 His last dramatic role on television before joining "Blue Peter" was in an episode of the crime series "Mogul", starring Barry Foster and Geoffrey Keen, broadcast on BBC1 in August 1965.Noakes got the opportunity to join "Blue Peter" when producer Biddy Baxter needed a third presenter to join Christopher Trace and Valerie Singleton after the show went from a weekly to a twice-weekly format.Baxter spotted Noakes at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester where he was playing Willie Mossop in the play "Hobson's Choice".