Noel Clarke - Actor, director, screenwriter and Tin Dog!

As Doctor Who fans will be aware, last week saw the unfortunate passing of one of it's finest actresses in the shows history. Elisabeth Sladen passed away of a cancer related illness which she had been aware of for sometime but being a private woman the information she was ill was not public knowledge. When news broke that she had passed away a lot of fans were devastated by this heartbreaking news.

Sarah Jane Smith had died.

Being a bit of a Twitter lover these days I myself paid tribute to Lis Sladen and spent a good hour reading other touching tributes being left in memory of her.

Noel Clarke, Mickey Smith in the revived show (And someone I used to think was pretty cool) tweeted -

"Not the best news to come home to, But I hope that Elisabeth will RIP. As someone who knew her. I always found her lovely. she'll be missed."

Really nice I thought until the next day he tweeted -

"Yo! I Respect the people giving tributes to Lis. But DON'T ask me to RT ur page or link about it. I'm not promoting you."

For some reason this bugged me a bit. Sure, I imagine there were some people just chancing it and asking for a re tweet off the back of Elisabeth's death but others probably wanted to share their thoughts with others about their love of her and the wonderful character she played.
Again though I thought no more of it and apart from talking to a buddy of mine (who for the rest of this will be called Paddy as I don't have permission to use his real name)and we both agreed he came over a bit cold and insensitive.

Yesterday morning I was on Twitter when this happened...

Noel Clarke - SOMETHING CHEERFUL FOR SUNDAY MORNING - SCREWED: TRAILER OUT JUNE 3RD http://tinyurl.com/3l5ubme .RT cheers

Jamie_Dodger_ - Isn't this self promotion? you said you didn't agree with such tweets the other day? Now I'm confused sir?

Noel Clarke - Did I? find the tweet where i said exactly that...

Jamie_Dodger_ - RT - @NoelClarke Yo!I Respect the people giving tributes to Lis. But DON'T ask me to RT ur page or link about it.I'm not promoting you.

Noel Clarke - That was in reference to people asking to RT their tributes, like they were more important than other fans tributes which they were not. have your tribute, which is lovely and all. but if it's a tribute, why does it need to be RT'd.Real fans, with real tributes didn't ask for it to be RT'd because it was genuine, not a chance for me to RT their link.

Jamie_Dodger_ - You make a valid point which I clearly see now but at the time it did come across a bit cold from someone like yourself. And yes there are clearly differences between the two. No offence intended it was a genuine question on my part.

Noel Clarke - Promoting a film is very different. if you can't see that. then don't follow me. quite simple really.

Being the unintelligent fool I left it there but then my friend Paddy (who is far better with words than me) decided to comment on the situation arising.

Paddy - at the time I thought your comments were harsh & a little cold.You honestly don't want to know what I think now.

Noel Clarke - My comments were not harsh. If people wanna pay tribute genuinely, why should I RT them?. I did my tribute. Me RT'ing theirs, makes it seem like their tributes are more important than others which they weren't. all tributes were equally valuable, thus real fans just did them without asking for a RT.

Paddy - it's difficult maintaining a level of arrogance,whenever you can't sit down, cause you have a BAFTA up your arse.

Noel Clarke - honestly mate... I couldn't give a fuck what you think of me

Paddy - well you gave enough of a 'fuck' as you so eloquently put it, to reply to me.

On a personal level I think Mr.Clarke missed the point when he said -

"Me RT'ing theirs, makes it seem like their tributes are more important than others which they weren't"

It wasn't about making others look important it was about sharing other peoples love for a wonderful woman who is no longer with us. It didn't even enter his mind that as someone who had met and worked with her people could be looking at him as some sort of beacon to share others thoughts.

Overall I think Paddy summed it up well after the discussion when he pointed out -

"Noel made the generalisation that anybody looking for RTs was looking to be promoted. He trampled over a lot of peoples' feelings with a rather unfair judgement call."

I've lost any interest in what Noel Clarke does in the future now. For me he has shown what an insensitive tool he really is.

Maybe I'm wrong and overreacted a bit. Maybe my friend Paddy is wrong and we both saw too much in it but as a result of this we both decided not to follow him anymore after that.

Noel Clarke you are the weakest link. Goodbye.