Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948) is an English businessman, and former television presenter, radio DJ, writer and producer. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on
Radio Luxembourg before moving to
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...
in the UK, presenting its
breakfast show for almost five years. He presented various radio shows and light-entertainment television programmes, originally working for the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
and later
Sky UK
Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), Trade name, trading as Sky, is a British broadcasting, broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone ...
and
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
.
After presenting children's Saturday-morning programme ''
Multi-Coloured Swap Shop
''Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'', more commonly known simply as ''Swap Shop'', is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1976 to 27 March 1982. It was groundbreaking in many ways: by broadcasting on Saturday morning ...
'' (1976–1982) and various other BBC TV shows like ''
Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...
'' and ''
Top Gear'' during the 1970s, he became best known for presenting ''
Noel's House Party'' on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
from 1991 to 1999. The show achieved 15 million viewers at its peak and originated the character
Mr Blobby. He also presented the BBC TV shows ''
Noel's Christmas Presents'' (1989-1999) and ''
Telly Addicts'' (1985-1998). Following a hiatus from broadcasting, Edmonds presented the game show ''
Deal or No Deal'' on Channel 4 from 2005 to 2016.
Early life
Edmonds was born in
Ilford
Ilford is a large List of areas of London, town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a po ...
,
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
, the son of Dudley Edmonds, a headmaster who worked in
Hainault,
Chigwell, and Lydia Edmonds, an art teacher.
He attended Glade Primary School in
Clayhall and
Brentwood School in
Brentwood, Essex
Brentwood is a town in Essex, England, in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt 20 miles (30 km) north-east of Charing Cross and close to the M25 motorway. The population of the built-up area was 55,340 in 2021.
Brentwood is a t ...
.
[Rachel Cooke, The Observer]
Noel Edmonds talks to Rachel Cooke
29 January 2006
He was offered a place at the
University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its Royal Charter, royal charter in 1966, along with a Plate glass university, number of other institutions following recommendations ...
but turned it down to focus on his radio career.
Radio career
Edmonds began working as a newsreader on
Radio Luxembourg,
which was offered to him in 1968 after he sent tapes to
offshore radio
Offshore radio is radio broadcasting from ships or fixed maritime structures. Offshore broadcasters are usually unlicensed but transmissions are legal in international waters. This is in contrast to unlicensed broadcasting on land or within a nat ...
stations.
In 1969, Edmonds moved to
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...
, where he began by recording trailers for broadcasts and filling in for absent DJs, such as
Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett (born Maurice James Christopher Cole; 25 December 1944 – 4 April 1995) was an English radio Disc Jockey, DJ and television entertainer, known for his zany comedic style. After spells on pirate radio and Radio Luxembourg in the m ...
.
In April 1970, he began his own two-hour Saturday-afternoon programme, broadcasting from 1to 3p.m., before replacing Everett on Saturdays from 10a.m. to noon in July that year. In October 1971, he was moved to a Sunday slot from 10a.m. to noon before being promoted to host ''
The Radio 1 Breakfast Show'' from Monday 4 June 1973 to Friday 28 April 1978, taking over from
Tony Blackburn. Edmonds then moved back to Sunday mornings, from 10a.m. to 1p.m., in 1978 and also presented ''Talkabout'', an hour-long talk show broadcast on Thursday evenings. Edmonds left Radio 1 in March 1983.
Edmonds made two temporary returns to Radio 1. First in 1985, when he sat in for
Mike Read hosting the breakfast show for 1 week, and again in 1992 to celebrate Radio 1's 25th birthday.
In 2003, Edmonds made a brief radio comeback, taking over the
drivetime broadcast on
BBC Radio 2 for eight weeks while
Johnnie Walker
Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was established in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire in 1820, and continued to be produced and bottled at the town's Hill Street plant, once the world's ...
was treated for cancer. His stint on Radio 2 lasted from 4 August until 3 October. In December 2004, Edmonds played a detective on a radio murder mystery play on local station
BBC Radio Devon.
