Health and Safety crushed the joy out of life

He seems to be wearing black lace up, leather soled shoes as well.

It's ok, if he fell his flares would act like a parachute.

But otherwise - ****ing hell.

Fred Dibnah never let pesky H&S cramp his style

John Noakes was absolute nails.  I remember watching that at the time and all the other stuff he did.  However H&S gets a bad rap. It saves lives and has slowly improved working conditions for millions. And if it's crushing the joy out of your life, you're doing it wrong (life and H&S)!

The final finishing flourish is the bare handed, mask free scooping out of pigeon shit while sat in a home made bosun's chair (fag optional)

What a wimp! He tied a bit of rope round his tummy.

I'd forgotten how much I loved John Noakes when I was a kid. He was truly inspiring, and I have tried to live my life with the attitude "I might not be able to do it, but I'll give it a go".*

Apart from a couple of broken wrists (thanks skateboarding) and numerous cracked ribs (thanks karate, downhilling and skateboarding again) it's worked out ok so far.

*I think that might not include climbing Nelson's column on wobbly ladders tied onto a lightning conductor with a few old bits of rope.

I suspected this would be Dibnah, there's a video pops up recently on Twitter of his taking a chimney down brick by brick with a fag balanced on his bottom lip.

Not disappointed to see the Noakes clip instead though.... just surprised Shep wasn't up there with him.

I'm surprised people haven't seen this before. It's the stuff of legend.

Sending kids' TV presenters on fool's errands was de rigueur in the 70s and 80s. It was just normal. Peter Duncan later stepped into John Noakes' shoes and there was a spin-off called "Duncan Dares" but he was a drink of water compared with Noakes.

"I’ve never fell off a big chimney. You only fall off one of them once."

Fred Dibnah.

I suspected this would be Dibnah, there’s a video pops up recently on Twitter of his taking a chimney down brick by brick with a fag balanced on his bottom lip.

I met Fred Dibnah once, at some traction engine faire or other. I was very young and I still came away thinking "that bloke's a nutter." Lovely guy but jesus christ, he was WCA only lucky.

The one I'd forgotten about was Lesley Judd getting hoisted on to bishop rock lighthouse and her sling basically falls away as she leaves the boat! She is basically death gripping the hawser above a surging Atlantic until they get her in to the light.

About 3 minutes in, but there's dibnah madness too!

And loves dogs too (people who don't like dogs shouldn't be trusted).

He's my hero/ idol from Skydiving.  He held the world civilian skydive altitude record for quite a long time (a decade, maybe  towards 2 decades)  when he did a freefall jump from about 25,000 feet (with the Army out of a c130), along with another civvy, Ronny O'brien (who was chief instructor at Sibson - Peterborough- parachute Centre).  In the days when equipment did fail and skydiving was dangerous.  (He'd learned to skydive properly through the tuition system  of the Time, still in the days of round parachutes, not modern 'square' ram-air canopies. 'Solo',  none of this tandem passenger nonsense.

I met Fred Dibnah at the Manchester Science Museum when he was giving a talk. Fascinating man, he got progressively drunker through the evening and then at the book signing he seemed like he genuinely enjoyed chatting to everyone.

Remember watching an interview where someone chided him for having a few pints at lunchtime before climbing the chimney and his memorably response was "I'm not bloody climbing it sober!"

yeah they don't film anything dangerous any more! :/

That clip with Lesley Judd shows exactly why H&S has gone that way it has.

There was the guy who died Bungy jumping from a box on some Noel Edmonds Show.

A quick glance at videos of say Hardlines or people climbing routes with little or no gear suggests we still have the right to put it all on the line

& don’t forget John Noakes got his arse out on Blue Peter to show his bruises after the Cresta run crash!

Total legend.   Big shout out too to John Earle, well known as a climber and guide book writer.  Hosted a programme called Tom Tom, never heard of it since it aired - outdoor adventure magazine format.   Literally life changing for me.

Quite interesting with the juxtaposition of this thread, and the one about the drink driver. "Banning drink driving sucked the joy out of life" doesn't have the same impact though, eh?

John Noakes was a boyhood hero. I'd forgotten the lighthouse one though.

Are we to assume that Peter Purves had a better H&S clause in his contract, I don't recall him doing quite such daft stuff?

People appreciate and become more averse to danger as the generations pass. My grandad told me of the dangerous stuff his father did, my father thought my grandad was reckless in his work, and I thought the same about my own father.

I appreciate it was necessary in the olden days to get things done, and people didn't have much choice. But since a few decades ago I see it more as bravado and cutting corners to work in unsafe ways when the option to do it safely is available.

That Noakes thing still makes me twitch, especially the overhang.  He really was nails

I think the issue with h&s these days is those implementing the rules (and this goes for most rules tbh) assumes a universal and low level of skill knowledge, competence and mindset. I understand why this is done but as can be shown by someone jumping a 20' set of doubles the person in control makes a huge difference.

Health and safety is brilliant. It hopefully stops a boss forcing an employee to climb up the side of Nelson’s Column without a harness.
I’m a clumsy sod at times and have no place working at heights.
If the rules weren’t there, I really needed the work and the company I worked for insisted I did such a thing it may well end badly.

