Police in Spain were searching on Tuesday evening for the former children’s television presenter John Noakes, nine hours after his wife alerted them that the 81-year-old had disappeared from a walk amid 35C heat.
Noakes’s wife, Vicky, said she alerted police in Andratx, the district of the Balearic island of Mallorca where they live, shortly after 9am (0700 GMT) on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the force said a dozen officers from the local police and Guardia Civil were involved in the search, but there was as yet no news of Noakes, who presented the BBC programme Blue Peter for more than 12 years. Normally someone has to be missing for 24 hours before police launch a search, but given Noakes’s age and the heat they are actively looking for him, another officer said.
“We are still conducting a thorough search but Mr Noakes has not been found yet,” a spokesman for the local police told the Guardian just before 6pm local time.
Noakes has Alzheimer’s, according to the police. He was wearing blue shorts and a blue-and-white top when he went missing.
The local council placed a message on its Facebook page with a photograph of Noakes, asking people to look out for him.
Vicky Noakes told the Daily Mail that her husband was carrying no water or ID. He sometimes walked alone from her home, she said, but on this occasion she had lost him after trying to pick him up in their car.
“I’m concerned that maybe he’s had a fall somewhere where someone hasn’t been able to find him,” she said. “If he’d fallen in a street someone would have picked him up and that wouldn’t have been a problem. But between where we live and Andratx it’s quite rural.”
She added: “He doesn’t speak any Spanish and refuses to carry any identification. and I think any expat would have realised he’s a bit confused and found someone to hand him over to. But who knows in this situation. It’s uncharted territory really. All I am very concerned about is that it should have happened when it was so hot.”
Halifax-born Noakes, who joined Blue Peter in 1965, was known for both his adventurous physical exploits, including what was at the time the longest free-fall parachute jump by a British civilian, and his association with one of the show’s resident dogs, border collie Shep, which died in 1987.
As well as being the show’s longest-serving presenter, Noakes was arguably the best loved by viewers, renowned for his good humour amid on-screen mishaps, including the occasional misbehaviour of Shep – “Get down, Shep!” became something of a national catchphrase – and an occasion when an infant elephant defecated on the studio floor.
Noakes trained as an aircraft engine fitter before going to drama school. The Blue Peter producer, Biddy Baxter, recruited him after liking his face in a photo from a theatre review in a local paper.
She said of his success: “There’s never any shortage of solid, run-of-the-mill, competent professionals, guaranteed to look at the right camera and speak on cue. On the whole they’re boring and quite unmemorable. But once in a while a jewel emerges – usually totally by chance.
“We knew as soon as John Noakes opened the office door that he was our third presenter.”