In 2020, Edmonds set up an online radio network in
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
, called Positivity Radio.
Television career

Edmonds hosted ''
Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...
'' at various points between 1972 and 1978, during which time he also presented a phone-in programme for teenagers called ''Z Shed'' on
BBC1
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...
as well as a programme called ''Hobby Horse''. He hosted the children's Saturday-morning programme ''
Multi-Coloured Swap Shop
''Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'', more commonly known simply as ''Swap Shop'', is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1976 to 27 March 1982. It was groundbreaking in many ways: by broadcasting on Saturday morning ...
'', which ran from 1976 to 1982. With fellow ''Swap Shop'' regulars
Maggie Philbin and
Keith Chegwin, Edmonds was a member of the trio
Brown Sauce, which recorded the single "I Wanna Be a Winner" in 1981. It reached number 15 in the UK singles chart. In 1980, Edmonds took part in the ''
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...
'', introducing the UK entry live on stage at the final in
the Hague
The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
. During ''Swap Shop''
's run Edmonds hosted ''Lucky Numbers'', a Saturday evening phone-in quiz programme which required viewers to call in and answer questions based on clips of films shown, and a revival of the 1960s pop music series ''
Juke Box Jury''.
Edmonds was one of the original presenters of the BBC's motoring series ''
Top Gear'' during the late 1970s. During his time on the programme he mocked the
Fiat Strada, saying it "wasn't very good", which caused
Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...
to threaten to sue the BBC unless he apologised for the comments. Edmonds reappeared in one episode of ''Top Gear'' in the 1990s, to road test the classic 1960s
Ford GT40 supercar, of which he owned two, because the host
Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English television presenter, journalist, farmer, and author who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for hosting the television programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), T ...
– at tall – was unable to fit into the cockpit. In 1997 Clarkson was one of Edmonds' star team for the 1997
Le Mans race which was featured in ''Noel's Le Mans Dream'', a two-part documentary for BBC 2. In the 1980s Edmonds hosted a series on BBC1 called ''The Time of Your Life'', in which celebrities recalled the time they were at their happiest professionally. It ran for three series from 1983.
''The Late Late Breakfast Show''
''The Late Late Breakfast Show'' was Edmonds' first Saturday-evening light-entertainment show on the BBC. Presented by Edmonds live on Saturday evenings from 4 September 1982 to 8 November 1986, initially with co-host
Leni Harper. It also featured
Mike Smith and
John Peel.
The programme is remembered for several accidents during its regular "Give it a Whirl" stunt slot; in particular
the death of Michael Lush. The show was cancelled by the BBC on 15 November 1986, following Lush's death two days earlier. While rehearsing a
bungee jump to be performed live on the show, Michael Lush plunged to his death when his rope came loose. Edmonds resigned from the BBC immediately afterwards.
''Telly Addicts''
''Telly Addicts'' was a BBC1 game show hosted by Edmonds, who also owned the format. ''Telly Addicts'' broadcast for 13 years from 3 September 1985 until 29 July 1998. Questions were based on past and present television programmes, and generally took the form of a short clip being shown followed by a series of questions either specifically about the clip or more generally about the programme from which it had been taken. Two teams sat opposite each other on sofas.
In 1991 he presented a prime time series called ''Noel's Addicts'', but this show had no similarity to the ''Telly Addicts'' format and only ran for one series.
''Noel's Saturday Roadshow''
''Noel's Saturday Roadshow'' was Edmonds's second BBC television light entertainment show, broadcast on Saturday evenings from 3 September 1988 to 15 December 1990.
Presented by Edmonds, it was his first major TV project since the demise of ''The Late, Late Breakfast Show'' two years earlier. The programme contained several elements found in its predecessor, such as phone-in quizzes, celebrity interviews and bands performing in the studio. The premise for the new show was that unlike ''The Late Late Breakfast Show'', which had been broadcast from the BBC's studios each week, the Roadshow would come from a new, different and exotic location each week. These "locations" were in fact elaborate studio sets dressed to resemble each week's location, such as the North Pole, a space station, Hollywood,
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York (s ...
