I'm the trouble starter, punkin' instigator

We have a centenary to celebrate today - that of one of Britain's greatest eccentrics, the late, great "national treasure" and proud monocle-wearer Sir Patrick Moore!

To that end, here's a little revisit to my post on the occasion of his death eleven years ago:

Sir Patrick wrote more than 60 books on astronomy, and from April 1957 he presented all bar one of the monthly Sky at Night programmes, which have run ever since. For this feat he earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest serving television presenter in the world.

He was on air before Sputnik, before Yuri Gagarin and long before the Moon landings - he was involved in the lunar mapping before the NASA Apollo missions.

Among his notable moments in those early days of live TV, he once swallowed a fly live on air and, on another occasion, he had to think on his feet when a Russian guest turned out not to speak any English; the interview went ahead in pidgin French.

In 1976, he was involved in one of the all-time classic April Fools on BBC Radio 2, when Sir Patrick solemnly announced that at 9.47am, a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that meant that if listeners could jump at the exact same moment they would experience a temporary floating sensation. The BBC received many telephone calls from listeners alleging that they actually experienced the sensation...

A self-taught musician and talented composer, at the Royal Variety Performance In 1981 he performed a solo xylophone rendition of the Sex Pistols' Anarchy in the UK! Here (in someone's bad recording from the TV) is his classic xylophone duet with his impersonator John Culshaw, on Firestarter by The Prodigy:

Sir Patrick Moore - Firestarter

Sir Patrick Moore, CBE, FRS, FRAS (4th March 1923 – 9th December 2012)