AN era-defining children’s TV star was filming in Hodson Wood near Chiseldon this week in1980.

During a dozen years with Blue Peter, the exploits of John Noakes had earned him a place in broadcasting history.

Most famously, he’d skydived from five miles up with the RAF Falcons display team, climbed Nelson’s column by ladder with no safety line and been on a bobsled run that ended with a spectacular crash.

Leaving the show in 1978, he remained a favourite fixture on children’s television thanks to series such as Go With Noakes, in which he travelled with Shep, the collie he’d had since his Blue Peter days. The boisterous animal was as famous as the presenter himself thanks to what became a Noakes catchphrase: “Get down, Shep!”

Noakes was at Hodson Wood not to make a television programme but rather to make one of an ongoing series of adverts for Spillers Choice Cuts dog food.

As he was contractually forbidden by the BBC to use Shep in such a context, a stand-in called Skip was used.

We described the shoot: “Clapperboards clatter and cameras whirr and click as shouts of ‘roll it,’ ‘we’ll shoot that one again’ and ‘how about it from the other side John?’ are heard throughout the wooded landscape.

“They are shooting a 30-second television commercial for dog food – though the size of the crew and the general fuss would have you believe it was something much grander.

“An aide neatly prunes a row of stinging nettles – the perfect setting for John and Skip, a relative of the notorious Shep – to parade through the undergrowth.”

The presenter himself said: “I love this countryside. I’m a country boy through and through, and days like this are smashing.”

Also visiting that week was Princess Anne, whose mission was to do her bit for local industry and trade.

“Princess Anne,” we said, “had a super day in Swindon – in spite of windy weather.

“The Princess – in a beautiful pale orange suit, a jacket and skirt and a broad-brimmed hat with pale orange tassels that tossed in the wind – first visited the Bradley Show Village at Westlea Down, the largest private housing development in Britain.

“Then she went to the brand new Clover Leaf factory, which makes tablemats and giftware, at the Groundwell Industrial Estate.

“One of the showhouses was furnished by Normans, the Swindon firm who fitted all the carpets at Anne’s home, Gatcombe Park.

“But one they hadn’t fitted there was a new miracle fitted kitchen carpet.

“You can spill just anything on it and then just wipe it clean. Anne was immediately interested and asked lots of questions.”

Another visitor was Miss Great Britain 1980, Sue Berger, who appeared alongside Miss Thamesdown Carole Birley at the Dutton-Forshaw car dealership in Dorcan Way.

Sue had won the national title the previous Friday in a pageant seen by millions of ITV viewers, and her visit to Swindon was part of a nationwide victory tour.

Nine pupils of St Joseph’s Upper School were late to classes one morning in that May week of 1980.

They didn’t get into trouble, as they were delayed when they saved a young woman, her toddler son and a pet poodle from a burning house.

We named the young heroes as Kevin O’Sullivan, 13, his sister Sharon, 14, Stephen Scott, 14, George Durup, 13, Richard Saloyedoff, 14, Robert Whittington, 13 and his sister Sharon, 15, Matthew McCabe, 14, and Tom Fuller, 18.

The group had been walking tom school when they saw smoke billowing from the windows of a house in Nyland Road.

We added that after ushering the occupants to safety they “…charged inside, closed doors, damped down towels and helped the police and fire brigades, who soon arrived.”

The shaken householder told us: “If it wasn’t for them I dread to think what would have happened.

“We would almost certainly have been goners.”

The week’s first edition of the Adver, like every edition of the paper since the end of the previous month, was a single photocopied sheet of closely-typed A4 paper.

A printing union dispute meant the usual edition had to be suspended, but it was back on the Tuesday after a new pay and conditions deal was offered.

The last of the radically slimmed-down versionS led on Brighton centre forward Andy Rawlinson signing a £75,000 deal with Swindon Town.

We also reported in the A4 Adver: “Swindon police are still making inquiries after a mini-riot outside the Brunel Rooms at the weekend.

“A coach-load of Bristol youths were ejected for bad behaviour and refused re-admission. Bricks were hurled through the glass doors causing damage estimated at nearly £500.

“Police later detained four youths but they were released after interview.”