''Noel's HQ'' is a British light entertainment programme that was broadcast by Sky1. Hosted by

Noel Edmonds Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948) is an English television presenter, radio DJ, writer, producer, and businessman. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg before moving to BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presente ...

, the series featured segments discussing philanthropic efforts and political issues. A one-off pilot episode was broadcast live on 14 September 2008, and a full 5-part series was broadcast from 17 January to 14 February 2009.

History

''Noel's HQ'' was first announced as a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

broadcast live 14 September 2008 on Sky1; the programme was billed as having a philanthropic purpose, and as being a "response to a

broken Britain Broken Britain is a term which was used by the UK's Conservative Party from 2007 to 2010 to describe a perceived widespread state of social decay in the UK under the tenure of Labour Party Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Political usage David ...

". During a February 2009 episode featuring

Joe Townsend Joseph Townsend (born 27 March 1988) is a British paratriathlete who competes in the PTWC classification. Townsend has won European and world medals as well as becoming Commonwealth Champion in 2018. He represented Great Britain at the 2016 Par ...

, a soldier who had lost both of his legs after stepping on an IED while serving in Afghanistan, Edmonds intervened over a planning permission denial by Wealden District Council for a specially-adapted bungalow for his needs. During the segment, Edmonds launched a verbal tirade towards the council's press officer, Van den Bos, disagreeing with their categorization of ''Noel's HQ'' as an "entertainment" programme in their refusal to speak to it. Edmonds also revealed that he did not accept payments for his role as host, and had been donating his per-episode

salary A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. F ...

to a charitable trust. Following the broadcast, it was reported that Sky had edited approximately 20 seconds of the segment for repeat airings out of concerns for Ofcom regulations—a decision that led to conflicts between Edmonds and Sky over editorial control, and nearly prompted him to quit the programme. In March 2009, Sky announced that it would not renew ''Noel's HQ'' for a second series.

Format

The programme consisted of interviews and segments profiling and surprising people in need, performers of

random acts of kindness A random act of kindness is a nonpremeditated, inconsistent action designed to offer kindness towards the outside world. The phrase "practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty" was written by Anne Herbert on a placemat in Sausalito, Cal ...

, and the operators of charities, with prizes and expertise. It was described by an ''

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

'' writer as a "modern-day ''

Jim'll Fix It ''Jim'll Fix It'' is a British television series broadcast by the BBC between May 1975 and July 1994 and was devised and presented by Jimmy Savile and produced by Roger Ordish. The show encouraged children to write in a letter to Savile with ...

''". The theme of a "broken Britain" was prevalent in its content, such as bureaucracy and overregulation, political correctness, and "health and safety rules and initiatives that don't work."

Reception

Writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'',

Charlie Brooker Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...

considered ''Noel's HQ'' to be "a cross between '' That's Life'', '' Surprise Surprise'', and some unmade episode of '' I'm Alan Partridge'' in which Alan snaps and runs into traffic with his shirt off, smashing windscreens with a cricket bat", and contained segments akin to a

political rally A political demonstration is an action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause or people partaking in a protest against a cause of concern; it often consists of walking in a mass march formati ...

where Edmonds "shouts about petty-minded local councils"''.'' Commenting upon the Townsend episode, Brooker drew comparisons to the film ''

Network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

'', and joked that he would eventually be "carrying out live public executions—death by gunging for bureaucrats—while the audience fires pistols and Cheggers sticks heads on poles", or run for the "

house party A house party is a type of party where people gather at the residence of the party's host. Organization A house party might be organized several months or just a few hours in advance. News of a party may be spread by personal invitations, ...

". Fellow ''Guardian'' writer

Lucy Mangan Lucy Katherine Mangan''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' (born 1974) is a British journalist and author. She is a columnist, features writer and TV critic for ''The Guardian''. A major part of her writing is related t ...

jokingly described the programme as practicing a religion that "harnesses the intercessionary powers of celebrities to encourage community spirit and the charitable impulse", where "thou must declare every third-hand snippet of news about bureaucratic snafu as incontrovertible evidence of Bonkers Britain", and "corrupt and pervert every pure and humane impulse thou—or thou's research team—comes across by the addition of puking sentimentality and the meaningless benedictions of

Nell McAndrew Tracey Jane McAndrew (born 6 November 1973), known as Nell McAndrew, is an English glamour model, TV presenter and fitness trainer. She is also an accomplished amateur athlete, with a marathon personal best time of 2:54:39. Early life McAndrew w ...

References

{{Sky1 2008 British television series debuts 2009 British television series endings Sky UK original programming Television series by ITV Studios