A 77-year-old British man who posted his first video on the online home video site YouTube last week has already amassed a huge number of fans.

The man, whose name is Peter, posts under the user name geriatric1927 (the year he was born). He talks about how he became addicted to the enormously popular YouTube in his first clip.

"What I hope I will be able to do is to just to bitch and grumble about life in general from the perspective of an old person who has been there and done that and hopefully you will respond in some way by your comments."

Peter's page, www.youtube.com/profile?user=geriatric1927 , was the most popular on YouTube last week. To date, he has posted six clips total.

In his second video Peter said he has received over 4,700 e-mails.

"I am absolutely overwhelmed and don't quite know what to say," he said.

One fan wrote in, "I just need to say thank you ... this YouTube experience has been one of the major changes and breakthroughs in my life and given me a whole new world to experience."

Another fan's e-mail said, "It's great that someone from your generation has chosen to share their views on life, and a shame more elderly people don't too."

YouTube, the popular online home video site, has an unexpected star -- a septuagenarian British widower -- whose soft-spoken, humble manner has won the hearts of users of the youth dominated Web site.

Peter posted his first video on YouTube about a week ago, under the user name geriatric1927 which refers to the year of his birth. He called it "first try."

In the clip, which starts with "geriatric gripes and grumbles" and some blues music, Peter tells how he became addicted to YouTube.

"It's a fascinating place to go to see all the wonderful videos that you young people have produced so I thought I would have a go at doing one myself," he says, sitting against a backdrop of floral wallpaper and family photographs.

"What I hope I will be able to do is to just to bitch and grumble about life in general from the perspective of an old person who has been there and done that and hopefully you will respond in some way by your comments."