In pictures: TV's greatest eccentrics

1 of 10 TV wine expert Jilly Goolden - "I'm getting gooseberries, with a hint of dandelion" - makes a Radio Times list of the top 40 most eccentric TV presenters of all time.

2 of 10 Johnny Ball, a former Butlins redcoat, is also named as one of TV's most lovable oddballs. He made maths bearable in the 1970s on the BBC's Think Of A Number.

3 of 10 The word eccentric seems to have been designed for Patrick Moore, presenter of TV's longest-running show, The Sky at Night. Legendary, also, for his monocle and xylophone-playing exploits.

4 of 10 No matter how hard she tried, animal trainer Barbara Woodhouse - catchphrase "Walkies" - always looked like a stern maiden aunt.

5 of 10 Described by Radio Times as "makeover TV's original bit of ruff", the Byron-esque Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen put the dandy into DiY and the fop into floor-staining.

6 of 10 Children's dream fixer, Radio 1 DJ, Top of the Pops legend, nightclub heavy, miner, Mensa member and cigar-chomping marathon runner - Jimmy Savile's done the lot.

7 of 10 "Get down Shep". With these words, Blue Peter's John Noakes passed into TV legend. The earnest but slightly clumsy Noakes was hero for a generation of teatime viewers.

8 of 10 Sexagenarian nun Sister Wendy Beckett emerged from her Norfolk hermitage in the 1990s to become Britain's best-loved art historian. And to think she'd never watched TV.

9 of 10 Andrew Marr adds a splash of colour to the grey men of Westminster. A true eccentric. Or, as the Radio Times, describes him: "The BBC's large-lugged, constantly waving political editor".

10 of 10 They smoked! They drank! They used dollops of lard! As Two Fat Ladies, the late Jennifer Paterson (left) and Clarissa Dickson Wright served up the perfect antidote to PC cooking shows.