983

The son of a headmaster who worked in Hainault,Edmonds attended Glade Primary School and Brentwood School.

He was offered a place at the University of Surrey but turned it down in favour of a job as a newsreader on Radio Luxembourg,which was offered to him in 1968 after he sent tapes to pirate radio stations.

He moved to BBC Radio 1 in 1969 where he began by recording trailers for shows and filling in for absent DJs,such as Kenny Everett and Matthew Browne.

In April 1970, Edmonds began his own two hour Saturday afternoon show, broadcasting from 1-3pm,before replacing the sacked Kenny Everett on Saturday mornings from 10am-12pm in July of that year.

In October 1971, Edmonds presented Saturday morning Swapshop from 10am-12pm, and was also on the roster to present Top of the Pops.
He was then promoted to Radio 1's prestigious breakfast show from June 1973 to April 1978, taking over from Tony Blackburn.

Television career

Edmonds hosted Top of the Pops at various points between 1970 and 1978.
He also hosted the children's Saturday morning programme, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, which ran from 1976 until 1982.
During Swap Shop's run, Edmonds had his first brushes with Saturday evening TV, presenting "Lucky Numbers" – a phone-in quiz show which required viewers to call in and answer questions based on clips of films shown – and a revival of the 1960s pop music show Juke Box Jury.

Edmonds later moved to a Saturday early evening slot, first with The Late, Late Breakfast Show.
The programme was cancelled by the BBC on November 15, 1986, following an accident two days earlier.

Edmonds returned to television with The Noel Edmonds Saturday Roadshow in 1988. By 1991, the Saturday Roadshow morphed into the seminal Noel's House Party.
This latter series ran for eight years from Edmonds' supposed mansion in the fictional town of Crinkley Bottom.

Regular features included NTV, where cameras were secretly hidden in viewer's homes, and the "Gotchas", where celebrities were caught in elaborate and embarrassing setups.

When then-Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis was "Gotcha'd", he infamously yelled: "Edmonds, you are a dead man". He later participated in Noel himself being "Gotcha'd".

07.04.2008. 20:28

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