John Leslie stars in Vigo Thieves music video

The ex-Blue Peter presenter is set to be seen lip synching along to Scottish band the Vigo Thieves’ latest single, Ghosts.

However, we can reveal Leslie, who now hosts the drive-time slot with city radio station Capital FM, was drafted in after first choices Peter Capaldi and Peter Mullan turned down the role.

He was drafted in after singer-songwriter Stevie Jukes spotted him earlier this month giving his first television interview in ten years to ITV’s Lorraine Kelly.

Jukes revealed: “We came up with the idea for the video almost as soon as I finished writing the song along with Stuart from Shootback Productions, who shot our last video, for Forever.

“We couldn’t get anyone to play the part though, so we were very close to shelving it and going with Plan B, which was a basic band performance video, not something we wanted to do.

“I caught John Leslie on daytime television talking about everything he had been through and it was exactly what we were looking for, so Stuart got in touch with his agent. John turns in a brilliant performance.”

In the moody video, Leslie is dressed in smart black suit, shirt and tie. He orders a pint before miming along to the song, surrounded by regulars. We revealed in November how the 47-year-old returned to Castle FM’s airwaves as a disc jockey.

Leslie lost his £200,000-a-year job presenting This Morning when former weather presenter Ulrika Jonsson claimed in her 2002  autobiography she was raped. TV presenter Matthew Wright then accidentally let slip that Leslie was the rumoured attacker. The case was thrown out, with a judge saying there was not a “stain” on Leslie’s character.

STEAL THING

RADIO 1 and NME hot tip act Vigo Thieves, from Wishaw, Lanarkshire, comprises Stevie Jukes (vocals/guitar), Barry Cowan (guitar/vocals),

Gordon Phipps (bass), Chris Gorman (kyeboards) and Al Jukes (drums).