A Blue Peter Christmas

A Blue Peter Christmas is full of traditions, from the lighting of the advent crown, which no a days has battery powered candles to The Salvation Army Band playing a Christmas Carol around the Christmas Tree.

The 2017 huge Advent Crown with battery powered candles.

The Blue Peter Christmas special is one of the highlights of the Blue Peter calendar and has mainly followed the same format for the past 60 years.

A clip from The Funny Side of Christmas broadcast in 2010

In the run up to Christmas, the Christmas appeal would feature heavily in the programme, which over the past few years has tied in with BBC Children in Need. Various Christmas makes would be demonstrated. Then with four programmes to go, the first candle on the advent crown would be lit, with one candle being lit on each of the four programmes leading up to Christmas.

The Christmas special normally starts by showing a selection of cards sent in by the programmes viewers. Then another long running tradition The Nativity scene would be set up.

The famous Blue Peter Nativity Scene, shown here at The 50th Anniversary Exhibition in Bradford in 2008

Christmas entertainment by the presenters would also often feature and this would take the form of a short Pantomime or a spectacular song and dance number. Occasionally the Christmas entertainment has been a stand alone programme prior to the Christmas special (Christmas at the Club Blue Peter and Totally Blue Peter)

Simon Thomas, Konnie Huq, Matt Baker and Liz Barker
star in Christmas at The Club Blue Peter 2002

The Christmas special always comes to a close with a carol around the Christmas Tree lead in by a band from The Salvation Army and a huge choir of School Children. A special moment as former presenter Valerie Singleton Says.

Merry Christmas to all.

The Full Blue Peter Christmas Special from 1987

Here's some I made earlier

As the first candles are lit on the Advent crown, the festive season is underway. So today I am sharing with you some of the Christmas cards I sent into Blue Peter back in the 1980's.

 

I had cards shown on the programme for four years running, I only have photographs of three of them.

This card was shown in more detail by presenter Yvette Fielding, this is what she said

And here's some more sparkly glitter, it's a cracker and its just been cracked and out of it, is coming tumbling snowflakes, a Christmas pudding good enough to eat, and a sparkly Blue Peter Ship, down here is a snowman and right in the corner is a present all wrapped up, and they have all been cut out beautifully and stuck on.

The following year presenter Mark Curry read out details of this large Christmas tree card, with Blue Peter pets Bonnie and Willow sat underneath.

I did enjoy making things and drawing but sadly I choose to drop art at school, as I didn't think I was good enough. Many years later I revisited my card making. In fact I made cards from 1999 until 2014, doing the odd craft fair along the way.

Here are some examples of my work

I still love crafting, but don't really have the time at the moment, however I couldn't resit having a go at making this Blue Peter ship that was shown on the programme during the summer.

Finally here is a short clip of  Yvette describing the card I sent in 1987.

Gold Badge Walkway

Yesterday we headed over to Salford to visit The Gold Badge Walkway at Media City Uk.
The walkway has been installed as part of Blue Peter's 60th Birthday celebrations and links the studios at Media City to the iconic Blue Peter Garden. It celebrates some of the many famous faces that have been awarded a Gold Blue Peter badge.
44 giant Gold badges have been set into the pathway and engraved with the names of the famous badge winners.

Amongst the well known names are those of former presenters Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves, along with Biddy Baxter who edited Blue Peter for 23 years and Percy Thrower the first Blue Peter Gardener.

Here is the full list of badge winners honoured on the walkway

Her Majestry The Queen
David Attenborough
Steve Backshall
Gary Barlow
Biddy Baxter
David Beckham
Mary Berry
Malorie Blackman
Quentin Blake
Usain Bolt
Michael Bond
Cressida Cowell
Roald Dahl
Tom Daley
Jessica Ennis-Hill
Tanni Grey-Thompson
Lewis Hamilton
Dani Harmer
Kelly Holmes
Antony Horowitz
Chris Hoy
Elton John
Jade Jones
John Lasseter
Chris Martin
Michael Morpurgo
John Noakes
Nick Park
Tim Peake
Peter Purves
Chris Riddle
Wayne Rooney
JK Rowling
Ellie Simmonds
Francesca Simon
Valerie Singleton
Steven Spielberg
Sarah Storey
Percy Thrower
Beth Tweddle
David Walliams
Bradley Wiggins
Jacqueline Wilson
Barbara Windsor

Gold for Janet

Current presenter Razi Chinyanaganya has been following previous generations of Blue Peter presenters by training with the RAF Falcons to free fall and the results of this will be shown this coming Thursday on The Blue Peter Children In Need Special.