I think the issue with h&s these days is those implementing the rules

I think its because elf & safety is often used as an excuse or a bogeyman.
My dad for example is a big fan of H&S having spent his career wiring things up on building sites before switching to teaching others to do so.
The bodycount in his profession and related ones was far lower by the end of his career.

For the OP. The H&S team wouldnt really get a look in before the lawyers/accountants had a nervous breakdown at the risk of them having to pay out for the death/career ending injury of a well paid person nowadays. The only people enjoying the conversation would be the insurance brokers asking "you want what?"

They did a BBC kids TV thing on Five Live a few weeks ago and interviewed a lot of the Blue Peter presenters over the years

Apparently the production crew are sadistic bastards

The one thing they all said that during the interview process they asked you what your greatest fears were

If you said that you were scared of heights then your first ever programme would involve you freefall parachuting then high wire walking across a massive ravine 😂

Coor. I'd tell them I was petrified by the taste of bacon.

Apparently they’re also well clued up on the double bluff

Reminded me of this from 1984 Wackaday kids TV - win a competition, strap your kid in a truck on two wheels on a biblically wet day! Helmet and roll cage? nahhh!

It was filmed in happier days many years before they flattened our test track for another Barrat housing estate 🙁 The test hills, banked track and bridge took some demolishing.... I'm most disappointed that the Pave wasn't retained as somebody's rustic driveway.

We also know a retired Bolton tax inspector who had a very different opinion of a local steeplejack 🙂

I get sweaty palms every time I watch that John Noakes clip. And credit too (even more so) to Terry Doe the cameraman who had to get up there too, while carrying equipment. At least he does get a mention a couple of times.

There's a lovely film about John Noakes which features, amongst others, Terry the cameraman talking about the climb. He's very unassuming and only mentions John's part in the climb and not his own. Link below.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6c72u3

However H&S gets a bad rap. It saves lives and has slowly improved working conditions for millions. And if it’s crushing the joy out of your life, you’re doing it wrong (life and H&S)!

The people how usually moan about it usually tend to not work in the situations it’s for.

The issue is people blaming everything on ‘elf and safety gorn mad’ is when it’s someone misapplying it.

I watched that John Noakes clip and I think he actually did mention the poor cameraman.

Now who was that insta/face/tick’er who managed to fall to his death when he couldn’t open a window.

yeah they don’t film anything dangerous any more! :/

That Flintoff bungee jump was H&S done very well and would have been very safe

The accident that caused his injuries was just driving an open topped car. He was just unlucky

Health & Safety well in action at the Blue Peter studio...! 😀

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GRIIIz9_vqY

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Much as noakes et al get all the limelight for this lot, I feel sorry for the camera crew, they had to clamber up these things and peer over the edge with a huge camera that likely weighed more than they do.

Wouldn't catch me doing any of it but I'd rather have been a blue Peter presenter than a blue Peter camera person.

 He really was nails

Wasn't he also revealed to be a bit a arse as well? I know he refused to go to any of the BP anniversary shows because he had such a bad relationship with the show's producer, and was a bit upset that folks thought that his BP persona was his real one, whereas he thought he was "acting"

One of those Junior Kickstart riders nanes rings a bell!

I was chatting to a recently promoted manager in our company. He had done the first of 3 days on an H&S course away from the office.

I asked him how Health and Safety was going.

He pointed out that he was smoking and had ridden to the course up the A3 during rush hour on a moped.

In that junior kickstart video at 12.30 is a competitor called Robert Warner. I know it's not the most unusual name but could it be..?

Certainly looks like him. Dabbed everything though!

Yeah he posted it on his Insta a few days ago. Was also on You Bet.

If you work in developing countries you see people working without any H&S, it's quite illuminating eg riggers on 100'+ masts with no ropes, harness etc, climbing up in flip flops to install equipment.

One slip and you have several orphans struggling to feed themselves (no welfare system). The company will just find someone else to replace the dead worker. They might drag his body outside the mast compound before the new guy gets sent up...

That Flintoff bungee jump was H&S done very well and would have been very safe

The accident that caused his injuries was just driving an open topped car. He was just unlucky

Anyone know the details of the Flintoff's crash? The story seems to have been well managed - there's been no 'bants' around the crash like most of the TG crashes over the years. No interviews I'm aware of. All I know is they cancelled filming the series and Flitoff has left the program. A non disclosure agreement around a settlement agreement maybe? For the BEEB to effectively cancel a cash cow (even if it's been declining for years) is a big thing. I hope he mends well - after hearing him interviewed a couple of times on TMS and elsewhere indicated there is a lot more to h

But Noakes - was a hero of mine as a kid. Kind of the polar opposite of the influencer youth heros of today - did his thing without a lot of fuss, then seemingly vanished after he left Blue Peter and didn't milk it - no idea how he financed the rest of his life.

Flintoff was threatening to sue them over it, so I'm guessing there was an allegation that they breached their duty of care to him in the way the stunt was set up. I vaguely recall that originally a shorter member of the presenting team was going to drive that car, so perhaps there was an issue with the dimensions of any roll-cage or other rollover protection.

Hope he heals up fully, must have been really severe at the time, or he's having to undergo continuing surgery to still look that way several months later.

Some vintage car racers I know seem to think a 3 wheeler was involved, either spun or doing a reverse J turn. They are very unstable and prone to roll once going backwards. Tiff Needell came with moments of disaster once.