. The irony of this was not lost on Edmonds, whose self-deprecating presentation style frequently made light of the low-budget production values.
The programme was a slow-burning success and, following the third series in 1990, Edmonds's popularity and reputation were sufficiently re-established with the public for him to pitch his idea for ''Noel's House Party'' to the BBC.
The show introduced regular features such as the Gunge Tank, the Gotcha Oscars and Wait 'Til I Get You Home, which would all be carried across and subsequently developed in ''House Party''. Another item was Clown Court, in which a guest actor from a TV series would be on trial for all the bloopers made during the shooting of that show, for example
Sylvester McCoy for the title role of ''Doctor Who'', and
Tony Robinson for his character of Baldrick in ''
Blackadder the Third''.
''Noel's House Party''
By 1991, the ''Saturday Roadshow'' morphed into ''Noel's House Party'', which ran for eight years, from Edmonds' mansion in the fictional village of Crinkley Bottom. Regular features included NTV, in which cameras were secretly hidden in viewers' homes, often in VHS tape cases. There was also the "Gotchas", with celebrities caught in elaborate and embarrassing set-up situations.
In one incident NTV's hidden cameras caught celebrity psychic
Uri Geller apparently bending a spoon with his hands while demonstrating his "powers" to a member of the public. When then-Radio 1 DJ
Dave Lee Travis was "Gotcha'd" live on Radio 1, he infamously yelled "Edmonds, you are a dead man!" He later participated when Edmonds himself was "Gotcha'd".
Mr Blobby, a pink and yellow spotted character, initially appeared in the "Gotcha" section, and became a regular feature of the programme. The character even achieved the
1993 Christmas No. 1.
''Noel's House Party'' was a staple of BBC1's autumn and spring schedules throughout the 1990s. The show regularly attracted audiences of over 15 million but along with the general decline in the traditional Saturday night ratings by the time it ended it was pulling in less than 8 million. In the final programme, broadcast on 20 March 1999, Edmonds signed off with thanks to the audience and the wish that history would be kind to the programme.
''Deal or No Deal''
In 2005, Edmonds was persuaded back to TV presentation by
Peter Bazalgette, then CEO of
Endemol, which was experiencing great success with its new game show format of ''
Deal or No Deal''. Edmonds initially declined the approach, citing that he was concentrating on business interests, but eventually agreed to host a short run of 66 shows. The programme was initially recorded at Paintworks in
Bristol
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
but later moved to a dedicated studio in
The Bottle Yard Studios in 2014. ''Deal or No Deal'' began UK transmission on 31 October 2005, and was broadcast on afternoons, and occasionally evenings, six days a week. In March 2006 Edmonds had his contract for presenting ''Deal or No Deal'' extended until autumn 2007, for a fee rumoured to be £3 million, making him one of the highest-paid personalities on UK television. In 2006, Edmonds was nominated for a
BAFTA Television Award for his work on the programme but lost out on the night to
Jonathan Ross.
On 16 March 2007, Edmonds made a
cameo appearance
A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...
as himself in a sketch with
Catherine Tate who appeared in the guise of her character
Joanie "Nan" Taylor from ''
The Catherine Tate Show''. Nan appeared on a special episode of ''Deal or No Deal'', where she ended up cheating. The sketch was made for the BBC
Red Nose Day fundraising programme of 2007.
''Deal or No Deal'' ran for 11 years and almost 3,000 shows were recorded, with over £40m being given away during its run. Celebrity specials were aired sporadically between 2012 and 2015. In the summer of 2016 by mutual agreement Edmonds and
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
agreed to end the show. In celebration of one of UK TV's longest and most popular gameshow runs, the final shows were recorded on location. Games were filmed on a
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington.
Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...
, the
Flying Scotsman, atop the
Blackpool Tower
Blackpool Tower is a tourist attraction in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which was opened to the public on 14 May 1894. When it opened, Blackpool Tower was the tallest man-made structure in the British Empire. Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in P ...
and down a cave in
Somerset
Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
.