Yesterday former presenter Janet Ellis joined Radzi on the BBC Breakfast sofa to give her support and to reminisce on her time training with the Falcons. Janet completed her training, having broken her pelvis along the way. On 8th October 1986, Janet jumped out of an aeroplane at 20,000 feet and and became the first civilian woman in Europe to do so, a record she held onto for 5 months.

At the end of the interview, you could see Janet's genuine thrill as Radzi presented her with a Gold Blue Peter Badge in recognition of her four years on Blue Peter.

Later in the evening Janet joined the Blue Peter team at The Royal Television Society North West awards in Manchester, where the programme was presented with a judges special award ahead of the 60th Birthday celebrations next year.

A belated Happy 59th Birthday Blue Peter

Monday 16th October marked Blue Peter's 59th Birthday.

The previous Thursday was chosen as the day Blue Peter would celebrate, and in fact it also marked the start of a year of celebrations of the programmes 60th year. I am so pleased the BBC are going to celebrate this wonderful television milestone.

The 59th Birthday show included the unveiling of the Gold Badge Walkway at Media City UK. A pathway celebrating some of the famous faces that have been awarded a Gold Blue Peter Badge over the years (more on this soon). The show also featured a birthday quiz including a round that recreated a make first made by John Noakes in the 1960's

A brilliant film featured current presenter Lindsey Russell taking part in a training exercise with The RNLI at Beaumaris the former home of The Blue Peter 2 lifeboat.

The show ended with a teaser of Radzi's Children in need challenge. Following in the footsteps of past presenters John Noakes, Janet Ellis, Simon Thomas and Andy Akinwolere. Radzi has been training with The RAF Falcons and is going to attempt a free fall parachute jump.

Lots more is planned for the 60th year, including in February when 5000 editions of Blue Peter will have been aired, a special Diamond anniversary badge will be launched.

The 59th birthday also marks a year to go until the end of my Project 161018 challenge. If you would like to visit my fundraising page and sponsor me, it would be greatly appreciated

Remembering Caron

Today would have been the 55th birthday of the beautiful Caron Keating.

Caron presented Blue Peter from November 1986 until January 1990.

She soon became Blue Peter's action girl, performing with The Moscow State Circus, swimming with sharks and abseiling down buildings.

Caron's distinctive 80's style of dress was often cause for comment and this led to a competition for viewers to design an outfit for her. Over 69,000 young viewers sent in designs and Caron chose the most beautiful and inventive one.

After Caron left Blue Peter she was always in demand appearing on both radio and TV, becoming a regular presenter on ITV's This Morning.

In 1997 Caron was diagnosed with breast cancer and she bravely battled the disease until she sadly died on 13th April 2004.

Caron was a hugely popular presenter on Blue Peter and was part of a great team during the late 1980's alongside Mark Curry and Yvette Fielding. My personal highlights of that time are the wonderful Christmas spectaculars the three of them performed.

Caron features in Blue Peter Books  23, 24 and 25.

The Caron Keating foundation was set up in Caron's memory by her mother Gloria Hunniford and her brothers Michael and Paul. The foundation raises money to help support carers, support groups,

complementary healing practitioners and well as families affected by cancer.

Barney leaves Blue Peter with an inspirational message for its young viewers.

After almost 7 fun packed years Barney Harwood presented his 368th and final Blue Peter on Thursday 14th September 2017. The programme was full of Barney highlights, a thrilling final challenge, a fabulous cake and a colourful experiment.

I have met Barney a few times over the past 12 months. Firstly in Stanley Park Blackpool last Summer at the launch day of The Grand Theatre Blackpool's 2016 Christmas Pantomime in which Barney would be starring as Aladdin. On this occasion Barney recognised me from an Instagram post about my Blue Peter books. He signed my copy of Alex Leger's book Behind the badge, and he fell in love with my Border Terrier Loch.

The next time we met was in April at Media City UK, on this occasion Barney was with one of his

co presenters Lindsey Russell and I told them all about Project 161018.

I headed over to Media City again last Thursday with the hope of giving my good wishes to Barney

for his last Blue Peter. I managed to see him both before and after the programme.

