18 October 2023 , 13:18
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Richard Bacon has made a cheeky joke about his firing from Blue Peter in 1998, after he had his contract terminated for alleged cocaine use.
The 47-year-old is one of many TV personalities to have presented the BBC children's show, which has been on the air since 1958. Richard joined Blue Peter in 1997 alongside Romana D'Annunzio, Katy Hill, Konnie Huq and Stuart Miles, and quickly built himself as a household name in kids' entertainment. His squeaky-clean reputation suffered a blow, however, in October 1998, when a tabloid newpaper published a report of him taking cocaine outside a London nightclub. Richard, who was replaced by a vicar's son named Simon Thomas after the story leaked, went down in history as the first person ever to be sacked from Blue Peter.
Despite his awkward end to presenting the show, Richard appears to be well over the incident. He took to Twitter on Wednesday to pay tribute to Blue Peter on its 65th anniversary, before reflecting on it as "the most important stage of my career..."
'Yes sure, I may not have lasted, you know, THAT long* But I love Blue Peter deeply. (I lost my job for poor punctuality**) (**When you take drugs, you tend to run late)," he added.
Richard joined Blue Peter in 1997
Richard Bacon was fired from the show in 1998 for cocaine use (FilmMagic)Lorraine Heggessey, the BBC's head of production for children's programmes, made an on-air apology at the time of Richard's firing.
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At the time, the Mansfield native released a statement which read: "I fully accept and agree with the decision that has been taken. I regret what I did but it was in my personal time and I therefore hope that it does not reflect on the show. I am very grateful to Blue Peter for the opportunity it has given me and am very sorry that I have let everybody down."
Stuart Miles, who also presented Blue Peter and left three months after Richard, was vocally critical of how the network decision's to terminate his colleague's contract played out.
"Most people agree that the action they took was the only possible solution," Miles, now 54, said in an interview with the Guardian in 1999. "But it could have been handled better. I pushed for it to be referred to on air by the presenters - which it was, we said we'd miss him - and I think the department should have made a drugs education special."