Trivia

After his parents divorced when he was nine years old and his mother re-married, he became estranged from his father; at the age of 17 he changed his surname from Bottomley to Noakes, the surname of his new stepfather. He left home at age 16 to join the RAF as a mechanic. Later he worked at Heathrow as an aircraft fitter for BOAC.

On Blue Peter, he played a slightly larger-than-life, more daring version of himself. He knew when to ham things up. On the often-repeated clip when Lulu the baby elephant appeared on Blue Peter, he said "Ouch! Get off me foot!" - Lulu hadn't in fact trodden on his foot, but John pretended she had because he knew this would get laughs.