TV presenter returns to his roots

TV presenter and former road worker John Stapleton returns to his roots filling in potholes in Delph.

TV presenter and former Oldham Chronicle journalist John Stapleton has returned to his roots and helped fill potholes around Saddleworth for a new TV challenge.

As part of a series for ITV’s “Good Morning Britain”, John and other presenters have headed home to relive their first summer jobs.

Back in 1962, 16-year-old John, a pupil at Oldham Hulme Grammar School, started work with Saddleworth Urban District Council repairing roads and running errands.

Now, more than 50 years later, he returned to Saddleworth to join Oldham Council’s pothole repair team — and found out a lot has changed.

John, who grew up in Diggle, said: “Standards have changed dramatically since I started work. For one we didn’t have to wear these high-visibility jackets and health and safety hadn’t been invented back then. We just turned up in jeans and a T-shirt and got to work, often riding around on the back of an open van.

“We must have put ourselves in so much danger back then!”

John, who back in 1962 was paid around £5 a week for the work, added that today, even with the council’s state-of-the-art jet patching machine, the work was exhausting.

“I’ve been up since 5am this morning and I’m shattered,” he said.

“It is a very physically demanding job and all these guys who work on it regularly have to be in very good shape.”

After leaving his job on the roads, John pursued a career in journalism, starting off at the Oldham Chronicle in the 1960s before moving on to present BBC’s “Breakfast” programme, “Watchdog”, and ITV’s “The Time the Place” in London.

Viewers can see how John and the other presenters got on in “Good Morning Britain” from Monday, July 21, until Wednesday, July 23, from 6 to 8.30am.
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