Work with Sky
On 24 May 2007,
Sky One announced that Edmonds would host the UK version of the American hit ''
Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?'', titled ''Are You Smarter than a 10 Year Old?''. The programme made its debut on Sky One on 7 October 2007. Edmonds hosted the peak-time showing of the programme, with the daily programme being presented by
Dick & Dom.
Sky1's autumn 2008 season saw Edmonds host ''Noel's HQ'', a new live entertainment show with a philanthropic purpose, his fees going to a charitable trust. This was later developed into a series. The show received a negative review from ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''. Sky edited a repeat broadcast after Edmonds launched an extended verbal attack on a council press officer. In March 2009, Sky1 announced the cancellation of the show.
Other television appearances

Edmonds has hosted major TV events including the
BAFTA Awards, the
Brit Awards and the launch of the
UK National Lottery. Edmonds was involved in the
Live Aid concerts in 1985, transporting stars to and from the
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
concert via helicopter and appearing on stage at Wembley to introduce the joint set by
Sting and
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...
. Edmonds also took Collins to
Heathrow Airport, where Collins boarded
Concorde
Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...
to fly to the United States to perform at the
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
concert.
''
Noel's Christmas Presents'' was an annual broadcast in which Edmonds delivered special presents to special people. Some of the gifts included arranging trips to
Lapland for ill or disadvantaged children, or arranging family reunions. ''Noel's Christmas Presents'' was originally broadcast on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
on Christmas Day from 1989 until 1999 (except 1992), before it returned to UK screens courtesy of
Sky1 on 23 December 2007. Further editions were screened on 21 December 2008, 20 December 2009, 18 December 2010 and 18 December 2011.
In 1997 Edmonds was involved in an episode of the
Chris Morris spoof documentary series ''
Brass Eye'', in which he unwittingly pledged his allegiance on camera to a campaign to rid the country of a new killer drug, the entirely fictitious "cake", which apparently made 10 seconds appear as a few hours to a user by stimulating part of the brain called Shatner's Bassoon. Edmonds was also a guest host for the fourth-series episode of ''
The Friday Night Project'', broadcast on 26 January 2007. In 2014 he appeared in
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 's ''
The Life of Rock with Brian Pern'' as himself.
In 2017 Edmonds presented ''
Cheap Cheap Cheap'', a cross between a sitcom and a game show. Edmonds came up with the concept, produced by
Hat Trick and Channel 4 commissioned 30 episodes, each an hour long. The action took place in 'Noel's Store' and according to the ''Radio Times'', "contestants are presented with three similar items – be it laundry detergent, noodles, baked beans, coffins, live poultry or lottery tickets – and must identify the cheapest one of the three in order to win money." A cast of actors play workers at the store.
Stuart Heritage of ''The Guardian'' said that "It's like watching a weird piece of existential Lithuanian amateur community theatre
..It's the worst idea in the world, stretched out for all eternity". ''The Daily Telegraph''s Ed Power described it as "naff, tacky and numbingly dull" and "mind-bendingly outlandish".
''The Curse of Noel Edmonds'', a documentary tracing the rise and fall of his showbiz career, was transmitted by
Five on 9 November 2004, with former Radio 1 DJ Mike Read being one of the contributors to the programme. On 27 August 2022, Edmonds was the subject of an in-depth documentary on
Channel 5, titled ''Noel Edmonds: The Rise & Fall of Mr. Saturday Night''. The show documented the highs and lows of Edmonds' career to date.
''I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!''
In November 2018, Edmonds participated in the eighteenth series of ''
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!''. Edmonds' appearance fee of £600,000 made him the highest paid participant ever in the show's history up to that date.
He was the first celebrity to leave the series when he was voted out on 30 November 2018. Many fans of the show were surprised by the departure, with ''Radio 1 Breakfast Show'' host
Greg James described as "furious and sad".
