Valerie Singleton OBE

During the early May Bank Holiday Weekend I attended a session at The Pilot Light TV Festival in Manchester. The Session was called Blue Peter's History of Everything. Also in attendance were former presenters Valerie Singleton, Peter Duncan and Tim Vincent along with Blue Peter's current editor Ewan Vinnicombe. I arrived quite early and so it was lovely to be able to to chat to Val, Tim and Ewan prior to the event. Peter arrived a little later. I was first introduced to Val and she was really interested in Project 161018 and Tim recognised me from my Twitter and Instagram posts.

With Ewan Vinnicombe, Valerie Singleton, Tim Vincent and Peter Duncan
at The Pilot Light TV Festival.

Valerie Singleton presented Blue Peter from September 1962 until July 1972, however she continued to make regular appearances until 1975 and presented the spin off series Blue Peter Special Assignments.

Before joining Blue Peter Val had trained at RADA, then in early 1962 she joined the BBC as an announcer. She auditioned for Blue Peter later the same year upon the suggestion of presenter Christopher Trace, however she was not offered the job at first. Then four months later when the position came up again Valerie was first choice. For the next two years Val continued with her continuity role and presented Blue Peter. When Blue Peter went to two programmes per week Val gave  up her announcers job. Her Parents were very worried at the time, but Blue Peter made Val a household name.

Val in her early Blue Peter Days

During her time on the programme Val demonstrated hundreds of Blue Peter Makes and told many historical stories, but she also had exciting adventures, taking a lion for a walk (which was on of the films shown at Blue Peter's History of Everything) she went water skiing and also had a lucky escape  when she was involved in a powerboat accident on The River Thames.

One of Valerie's most famous films was when she accompanied HRH Princes Anne on a Royal Safari to Kenya. It was the success of this film that led to the spin off series Blue Peter Special Assignments. While filming in Rome for the first series Val met His Holiness Pope Paul VI and he gave a direct address to the children of Britain.

With HRH Princess Anne in Kenya

Val features in Blue Peter Books 1 - 12 and she kindly signed my copy of book 1 with a congratulations on Project 161018.

After leaving Blue Peter Val continued to work for the BBC on the early evening programme Nationwide, The Money Programme and The PM Programme on BBC Radio Four. She also became a travel writer for several national publications.

Val was awarded the OBE in 1994 for her services to television and soon after appeared on Blue Peter when she was awarded a Gold Blue Peter badge.

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.

You had to have green fingers to be a Blue Peter presenter.

Blue Peter first started gardening items in 1974 and  television gardener Percy Thrower was asked
to be Blue Peter's head gardener, who would show the presenters and in turn the programmes viewers various aspects of gardening. A small area of green space next to the BBC canteen was commandeered by the production team and this became the Blue Peter garden.

The Italian sunken garden Summer 1978.

 In the spring of 1978, after four years of showing us how to grow flowers and vegetables. Percy decided it was time to be a bit more adventurous. His idea was to build an Italian sunken garden complete with fish pond. Over the next three months Percy along with presenters John Noakes, Lesley Judd and newcomer Simon Groom worked to complete the garden. Towards the end of the project Percy, the presenters and pets all placed their hands, feet and paws into concrete for posterity.

Presenters and pets imprints John Noakes, Lesley Judd, Simon Groom,
Shep, Goldie, Jack, Jill and Freda at The relocated garden Media City
March 2012.

Once the pond was filled, water plants and fish added and flowerbeds planted up. The garden looked beautiful. It was Blue Peter's gardening items that first got me interested in gardening and I pestered my parents to have a pond in our garden. Finally in 1982 we built a rockery at my parents home complete with pond and waterfall.

Sadly the Blue Peter garden was vandalised three times, once during the building of the Italian sunken garden in 1978, again in 1980 and worst of all in 1983. On this occasion pots and urns were smashed, plants uprooted and trampled and fuel oil was poured into the fish pond.
That days programme was a sombre affair, as Janet Ellis and the rest of the team reported the damage to viewers. Many people laugh about this now, and some say it was a little pompous, but to many the Blue Peter garden was important, and Janet defends the coverage. