John Noakes

Anne Robinson and The Weakest Link have been mentioned in the news today. Previously Anne has been criticised by some experts who believe that her programme promotes a bullying culture. Emma-Jane Cross from the Beatbullying charity believes that society is not adequately preventing bullying behaviour. Instead, she says, "we celebrate it on television programmes like The Apprentice and the awful Weakest Link and The F Word."

In 2002 Ms Robinson was asked by a reader of The Independent: "Do we need to tackle bullying in our schools, or encourage it as a vital skill for later life?" To which Anne replied: "Bullying is horrid, but learning to joust verbally is invaluable. Interestingly, bullies understand 'no' and 'don't dare' faster than anyone. So in schools we need to teach more practical life skills for coping with horrid people without allowing them to ruin our lives...."

Telly tyrant Anne Robinson made Blue Peter legend John Noakes weep over his beloved dog Shep, says The Sun. Noakes broke down after Ms Robinson asked him: "Where’s Shep?, What happened to Shep? Did he die or just run away?"

From Blue Peter: The Inside Story (page 142) - When Go With Noakes came to an end after five successful series, the problem of Shep had finally to be faced. The dog, like all Blue Peter animals, was owned by the BBC, and the presenter with whom the animal lived was paid an allowance for food and maintenance. The problems arose when the presenter left. In Petra's case this had been solved very happily by the next presenter, Peter Purves, taking her over. In John's case, the rapport between man and dog was so strong that it seemed unkind to part them. A meeting took place at Television Centre when Shep was offered to John, and was accepted.

Later, Biddy Baxter decided to ask John Noakes to sign an agreement that Shep must not be allowed to appear in any commercials. This upset John because he felt entitled to use Shep in this way, considering all the work he had done for the BBC.

In an interview with Mark Lawson last year Biddy Baxter said: John Noakes was probably the best ever Blue Peter presenter - he was absolutely brilliant and the audience adored him. He - this is true of all the presenters - he didn't have to stay on the programme year after year after year. He did afterwards grumble about money, but he had an agent. The agent negotiated the fee. If the fee wasn't right, why sign up to it? Why sign the contract?