Business ventures
Unique Group
In 1985, Edmonds formed the Unique Group, which consisted of various operations. The
Unique Broadcasting Company Media Group plc (UBCMG) was an independent producer of audio programming in the UK, supplying
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
and independent radio.
Michael Peacock was an executive of the group between 1989 and 2005, and former Radio 1 controller
Johnny Beerling joined the group following his departure from the network in 1993. It owned
Classic Gold Digital before selling the stations back to
GCap Media which merged them into the
Gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
network. Edmonds resigned as non-executive director of UBCMG in March 2006 as a direct result of the success of ''Deal or No Deal''. As of 2006, Edmonds also had interests in Unique Motor Company, a producer of small off-road vehicles, including the
Qpod.
In July 2019, Edmonds agreed to a compensation deal with
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Banking Group plc is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds B ...
as a victim of the
HBOS Reading branch fraud. He had claimed that bank staff had destroyed Unique Group.
Theme parks
Edmonds-licensed
theme park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...
attractions based on Crinkley Bottom and Mr Blobby were set up in existing parks at
Cricket St Thomas in Somerset and
Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park in
Lowestoft
Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...
, Suffolk. A park was also built in
Morecambe, Lancashire, on the site of the former Happy Mount Park. Following disappointing visitor numbers, and in the case of Morecambe, legal disputes with the local council, the deal was scrapped and the park closed. The two existing parks reverted to their previous state. Edmonds was said to be very critical of
Lancaster city council's management of the Morecambe park.
A report by the district auditor found that the council had behaved 'unlawfully' in its dealings with Edmonds, which cost £2.5m, and two former senior officers were found to have committed 'misconduct', although this was not deemed to be 'wilful'. The affair was dubbed 'Blobbygate' by the media.
Buying the BBC
In March 2014, Edmonds declared on ''
Newsnight'' that he was part of a consortium which planned to buy the BBC, because the corporation was "sleepwalking itself to destruction". He said that he did not have a TV licence and only watched BBC programmes on
catch-up.
Personal life
Edmonds married Gillian Slater in 1971. The marriage ended in divorce after 11 years.
From July 1986 to 2005, he was married to Helen Soby; the couple have four daughters. In July 2009, Edmonds married his third wife, Liz Davies, who was a make-up artist on the programme ''
Deal or No Deal'' when they first met.
Edmonds is a licensed
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...
pilot, and one of his early personal aircraft was registered G-NOEL. He was president of the
British Horse Society between 2004 and 2007.
On 27 September 2015, Edmonds received an award from the Atlantic Award Group for his extensive contributions to broadcasting. The selection process was initiated by a nomination by a viewer of ''Deal or No Deal''. Edmonds was the first TV personality to receive an award from the AAG and was also the first recipient from the UK in 2015.
In June 2017 Edmonds said he had attempted suicide in 2005, after
fraud by a group of HBOS financiers destroyed his Unique Group business: "Until these criminals took me to the brink of emotional annihilation, I had always felt those who opt out by taking their own lives were selfish and cowardly... But having been cast into that bottomless dark space devoid of logic and reason, I have a much deeper understanding of life without hope... I seek no sympathy and feel no shame in admitting that on the evening of January 18th 2005 I attempted to end the overwhelming mental pain which had consumed my whole being."
In September 2017, Edmonds said there was a direct link between fraudulent HBOS financiers causing stress and his
prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...
. He stated: "I don't say cancer was caused by the stress, but that my health deteriorated to such an extent I got prostate cancer. I am absolutely sure the negative forces acting on me impacted on my health. There is a wealth of information from various clinical studies of a direct link between stress and cancer. I am absolutely certain there was a link in my case."
Edmonds and his wife decided to move to New Zealand in 2015 and eventually emigrated in 2019; during the
COVID lockdown he set up 100 online community radio stations called Positivity Radio. He currently lives in
Ngātīmoti, in the
South Island
The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...
, with his wife, having gained residency permission in February 2020. Living in the country since the previous September, Edmonds said he and his wife had felt an "incredible spiritual pull" on a visit in 2016, leading them to settle in the country.