After being presented with a Gold Blue Peter badge from co presenter Radzi Chinyanganya, Barney ended the programme with an inspirational speech to his young fans.

Here's wishing Barney every success in whatever you choose to do next and hope to see you very soon.

Peter Purves

I wasn't due to catch my train back home from Edinburgh until 6.50 pm, so I had all afternoon to explore and watch some of the many street performers of the Edinburgh Fringe.  I had also heard that Peter Purves and Valerie Singleton were due in the City that day as well as current presenter Lindsey Russell. I realised that The Edinburgh International Television Festival was due to start the following day. I put two and two together and presumed this must be the reason they were due in Edinburgh. So I headed over to the conference centre with the hope of maybe seeing them.
I timed it perfectly, I had been sat outside no longer than 10 minutes when legendary presenter Peter Purves appeared on his way back to his hotel. I introduced myself and Peter remembered me writing to him earlier in the year about Project 161018. We spoke for a few minutes and he signed my 50th Anniversary Book. I asked about Val, but unfortunately her train was not due into the city until 8.30pm. I would be well on my way home by them. It would have been wonderful to see both Peter and Val. I hope to catch up with her later in the project. I did however see Lindsey and she was pleased I had seen Peter.

Peter Purves joined the Blue Peter team in 1967 and prior to joining John and Val, he had played the part of Steven one of the companions to William Hartnel's Dr Who. Peter's first film for Blue Peter was all about teaching John and Val life saving skills. During Peter's time on the programmes, it was often asked why John Noakes did all the daring films and Peter never did anything brave. However this could not have been further from the truth. Peter filmed many exciting adventures including joining The White Helmets Motorcycle display team, Mountain climbing with Chris Bonnington, driving a car through the side of a furniture van with a stunt team and climbing The Forth Road Bridge.

Peter also looked after Petra the programmes first dog, until she died in 1977. He later said that announcing her death on the programme was one of the hardest things he had ever had to do.

After 10 years Peter thought it was time for a change and his final live Blue Peter was in March 1978. He loved his time on the programme but says he really stayed too long, but it was such a good job. Peter is extremely proud of his time on Blue Peter " One of televisions great programmes "

After leaving Blue Peter, he remained associated with Children's TV, presenting the sports programme Stopwatch and two series of Blue Peter Special Assignments. He also went on to present the long running motorcycle trials programme Kick Start and has been associated with the television presentation of the Dog Show Crufts for over 30 years. Peter can also be found regularly at science fiction and Dr Who conventions. In 2009 he released his autobiography - Here's one I wrote earlier.
Peter features in Blue Peter Books 5 - 15.

Peter Duncan

For my latest Project 161018 adventure, I headed up to Edinburgh. However the day ended not quite how I expected. I had booked to go and see Peter Duncan in his one man show The Dame, at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The piece is written by Peter's daughter Katie. It is both moving and funny and Peter gives a powerful performance. After the show it was lovely to meet both Peter and his daughter. Peter signed a couple of my Blue Peter Books. including book 19, which has an article about his showbiz family and for which Katie used as references for the play.

I wasn't due to catch the train back home until later in the evening, so after lunch I had a walk around the city and watched some of the street performers. Little did I know that Peter Duncan was not the only former Blue Peter presenter I was to meet that day, but more on that later.

Peter Duncan joined the Blue Peter team in September 1980, he is the only presenter to do two stints on the programme. September 1980 - June 1984 and September 1985 to November 1986.
Prior to joining Blue Peter, he had attended The Italia Conti Academy of Theatre and Arts. His early career included roles on stage, appearing as Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island and 2 years at Sir Laurence Olivier's National Theatre. TV work includes roles on Space 1999, The Tomorrow People and King Cinder. Peter also had a famously brief role in the 1980 film version of Flash Gordon.

Upon joining Blue Peter, he soon became known as the new daredevil, with films for the programme including cleaning the face of Big Ben, Flying Trapeze and taking part in The Royal Marines Endurance Course. He also ran in the first ever London Marathon in a time of 3 hours, 11 minutes and 42 seconds. A time of which is still to be beaten by any Blue Peter presenter to run the race since. Peter was also the puppy walker for Guide Dog Prince.

Peter was a bit of a scruffy dresser and this led to a competition for viewers to design him an outfit. The winning design chosen by Peter was a very loud green and white checked suit, and he wore it on may occasions thereafter.

