NOEL Edmonds will have to make a quick exit from Okehampton Show next Thursday afternoon as he juggles his presidential duties with a temporary slot on BBC Radio Two.

The former radio and TV star, who is president of the show this year, is back on the airwaves for two months standing in for Johnnie Walker who is undergoing treatment for cancer.

But the dilemma for Noel, who had agreed to be president of the 2003 Okehampton Show some months beforehand, was how he was going to get to London in time for his broadcast at 5pm.

?I said to the BBC when they asked me to stand in for Johnnie that I could cancel all my engagements except Okehampton Show ? that was top priority for me,? said Noel, who reveals in this week?s Okehampton Show supplement how proud he is to take on the role of president.

?I would have loved to have done the broadcast from the showground but that was just not possible so they have arranged for me to do it from the BBC studios in Plymouth.?

Noel, who lives at Jacobstowe, will have to leave at 3pm to get to Plymouth and prepare for his show, which means he will miss the grand parade.

The former presenter, who is known for programmes like The Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Telly Addicts and Noel?s House Party, which attracted up to 12 million viewers on Saturday nights, admits that being back in the hot seat of radio this week was ?terrifying.?

Once a high profile Radio One DJ, his last daily radio broadcast was 25 years ago.

?Things have changed ? I can?t believe the technology,? said Noel, 54, ?Getting me to do this is a bit like asking the Wright Brothers to fly Concorde.?

Okehampton Show secretary Gilly Oliver said Noel was a very busy man so she was delighted he had accepted to be the show?s president for 2003. ?It is unfortunate he has to leave at 3pm but the presentation of trophies in the grand parade is always made by the president?s wife anyway so Helen Edmonds will do that,? she said.