Edmonds is fond of
referring to himself in the third person.
Political views
Edmonds was chairman of the
Renewable Energy Foundation (REF),
an organisation which is staunchly opposed to
wind farm
A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...
s. He was said to have joined "because of the threat near his home in
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
".
[Edmonds joins fight against wind farms](_blank)
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', 15 July 2004 He has been quoted as saying that, "Politicians are promoting the wind industry as a
green icon, but they are misleading the public into believing the propaganda of the wind industry. The reality is that wind power is too costly and can never meet our energy needs; but it will destroy the countryside". His view is that those who are promoting wind farms are energy companies with a vested financial interest, and that
wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...
s are not reliable enough as a source of sustainable energy.
Edmonds is an outspoken critic of immigration
and the
BBC's Welsh language service.
He coordinated the Heart of Devon campaign to provide information for farmers affected by the
foot and mouth epidemic in 2001.
TV licence boycott
Edmonds said that he had stopped payment on his
TV licence in early 2008, in response to the sometimes controversial methods used to enforce collection of the TV licence fee. Edmonds said that it is wrong to "threaten" and "badger" people, in response to the collection authority's common assumption that the non-possession of a licence can mean licence evasion, as well as the large fines which can be used as enforcement for non-payment. TV Licensing later claimed that Edmonds did possess a valid current TV licence, but this claim was denied by a spokesman for Edmonds.
Spiritualism
For many years, Edmonds has been a believer in
spiritualism, in particular the concept of
cosmic ordering, a subject he became interested in after being introduced to
Bärbel Mohr's book ''The Cosmic Ordering Service – A Guide to Realising Your Dreams'' by his
reflexologist. He had not worked on TV since the end of his BBC TV show ''Noel's House Party'' in 1999 and one of his wishes was for a new challenge. Later he was offered the chance to return to TV to work on ''
Deal or No Deal''.
[DEAR COSMOS, CAN I HAVE A HIT SHOW?]
Daily Record, 3 April 2006. Edmonds later went on to write his own book titled ''Positively Happy: Cosmic Ways To Change Your Life''.
Edmonds said in 2008 that he is constantly accompanied by two melon-sized "spiritual energy" balls, which appear over his shoulders and which he believes to be the spirits of his dead parents. "Orbs are little bundles of positive energy and they think they can move between 500 and 1,000 miles per hour," according to Edmonds. "They look like little round planets but they come in all shapes and sizes." He has asserted that the
orbs appear only on digital photographs.
In August 2015, Edmonds gave an interview to the ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...
'' in which he stated that the greatest problem facing humanity was "electrosmog" due to
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...
and other "systems", causing the destruction of "our natural electro-magnetic fields". He also stated a belief that death was impossible because the body was merely a container for "a universal energy", and that this had "been known for a very long time". When he dies, Edmonds anticipates that "My energy will return to where it came from – part of a massive, incomprehensible universal web of energy".
EMP Pad
On 7 June 2016, Edmonds said on Twitter that an electromagnetic pulse device costing £2,315 was "A simple box that slows ageing, reduces pain, lifts
depression and
stress and tackles
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
. Yep tackles cancer!".
Edmonds provoked further criticism after tweeting to a man with
kidney cancer,
lymph node metastases and
psoriatic arthritis
Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a long-term inflammatory arthritis that may occur in some people affected by the autoimmune disease psoriasis. The classic features of psoriatic arthritis include dactylitis (sausage-like swelling of the fingers ...
that "Scientific fact-disease is caused by negative energy. Is it possible your ill health is caused by your negative attitude? #explore."
The following day, Edmonds was interviewed by
Phillip Schofield and
Holly Willoughby on
ITV's ''
This Morning'' television programme stating that he had been diagnosed with
prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...
in November 2013. He said that a "very stressful, very negative period" in life had caused his prostate cancer, "I was, I thought, very, very healthy. I know why I got my cancer... the definition of stress is negative energy. It didn't just decide to manifest itself, there was cause". He went on to add: "I then had my tumour destroyed by sound waves, proving yet again energy is at the heart of this issue" and said that "I believe pulsed electromagnetism has a role to play in tackling cancer and I will always believe that".
