Three Mr Blobby costumes have been listed on eBay over the past few weeks, each claiming to be an original prop from Noel’s House Party, the hugely popular 1990s primetime show on BBC One, hosted by Noel Edmonds, full of celebrities, mayhem and gunge. After attracting 168 bids from 79 bidders (they can’t all have been drunken bids?), the first sold for £62,101, although the buyer ultimately dropped out. Shortly after, two more popped up with starting bids of £8,000 and £15,000. Each contained the same waiver: Mr Blobby is copyright, so the suit can be worn for personal use only.
How many 90s Blobby outfits are out there? Who has £62,000 lying around to buy one? And what is it like being Blobby for the day? In the name of journalism, I decided to find out.
9am – off to work
The first thing about being Blobby (albeit in an officially licensed £80 fancy dress version) is that you feel like a giant novelty condom. Squinting through Blobby’s teeth, I can’t see a thing. The texture of plastic on skin suggests I should be off to a weird fetish party. Who designed this thing anyway?
“I just doodled a pear-shaped character in mauve felt-tip pen on a piece of A5 lined paper, handed it to the costume designer and said: ‘Can you make something like this?’” Michael Leggo says. As head of BBC light entertainment from 1994 to 1999, Leggo created House Party with Edmonds, and he was producer/director/executive producer up to the last series.
Originally, it was Edmonds inside Blobby, recorded for the notorious “gotcha” segments in which, presaging MTV’s Punk’d, Edmonds would stitch up celebrities. The rugby player Will Carling, the dancer Wayne Sleep and the pundit Garth Crooks were duped into thinking they were teaching Blobby rugby, ballet and football, respectively, for an imaginary children’s programme. “You got delicious dramatic irony, because the audience knew something the celebrity didn’t,” namely that Edmonds was inside, says Leggo. “We got such a good reaction; you didn’t have to be a genius to think: ‘There’s mileage in this.’” Blobby was swiftly promoted to comedy sidekick. But who would be inside instead of Edmonds?
“I rang a trusted agent, who said: ‘I can only think of one person’ – Barry Killerby, a classically trained Shakespearean actor,” says Leggo. “He brought such fantastic physical comedy to what was essentially a big pink rubber blob.”
Leggo has “no idea” how many Blobby suits were created. “I was Mr Blobby’s intellectual-property guardian and had to approve T-shirts, mugs and umbrellas,” he says. “When I brought an inflatable Blobby home, it freaked my son so much that I was banished from keeping Blobby stuff in the house. The back of my car looked like I was a Blobby salesman.” Leggo, who now works as a freelance executive producer and director, has since written his first novel, (Not) on My Island. Does Blobby feature? “Over my dead body!”
Blobby count: one Blobby
10am – daily grind
Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go.
No one on the tube seems to understand the motto: “If you see something unusual, report it to staff …” But, after squishing through the barriers at Piccadilly Circus, I’m a bona fide celebrity. Buses toot, tourists pose, small children look terrified and motorists yell: “Blobby!” out of their windows.
I get to work and squeeze my inflatable behind into an office chair. Typing is tricky with three fingers, but I set out nonetheless to check Blobby eBay.
The seller funkymikuk (who has a “pink and well-spotted” Blobby with a starting bid of £15,000; buy it now for £50,000) suggests there are four original outfits in existence. Time for a quick Blobby recount. There’s his. There’s the one that sold for £62,101. Killerby is said to own one. Apparently, a fourth now lives in Somerset as Mrs Blobby, complete with white pearls and a bow.
So, that’s four. Except another eBayer, mrwifey01, is selling an original 90s Blobby with “expected ageing” at a starting bid of £8,000. That’s five. Who are all these sellers?
“I only put it on eBay to clear some space. I never expected it to turn into such a circus,” blobby01 says. He’s the seller whose original 90s Blobby (“the two arms require re-attaching to the body”) sold for £62,101 before the buyer flaked. Will he reveal his identity? “No. I’m under the radar because, as the bids got higher, the messages became increasingly fractious and insulting. When the winner retracted, I thought: ‘This would be better at a traditional auction.’ At least if you put up the paddle, it’s a binding contract.”
Will he say where he got his outfit? “Back in the 90s and 00s, I was responsible for selling BBC formats around the world: Strictly, Antiques Roadshow, The Weakest Link,” he says, confirming my suspicions I’m on the phone to an ex-BBC employee.
“House Party was sold to Belgium, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark. Only Denmark wanted Blobby. They damaged the first, then they got axed after six episodes, so the replacement Blobby was never sent. Eventually, we had an office clearout. I donated £40 to charity to take it home because no one else wanted it.”
This is exciting news – confirmation of an unaccounted-for Danish Mr Blobby. “I wouldn’t get too excited: it was probably thrown away like that picture of Mr Blobby in a skip when the BBC sold Television Centre in 2013.” Mr Blobby in a skip ups the count to seven.
Blobby count: seven
1pm – pub pitstop
I’m beginning to wish I had an actual, rigid Blobby outfit. There’s something disconcerting about how mine keeps deflating of its own accord right at the moment when the Guardian photographer Linda is trying to get the money shot. “I’m sure this happens to all the Blobbys,” she says.
