Aren't You That Bloke...

What is it about Yorkshiremen when they get on the telly...

___________________________________

Now we didn't set up Ayup! just to knock a few people down, but it has to be said that our high profile representatives on the goggle box are beginning to get on our wick. You know who I'm talking about. Yes I know that its weak to knock the afflicted, and they can't help it if the great British public think that they are one hundred shades of wonderful. But they are beginning to change our traditional image of manhood, and we just can't stand for that.

I also concede that we didn't get where we are today by giving two hoots about what the world thinks of us. I watched Geoffrey Boycott in a French court getting all worked up "Shuttup! Yer all talking bloody French..." and had to smile. And Bill Owen's glorious cockney caricature of a tyke, Compo Semini, endured for 21 series and cocked the nation a perfect Yorkshire snoot every Sunday evening. We should carry on doing our our own thing are bugger the rest.

So I will ask a question.

In the absence of our unofficial figurehead, Brian Glover, and with Michael Parkinson getting on a bit, do you really want Richard Whiteley to take on the mantle of Most Prominent Yorks' Celebrity? Really? A silly tubby bugger with a stripey jacket and a tie that looks like he's been sick down it? A man previously only known for being bitten by a ferret on Calendar? Then bitten by Kenny Everett? Really?

Whiteley's extraordinary cult status, especially amongst students, is beyond belief. To his eternal credit this celebrity status he has achieved has not gone to his head and he seems very self effacing, putting his popularity entirely down to the Countdown show he's presented since the moment Channel Four went on air in '82. 5 million sad people tune into this scrabble-with-numbers game, with Whiteley and Carol bloody Vorderman bickering and acting up. The words 'Get a Life' come to mind. Their continuing popularity is a real conundrum, make no mistake!

When you look around, Yorkshire is singularly lacking a good role model for its young men, who have to emerge from the pub and grow up eventually. In the next months we'll draw up a list of suitable candidates and have a trawl through the mighty and the fallen . There's got to be a proper, red blooded Yorkshire bloke somewhere.

Pete Newsome_______________

Richard Whiteley

_____________________

Michael Parkinson

_____________________