In response, the firm responsible for the device, EMP Pad Limited, said it did not agree with his claim "in any way, shape or form", and that it had not paid him in relation to it. While EMP Pad said it did not pay Edmonds to promote the product, the company's owner Maria Robertson, previously worked as an assistant to the TV presenter and acknowledged having known Edmonds for 25 years and having worked with him and his daughter.
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organisation. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...
produced an article to reassure the public that "the best studies looking at this topic have failed to show a link between emotional stress and an increased risk of cancer" and that "no reliable evidence has ever been produced that
Rife machines – or any similar devices producing low-frequency electromagnetic pulses – have any benefit for cancer patients. Nor have organisations that scrutinise new treatments and devices (like the
US Food and Drug Authority or the
European Medicines Agency
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) in charge of the evaluation and supervision of pharmaceutical products. Prior to 2004, it was known as the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products ...
) approved any as a therapy for any type of disease".
David Grimes, a cancer researcher at the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, told ''This Morning'': "It's not just untrue, it's patronising and
victim blaming
Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially at fault for the harm that befell them. There is historical and current prejudice against the victims of domestic violence and sex crimes, such as ...
, cancer is bad luck... the healthiest people in the world get cancer and it's not because they are negative". Prof. John Gribben, chair of medical
oncology
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...
at
Queen Mary University of London
Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...
, said: "This is complete gibberish and undermines all the good work everyone does with evidence-based medicine and targeted approaches".
Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor at the
University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...
said: "The reason why most of us put 'negative energy' in inverted commas is simple: it is a pure figment of the imagination of fantasists. That would not be so bad except that, as we see, some VIPs seem to take this nonsense seriously. The result might be that some desperate patients believe them, and choose the nonsense over the best that real medicine has to offer. And that could hasten deaths."
In 2016 the UK's
Advertising Standards Authority said that it was "urgently looking into" a complaint made over the claims, because advertising any proven or unproven cancer treatment would violate the
Cancer Act 1939 if payments had been made.
Later the ASA said that no rules had been broken.
The same year the
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in the United Kingdom which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are accepta ...
said that it was investigating the products available from EMP Pad "to determine whether there are any breaches of the Medical Device Regulations 2002".
Dispute with Lloyds Bank
A major turning point for Edmonds was the 2005 collapse of his entertainment company Unique Group – an umbrella for various production companies that owned the rights to, among other things, ''Mr Blobby'' and ''Telly Addicts''. Edmonds held
Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the "Big Four (banking)#England and Wales, Big Four" clearing house ...
responsible, because it had acquired
HBOS
HBOS plc is a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland plc, which ...
, whose Reading branch was involved in the alleged scam.
Edmonds sought £60m in losses and damages.
Edmonds complained to the
Advertising Standards Authority about the "By Your Side" Lloyds marketing campaign, claiming it was hypocritical; the complaint was not upheld. In 2017, the HBOS bankers and others involved in the scam were found guilty of committing fraud and jailed.
In 2019 it was reported that the dispute was settled, with Lloyds Bank Group agreeing a compensation deal with Edmonds, and apologising to him for the "distress" he had suffered.
Filmography
References
External links
*
*
Spoof fansite with several photos of Edmonds from the 70s* including sound clips
Noel Edmonds biography page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edmonds, Noel
1948 births
Living people
Alumni of Kingston College (England)
BBC Radio 1 presenters
BBC Radio 2 presenters
BBC television presenters
Deputy lieutenants of Devon
English children's television presenters
English expatriates in New Zealand
English game show hosts
English radio DJs
British television show creators
English television executives
Illeists
People educated at Brentwood School, Essex
People from Ilford
Radio Luxembourg (English) presenters
Television personalities from Essex
Television personalities from the London Borough of Redbridge
Writers from the London Borough of Redbridge