Stuart Miles quit Blue Peter in 2000 after hitting out at the TV series for being ‘out of touch’ with its young BBC viewers – but over two decades on, the presenter looks quite different
A former Blue Peter star looks completely unrecognisable, two decades after quitting the show.
Stuart Miles famously walked away from Blue Peter, criticising the TV series for being “out of touch” with its young BBC audience. This came just three months after his friend and co-presenter Richard Bacon was dismissed for cocaine use, and Stuart argued that children had lost interest in arts and crafts and pet segments.
“With the year 2000 nearly here we’ve got to make Blue Peter more relevant to modern-thinking children,” he stated, “less twee, more hard-hitting. I know it’s like a comfort blanket for a lot of people, a programme that will never shock or offend you, but we err on the side of caution.”
At 27 years old, Stuart was, at that point, Blue Peter’s longest-serving presenter. His departure dealt a significant blow to the corporation, which was already grappling with the fallout from Richard Bacon’s drug scandal and his subsequent replacement on the show.
However, 26 years after leaving the show, Stuart’s career shows no sign of stopping. He has since gone on to host a variety of major shows both on and off-screen.
He went on to guest-present programmes such as This Morning and Holiday, and also became a regular on Sky Vegas, an interactive TV gambling channel. He later hosted a breakfast show for Heart alongside his former co-star, Katy Hill, reports the Mirror.
In 2008, he debuted a drag show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; The Adventures of Pink Peter. In the show, he dressed up as Vera Singleton and portrayed as the sister of Valerie Singleton, one of the BBC show’s early presenters.
Reflecting on his time on Blue Peter a decade later, Stuart expressed regret over not coming out as gay during his stint on the show. In an interview with Metro, he confessed: “I only have one regret and that is I spent a lot of my time on the show feeling conflicted about my sexuality.
“I was frightened of the reaction I may get both in the press and from the parents of children who watched the show if I came out as a gay man.” He added: “This may seem daft to someone growing up gay in 2018 but it’s easy to forget how, as little as 20 years ago, we were in a very different place.”
Now aged 56, Stuart is almost unrecognisable from his Blue Peter days and has embarked on a new career path as a professional speaker for Great British Speakers.
In recent developments, Blue Peter, now 66 years old, underwent a significant revamp, transitioning from its iconic live broadcasts to pre-recorded shows. Last year, former presenters Anthea Turner and Janet Ellis spearheaded an effort to rescue the show when it was put out to tender.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
