Judd, Lesley

Born in London, Lesley Judd trained at the Arts Educational School of Ballet and Drama.

Lesley appeared as a child actress as Clara in Heidi (1959) and as a schoolgirl in Z Cars (14th November 1962).

One of her earliest dancing appearances was on BBC TV’s The Language of Love (1964) and she was one of the ‘children’ dancers on Gillian Lynne’s BBC Two show Hey Riddle Diddle, starring Roy Castle and Nelson Riddle.

Lesley was one of the hostesses on the game show Exit! It’s the Way-Out Show, hosted by Ed Stewart (Associated Rediffusion/ITV, 1967).

In 1967, she appeared as part of the dance troupe The Young Generation on several television shows, including The Rolf Harris Show, but walked out in breach of her contract.

When offered the role as a BBC presenter soon after, the BBC contracts department were furious that she was being hired by the corporation once again and insisted the contract was ‘watertight’.

Lesley had small roles in the filmed musical Half a Sixpence (1967), the first Monty Python film And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) and the Christopher Lee horror film I, Monster (1971).

Lesley joined Blue Peter as a presenter on 18th May 1972, when Valerie Singleton began to move on to new television projects – her first filmed appearance was on 15th May.

Judd initially presented with Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves; the partnership with Noakes and Purves lasting until 1978, the show’s longest-running line-up.

Judd’s tenure was often in doubt, as she was retained for most of her seven years on the show on short-term three-month contracts.

One of Lesley’s memorable filming assignments was in 1975, when she visited the Bishop Rock Lighthouse.

It looked like she was about to plunge into the murky depths. Disaster nearly struck as she travelled by rope to the lighthouse from a boat. Her harness snapped, leaving Lesley with no support should she lose her grip on the rope.

Show editors Biddy Baxter and Richard Marson both defended Judd’s reaction to this incident in subsequent books, revealing that she could not swim and thus showed enormous bravery by undertaking the challenge at all.

Whilst on Blue Peter, Judd also presented the spin-off series Blue Peter Special Assignment (1976 to 1977).

During her time on Blue Peter, she was criticised in the UK press for divorcing her first husband, actor Derek Fowlds (former ‘straight’ man to puppet Basil Brush).

When her marriage broke down in 1975 and her ex-husband threatened to ‘tell all’ to the tabloid press, Sally James was auditioned and lined up to replace her, but the storm blew over and Judd remained with the show.

Her final Blue Peter edition was on 12th April 1979.

Judd made a brief return to dancing in 1976, when she joined Pan’s People on Top of the Pops for a one-off routine (the rehearsals were later shown on Blue Peter) and she often danced on the annual BBC TV Christmas children’s show All Star Record Breakers.

After leaving Blue Peter, Judd hosted her own children’s TV chat show called In the Limelight with Lesley (BBC One, 1980), which was along the same lines as an earlier series with Valerie Singleton.

Her final guest on 6th June 1980 was British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was asked to comment on an earlier appearance in Val Meets the VIPs, in which she had said there would not be “a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime”.

In the late 1970s, Lesley was an in-vision continuity announcer at Southern TV.

Additional television appearances include:

• The Adventure Game (BBC Two) – featured as ‘The Mole’ in educational game show;
• Dance Crazy (Granada TV, 1982) – children’s series tracing the history of dance, with Billy Boyle;
• Co-presenter on BBC Manchester’s production of Knock Knock (1982);
• Presented ITV Schools programme Maths is Fun;
• Technology game show, The Great Egg Race;
• Computer-related series Micro Live (BBC Two, 1983 – 1987);
• Pets In Particular (1986);
• Micro File 2, with Fred Harris (BBC One, 1987);
• Co-presented The Sci-Tech Awards (BBC Two, 1987);
• Business Matters (BBC One, 1988);
• Holiday Quiz (BBC One, 1988).

Lesley was a regular panellist on game shows, such as ITV/LWT’s Punchlines, and appeared as a television newsreader in the film Threads (1984).

She narrated with Andrew Sachs on the origins of the computer in The Dream Machine (BBC Two, 1991).

In 1992, Lesley presented a Channel 4 daytime interview programme, Time to Talk.

Each programme consisted of an interview with one celebrity guest. Valerie Singleton, David Kossoff, Diana Moran, Jonathan Porritt and Don Maclean were among the interviewees.

Although asked on several occasions to take part in Blue Peter reunions, Lesley initially declined, feeling that her television career was no longer a part of her life.

However, she appeared on the programme’s 35th birthday in 1993, the 50th birthday commemorations in 2008, and joined fellow presenters to celebrate its 60th anniversary in October 2018.

In December 2017, she appeared in a tribute programme to fellow Blue Peter presenter John Noakes, who died earlier that year.

On 20th February 2021, she appeared with former Blue Peter presenter Peter Purves on Pointless Celebrities for a Classic Kids’ TV edition.

In May 2024, she appeared on Channel 5’s When TV Goes Wrong.

On radio, Lesley was a regional presenter from Manchester on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour from 1982 to 1988.

Lesley was a panellist on Some of These Days (BBC Radio 2, 1987 – 1988), general knowledge quiz On Cue (BBC Radio 2, 1987) and the quiz Are You Sitting Comfortably? (BBC Radio 2, 1991 and 1994).

During the late 1980s, she was a presenter on the London radio station LBC, later co-hosting with Steve Allen, whilst also presenting various programmes on television for the Open University.

In March 1978, she married a Blue Peter film editor, Terry Gabell. It was her second husband’s multiple sclerosis that caused her to leave the programme.

After divorcing him, she married the then drummer Anthony Relph, with whom she had a son, Henry, and adopted a daughter, Marta.

Relph died of a lung embolism at 48, by which time Judd had moved to a farmhouse near Cahors in France with retired radio station manager Peter Thornton. He died of heart disease in 2002.

Lesley lives near Toulouse in France and is employed as a conference organiser.

 

Personal information

Clips of Lesley on The TV Room

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