Four years after he stormed out of the BBC in a highly public row over the axing of his Saturday night show, Noel Edmonds has admitted what most of us suspected all along.
The proud creator of Mr Blobby - one of the most reviled characters in TV history - has conceded he was partly responsible for a drop in standards in British television.
Edmonds, who recently returned to the BBC as temporary host of Radio 2's drive time show, said his axed Saturday night show, Noel's House Party, went into a "downward spiral" that has had a knock-on effect on other shows.
"We tried our damnedest to make it a special entertainment, but I'll admit I'm a contributor to the decline in TV standards," he said in an interview with the Radio Times.
"I'm guilty as charged for certain things. I don't say that with pride, but honestly, m'lud, I'm not quite so guilty as others," he added.
Edmonds said he could be "justifiably proud" of the first five years of Noel's House Party, which was axed in 1999 after ratings fell.
The veteran broadcaster quit the BBC in disgust after the show was dumped out of the Saturday night schedules.
In a bitter and protracted war of words, he said the BBC was no longer capable of "quality" programmes and the decline in standards had left him "heartbroken".
But most critics welcomed the BBC's decision to drop House Party, which at the end of its life was seen as repetitive and a turn off.
At its height it was described as "the most important show on the BBC" by Alan Yentob, regularly drawing more than 15 million viewers, but ratings dropped to 6 million by the time it was dropped.
Edmonds admitted budget cuts led to a fall in standards, culminating in an attitude of "when in doubt, gunge someone" - a reference to the show's speciality of covering guests in gunge.
"We were inventive and produced a show that a broad age range could watch. But in the final three years we had 10% budget cuts year on year.
"Production standards dropped and we got into a downward spiral of when in doubt, gunge someone," he said.
Edmonds, who is developing new TV formats with his company Unique Group, claimed at the time the corporation had lost its way and said he felt "demotivated to the point where I feel it is time to say goodbye".
The writing had been on the wall since 1998, when he pulled out of presenting Noel's House Party at the last minute, claiming the flagship Saturday night show was being starved of cash.
The BBC agreed to up the programme's budget but just over a year later BBC entertainment controller Paul Jackson axed the show.
In his Radio Times interview, Edmonds insisted he was no longer bitter at his treatment by the BBC and hinted at a television comeback.
But he could not resist another dig at his former BBC bosses.
"Certain pockets have real problems and Saturday night is one of them. They axed House Party because of falling ratings, apparently, but it had 7.5 million at the end and they'd be delighted with that now," he said.
And he castigated today's TV executives for "a lack of courage, vision and talent", accusing them of copying each other's successes rather than taking a risk on a new idea.
"You put up strong ideas which they can't understand because they're frightened," he said.
"Reality shows have caused fatigue amongst the public. We've sussed that we've paid all this money to watch ourselves entertain ourselves. We have more members of the public on TV than on C&A's CCTV."
DJ Sara Cox, who hosts the Radio 1 breakfast slot Edmonds once presented, also came in for criticism from the former TV presenter.
"Sara Cox talks about 'shagging', a word I wouldn't dream of using in public. She's coarse and unpleasant - very 'yesterday'," he said.
"I do the school run to Exeter and we joke that my kids can listen to Radio 1 until she says something crude before they tune to what they describe as Fogey FM, Radio 2."
Edmonds made his broadcasting debut as a DJ on Radio Luxembourg before landing a slot on Radio 1 in 1969.
In 1976 he switched to TV, launching the Saturday morning children's show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop before moving to late-night Saturday TV with the Late Late Breakfast Show in the 1980s.
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