“I know I’m right”
Friday, February 13, 2009 by Ian Jones
Someone needs to do some serious cosmic reordering on Noel Edmonds.
Apparently convinced that he is a kind of cross between Hughie Green and Oswald Mosley, the man now thinks he and only he knows what is wrong with the country and therefore what needs to be done to put it right.
His manifesto appears to be as follows:
1) Anyone who dares re-edit footage of Noel’s HQ for repeat transmission has committed enough of a transgression for Noel to threaten to quit.
2) Anyone who works for a district council and, for whatever reason, rejects somebody’s application for a bungalow, stands open for a ear-bashing from a never-been-this-angry-before Noel, and should quit.
3) Britain is BROKEN and anyone who disagrees that Noel knows why it is broken should quit.
Edmonds jumped back over the shark with Deal or No Deal, then went the other way again around 18 months or so ago, when his harmless-demented ratio started tipping towards demented once more and his messianic tendencies resurfaced yet again. His behaviour on Noel’s HQ recalls the worst of Mark Thomas (haranguing a public sector footsoldier who knows nothing about and can do nothing about the ire being directed at them) coupled with the worst of Nicky Campbell on Watchdog and the worst of any number of rentagobs on Question Time.
Noel’s squandered all the goodwill he managed to contrive when Deal or No Deal began. All that’s left is for a garden gate ‘off the record’ stream of bile to the press and things will have gone full circle.
This show appears to be basically a TV version of the Daily Mail – and is as unpleasant and reactionary as its paper equivalent.
It was interesting, watching the clip, that Noel seemed more upset by the Council Press Officer’s apparently sneery attitude to his “entertainment show” than the actual issue. (which appears to be that anyone who is injured fighting for their country should automatically be allowed to ignore planning laws – can’t really see the connection myself). If the Press Officer had not made that “entertainment show” comment, would Noel have been so angry?
It’s such a shame. Noel’s return to telly was genuinely exciting; on Deal or no Deal he reminded us how gifted he is. But with increasing success comes the increasingly inflated Edmonds ego. The assertion that, yep, he’s right, he’s important. Surely he’s now set his TV career on a course to crashland. ETA Christmas.
It was only a matter of time. However the fact this explosion was witnessed on Sky 1 rather than BBC One or ITV 1, means he can pretty much retreat back to Channel 4 with only a couple of grazes and flash burns.
Bless him, I like Noel as a presenter – I’ve been watching his shows as long as I’ve know what the box in the corner of the room is for, And I knew the address of Swap Shop before my home address – But, I can’t but help agree with Graham on this.
The reason that Noel works so well on Deal Or No Deal is that he is working for the production team – and the format was created by someone other than Noel.
The reason that it’s unravelling fast on Noel’s HQ is that we are back to the production team working from him, and as such he had a huge say in format of the programme.
And when the talent takes too much interest in shaping the programme around them instead of just presenting the programme – trouble.
Has anyone got the words for Stand Up and Be Counted? Sorry, Noel….
But time to go mate, it might say something if he’s too hot to handle for Sky
Noel Edmonds is not a nice person and his nice guy act is just that, an act. In the seventies at the height of his Swap Shop/ Radio One fame, he opened the Co Op in Workington. Naturally a huge crowd appeared and when some kids approached him for his autograph, he yelled ” get these common people away from me” and stormed off. Thanks, Noel, don’t forget that these common people pay your massive wages. Also Deal or No Deal is becoming an overhyped bore and has become stupid.
It reminds me of Dave Lee Travis’s on-air rant about poorly paid nurses. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the issues, it’s the self-righteous tone of the rants that sticks in the mind.
I don’t blame the council officials for refusing to appear on the show. Even if they had the greatest justification in the world for refusing the application, Noel and his foam-thumb wielding audience would have shouted them down. I can’t see Noel ever saying “Fair enough, you were right all along”.
The organisations he cites as NOT dismissing Noel’s HQ are, notably, organisations that the show was working to support, so it’s a totally unfair comparison.
House Party’s demise was down to Noel’s inflated ego, and after a penance on Deal Or No Deal, that ego is back, and will destroy him again.
The only point where I agree with Noel is that the council should not have labelled Noel’s HQ as an entertainment show. In my view, a programme that revolves around the host spends half his time patting disabled people on the head, and the other half ranting about political correctness, is not an entertainment show in any sense of the word.
Looks like Sky have come to their senses as a 2nd series hasn’t been commissioned.
Hmm, so after the falling out with Sky, who will pick it up? The only one that smells right is Watch, or possibly Five (or is that FIVE?).
Either that or there’s going to be be an All New Noel Edmonds Channel. Repeats of Telly Addicts! Top Gear! Newly commissioned things with “Cheggers”! Deal or No Deal! Set cosmic ordering to “Oh God, please no”
Or maybe it’ll be the Kilroy route into politics?
I wonder if UK Living will pick it up, as I think it would sit well with “Most Haunted Live” (that’s not a joke by the way).
I wouldn’t mid some Telly Addicts repeats, mind!
;)
It’ll be Five. He’s tight with Richard Wolfe.
Kind of makes you nostalgic for the days when the scope of Noel’s monstrous ego was limited to his shit programmes and not the entire nation.
This also seems to have overshadowed Stuart Murphy’s move to Sky1 Controller.
Given he’s got Lost coming to an end and the Simpsons long since gone stale, it’ll be interesting to see what he selects (or even, commissions) to replace them. Ripper, anyone?