When Peter left Blue Peter for the first time, he went on to film his own series called Duncan Dares. Each programme focused on training for and then performing a daring act, including becoming a stuntman and tightrope walking.

Peter returned to Blue Peter in September 1985 and stayed for a further 15 months. He also filmed a further six Duncan Dares. He has often made guest appearances on the programme including in 2007 when he was awarded a Gold Blue Peter Badge. At this time he was Chef Scout and the award was given for inspiring young people for so long.

Peter returned to the stage in 1986, with roles in Barnum, Me and my girl and The Card. He is also a regular on the pantomime circuit . During 2015 and 2016 he played Wilbur Turnblad in the touting production of Hairspray. I went to see Peter in this production during its time in Manchester.

Peter has also taken part in Chanel Four's The Games and The BBC's Tumble, reaching the semi final.

Peter features in Blue Peter Books 18.19,20,21 and 23.

And who was the other former presenter I met in Edinburgh ? well I will tell you in the next blog post ............

Blue Peter Flies The World

The Summer holidays are well underway so its an apt time to look back at some of the amazing Summer trips Blue Peter has been on over the years. At the end of each series in June the team would soon set off to some exciting destination. When the programme returned in September the Summers adventures would be shown in a series of films during the first few weeks of each new series.
The first trip was in 1965, when Valerie Singleton and Christopher Trace visited Norway. The following year they visited Singapore and Borneo. Budgets were tight for the trips, but the production team always managed to find the funds for them.  Eventually the Summer expeditions as they became known were an essential to the programmes annual budget and success at the start of each new series.
As the team were jetting of on that years adventure a spin off show always aired showing highlights of the previous years expedition called Blue Peter Flies the World.

Clockwise from left to right
 Lesley Judd in Thailand 1974.
John Noakes, Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves in Mexico 1970
and John Noakes in Ceylon 1969.

Clockwise from left to right
Yvette Fielding, Mark Curry and Caron Keating in
The Soviet Union 1987.
Peter Duncan and Sarah Greene in Canada 1982.
Stuart Miles, Konnie Huq, Richard Bacon and Katy Hill in Mexico 1998.

Clockwise from left to right
Joel Defries, Helen Skelton and Andy Akinwolere in Turkey 2009
Matt Baker, Konnie Huq, Liz Barker and Simon Thomas in India 2004
Konnie Huq, Gethin Jones, Andy Akinwolere and Zoe Salmon in Bolivia 2007

Here is the full list of Summer Expeditions to date.

1965 - Norway
1966 - Singapore and Borneo
1967 - Jamaica and New York
1968 - Morocco
1969 - Ceylon
1970 - Mexico
1971 - Iceland, Norway and Denmark
1972 - San Francisco, Fiji and Tonga
1973 - The Ivory Coast
1974 -Thailand
1975 -Turkey
1976 - Brunei
1977 - Brazil
1978 - USA
1979 - Egypt
1980 - Malaysia
1981 - Japan
1982 - Canada
1983 -Sri Lanka
1984 - Kenya
1985 - Australia
1986 - No Expedition
1987 - Soviet Union
1988 - West Coast USA
1989 - Zimbabwe
1990 - The Caribbean
1991 - Japan
1992 - New Zealand with outgoing presenter Yvette Fielding and Hungary with incoming presenter Anthea Turner
1993 - Argentina
1994 - New England USA
1995 - South Africa
1996 - Hong Kong and China
1997 - Canada
1998 - Mexico
1999 - Australia
2000 - Spain
2001 - Vietnam
2002 - Morocco
2003 - Brazil
2004 - India
2005 - Japan
2006 - Southern States USA
2007 - Bolivia
2008 - Alaska
2009 - Turkey
2010 - Italy
2011 - No Expedition
2012 - Poland and Ukraine

In 1971 Blue Peter went on the famous Royal Safari with HRH Princess Anne, and we shall have a look at that in a future blog post.

Radzi Chinyanganya

I caught up with the third member of the current Blue Peter team, after a live episode of the show
went out from The Piazza at Media City UK.

Radzi Chinyanganya joined the team in October 2013 and he is the 37th presenter of the programme.

Prior to joining the team Radzi was a contestant on Sky One's revamped Gladiators and he reached the semi final stage. He was the official presenter of the weightlifting at the London 2012 Olympic games. In 2013 he co presented another CBBC show, Wild, and has also been a presenter on Match of the day kickabout.

