Peter Oakley

About

Peter Oakley, also known by his YouTube handle geriatric1927, was an English senior citizen and video blogger who gained a large fan following for his commentaries on current events and autobiographical accounts of his life. In late March 2014, Oakley died at age of 86 after years of struggle with an advanced stage of untreatable cancer.

Online History

On August 5th, 2006, Oakley launched his geriatric1927 YouTube channel with a video titled "first try" (shown below, left). Within the first eight years, the video gained over 2.9 million views and 10,000 comments. On the same day, Oakley uploaded another video titled "second try," in which he expresses his intent to vlog about current events and things that "annoy" him (shown below, right).

Telling It All Series

On August 11th, 2006, Oakley uploaded the first video in his autobiographical vlog series titled "Telling It All" (shown below). The series chronicles various experiences throughout his life, including growing up during World War II, his time in the British Army and his employment as a public-health inspector.

Final Video

On February 12th, 2014, Oakley posted his final video, which concluded the second series of "Telling It All" (shown below).

"In conclusion I would say my possibly final goodbye. So goodbye."

Notable Episodes

Over the course of eight years, Oakley had received more than 9.3 million video views, 43,000 subscribers and uploaded a total of 443 videos to YouTube. In mid-2006, Oakley was listed as YouTube's most-subscribed user on the entire site.

Reputation

News Media Coverage

On August 13th, The Guardian^[2] published an article about Oakley's videos, noting that he had reached the top of YouTube's most-subscribed list. On February 16th, 2007, Oakley was interviewed on the BBC television show The Money Programme, in which he discussed his YouTube fame and relationship with his fans (shown below).

BBC Documentary

In May 2007, the BBC broadcast a documentary as part of its Power to the People series, which featured Oakley as a member of The Zimmers, a British band consisting of elderly musicians. In the documentary, the band performs a cover of the 1965 rock song "My Generation" by The Who (shown below).

Personal Life

On February 27th, 2014, Oakley's blog AskGeriatric^[1] reported that he had been transferred to a nursing cure facility and was not expected to live due to an advanced stage of cancer. On the morning of March 23rd, Oakley died at the age of 86. That day, AskGeriatric^[3] posted an update announcing Oakley's death and that he passed away with "no pain." In the coming days, several news sites published articles in Oakley's honor, including The Telegraph,^[4] The Daily Dot,^[5] The Independent^[6] and BBC News.^[7]

Search Interest

External References