I can appreciate why Mr Blobby doesn’t do more than wave his arms about: there’s not much more you can do. At least it’s not too hot: my inflatable version (with an inbuilt fan) is more like walking around in my own personal tent. Maybe I’ll take it to Glastonbury.
But how am I supposed to go to the loo? Linda has to help me in and out of my outfit, like I’m a five-year-old. And I thought failing to keep inflated was embarrassing.
I hope I’m not infringing any copyright, so I don’t tell Paul Pascoe – Edmonds’ business partner at Unique Television, which owns the Blobby copyright – what I’m up to, beyond tallying outfits.
“I haven’t done the research you have, but there might well be some double accounting,” says Pascoe over the phone. “It’s distinctly possible one of the eBay costumes belongs to Barry Killerby.” My heart sinks: our Blobby count is down to six. Mrs Blobby may have ditched her pearls, while someone could have easily fished that one out of the skip. That makes four.
At least there’s some good news. When Blobby appeared in panto in Peter Pan in Milton Keynes in 2021 (played by a variety of actors, but not Killerby), Unique made two new costumes, which Pascoe confirms they still own, along with a “battered, old” original Blobby.
Pascoe says he’s not surprised Edmonds has retired to New Zealand “after everything he’s been through”, referring to Unique Television falling victim to huge bank fraud in 2017. “Obviously, that impacted our relationship, although I did hear from him the other night.” Has Blobby been to visit Edmonds in New Zealand?” “You realise Mr Blobby is like Father Christmas or the tooth fairy, and not real?” Whatever is he talking about?
Blobby count: five
2pm – and what of Noel?
The most helpful person to verify our Blobby tally would be Edmonds. Is he available to comment from New Zealand?
“I’ve forwarded a myriad of requests,” says Mark Borkowski, a PR who is Edmonds’ contact to his previous life. “However, Noel avoids nonsense like this. Has anyone checked the eBay costume for Barry Killerby’s DNA?” Good question. But, since I’m not the real Blobby, why do I need to speak to the real Edmonds?
“Noel is brilliant at what he does, way beyond the gimmicks,” says Ray Gold, 66, whom I meet outside BBC Broadcasting House in central London. He has worked as a professional Edmonds lookalike since appearing in a contest on The Late, Late Breakfast Show, which Edmonds presented in the 80s. “The cameras couldn’t tell us apart.
“People say: ‘Can’t I have the other King Charles or Princess Diana?’ But, to my knowledge, I’m the only Edmonds earning a living,” he says. For example, Gold was sent to present increasingly bizarre TV pilots (“One was like It’s a Knockout meets a quizshow”) to see if they would fly.
His demand has waxed and waned alongside Edmonds’ fame (today’s Guardian booking is only his second since Covid). “There’s more mileage in Alan Sugar, but there’s more Sugars about,” he says. “People assumed it was me in the Blobby costume at first,” but Gold wasn’t involved in House Party. He doubts any of the Blobbys he has met (usually at corporate events) have been official. And, unlike the actual Edmonds, he can’t fly a helicopter. “I’ve been in one twice and I thought I was going to fall out.”
Blobby count: five
Noel lookalike count: one
3pm – afternoon tea
There’s still one piece of the puzzle – Barry Killerby, who played Blobby until 2015. Killerby has never spoken to the press and has only one professional appearance listed in the past 20 years – on a Big Fat Quiz of the Year 90s special in 2012. In spite of my best efforts, I fail to track him down to get him to ’fess up to me that he has listed his outfit for a quick Blobby buck. Instead, I drop in for a cuppa with an old friend.
“Blobby and I have met three times,” says Zippy, or rather Ronnie Le Drew, who has played Zippy since 1973. These meetings were at the 2017 Pride of Britain awards and for charity singles in 2021 and 2022. But these don’t coincide with Killerby’s tenure. Le Drew’s autobiography, Zippy and Me, was published in 2019. Can he explain what’s going through the mind of a puppeteer?
“You become the character,” says Le Drew. “Only when it’s put away do you become your ordinary self. I’ve been lucky. Zippy is as popular as ever. I remain anonymous. It’s the puppet everyone comes to see, not me.”
For Blobby count reference, how many Zippys have there been? “They’d chuck them away every two series,” he says, aghast. “Or, as the prop man finally revealed: put them in the crusher!” Poor Zippy! “We all took sets of Zippy and George home. Geoffrey, Bungle and George each had a set. We did 22 series up to 1992, some reboots and live shows, so that’s … a lot of Zippys. They didn’t make so many Georges, because George didn’t get so dirty.”
Blobby count: five
Zippy count: one
7pm – all Blobbyed out
After a busy day as Blobby, I’m seeing polka dots, so it’s a relief to finally sit on my Crinkley Bottom. I check eBay. Both Blobby auctions have ended with zero bids. Pascoe mentioned something I have refused to acknowledge: the numerous Blobbys created for the three Blobby theme parks and pantos. We may never know how many Blobby costumes were made, but at least I tried. Now, if I can only get some shut-eye – difficult, as Blobby has no eyelids. I try counting Blobbys jumping over a fence. One Blobby … two Blobbys … three Blobbys … zzzzz.
