Noel Edmonds is, generally, considered one of the most recognisable faces on British television, but his career almost came to an abrupt end in November 1986. BBC variety show, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, was cancelled that year after Edmonds resigned over the tragic death of a viewer whilst an episode was being recorded.
The show, which ran for three years, saw viewers take part in dangerous stunts, often driving cars at high speeds and jumping them over long lines of parked vehicles. It was Edmonds' first Saturday evening light entertainment show.
Edmonds' long career is the subject of a new Channel 5 documentary - Noel Edmonds: The Rise & Fall of Mr Saturday Night. In the hour-long film, the cancellation of The Late, Late Breakfast Show is explored in more detail.
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The Daily Star reports how, during the recording of one episode, viewer Michael Lush, who was recruited to bungee jump from a box suspended 120ft in the air by a crane, died when a clip came loose and he fell to the ground.
Speaking on the new Channel 5 documentary, Nick Ferrari, who was showbiz editor of The Sun newspaper at the time, describes how the incident came to happen. “One of the more popular segments was ‘Give it a Whirl’. Viewers at home could phone in and nominate someone, and the viewer with the stunt selected was given a week to do a film stunt, but more often than not the training only lasted a few days,” he explained.
Nick continues: “When you study the footage it’s quite incredible how this was ever permitted, and it’s dealt with in such a jocular fashion.” He then describes how he had been informed that a tragedy had occurred before phoning Edmonds to confirm the news.
“The man had no proper training," he says, "as I recall he’d had some concerns about the stunt on the actual day, the bungee rope wasn’t properly attached. No one was ever held responsible for, I would argue, one of the darkest moments on Saturday prime-time TV by a country mile.”
Following the victim's death, the BBC made an ex gratia payment of approximately £120,000 to his family. After an inquest examined the circumstances of Mr Lush's death, Edmonds said: "If I was to continue my career at the BBC I would want to be fully confident about any production team I was provided with." He returned to the BBC's Saturday night lineup two years later, presenting The Noel Edmonds Saturday Roadshow.
See the full story in Noel Edmonds: The Rise & Fall of Mr Saturday Night, which airs on Channel 5 on Saturday, August 27 at 9pm. For more showbiz and television stories, get our newsletter here.
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