Some of Radzi's many Blue Peter Highlights include performing at the 2015 FIG World Gymnastics Championships, performing with Disney on ice, track cycling, wing walking, synchronised swimming and climbing the worlds largest man made climbing wall.

In a special edition of the programme in 2016, Radzi retraced the steps of the 50 mile walk, and met survivors of the 1965 march between Selma and Montgomery in Alabama that was led by Rev Martin Luther King Jnr.

Radzi also loves wresting and recently reported from this years Wrestle Mania in Orlando Florida.

Mark Curry

Mark Curry was the 3rd former Blue Peter presenter I met on a recent trip to London.
Mark presented the programme from September 1986 until June 1989. He was no stranger to Children's television when he joined the Blue Peter team, having presented Saturday morning tv during the Summer months for several years (Get Set for Summer, Get Set, The Get Set Picture Show) The format eventually became The Saturday Picture show, which Mark firstly presented with Maggie Philbin from Swap Shop and then with Cheryl Baker from Bucks Fizz.

Prior to Saturday morning TV Mark was a regular performer, on Yorkshire TV's Junior Showtime
during the early 1970's. He also played the lead role in ATV's comedy drama Sounding Brass and the part of Oscar the producer in the film version of Bugsy Malone.

Mark was also the presenter of the successful Children's history programme Treasure Houses.

When the time came to find a replacement for Simon Groom, who was leaving Blue Peter after eight years. Biddy Baxter the editor of Blue Peter wanted someone who was already well known to the programmes viewers and Mark was the perfect choice. At first he turned the job down, thinking that Blue Peter was not really him. After several discussions with Biddy and a chance meeting with former presenter Sarah Greene he did eventually accept.

Mark was not known for action films on Blue Peter, co presenter Caron Keating took on most of those challenges. Mark did however agree to be tied to the sails of a revolving windmill. He also swam the icy waters of the Serpentine in Hyde Park and faced his fear of heights in film about climbing telegraph poles. Mark was in his element with anything that involved historical stories or song and dance routines. A particular highlight was the Christmas entertainment on the show before Christmas each year. Even after Mark had left Blue Peter, he often appeared on the Christmas programme.

Mark's co presenters included Janet Ellis and Peter Duncan, however the team of Mark along with Caron Keating and Yvette Fielding was a hugely popular one.

Mark features in Blue Peter Books 23, 24 and 25.

Since leaving the programme Mark's television work has include the quiz show Catchphrase, and a daily DIY show Change That. Mark also returned to acting with  a role in Last of the Summer wine on TV, theatre roles have included parts in The woman in black, Victor/ Victoria and a stage adaptation of All creatures great and small.

Mark is currently starring in the role of The Wizard in the West End production of Wicked.

Matt Baker

Matt Baker is the next former Blue Peter presenter I have met. I caught up with Matt during a break in rehearsals for The One Show. Matt presented Blue Peter from 1999 until 2006.

Matt had loved Blue Peter as a child and his hero was Peter Duncan, who presented the programme in the 1980's. Matt was at drama school when he sent in a showreel to the editor of Blue Peter, after trying unsuccessfully to speak to him on the phone. He was eventually given an audition and became Blue Peter's 28th presenter in June 1999.

Matt had an amazing 7 years on Blue Peter and his highlights include passing the Royal Marines potential recruits course, achiving a world record in tandem hand gliding, trips including Cambodia, Russia, Australia, Brazil and Iceland, and of course looking after his Border Collie Meg.

At School Matt had been a keen gymnast and was part of The British Junior Gymnastics team, he also enjoyed dancing, so was always part of any item that included this on the show.

Four years after Matt left Blue Peter, he took part in the eighth series of Strictly Come Dancing. He was partnered with Aliona Vilani and the couple came second.

Matt features in Blue Peter books 29 -35.

During Matt's time on the progarmme he won the BAFTA for best children's presenter 2 years in a row.

Since leaving Blue Peter Matt has had a very successful TV career, working on Crufts, City Hospital, Animal Rescue Live, as well as commentating on the BBC's Olympic coverage. In 2009 Matt became one of the main presenters on the new look Countryfile on Sunday nights on BBC1. In 2010 he became the new co host of The One Show, the BBC'S nightly magazine show, with Alex Jones.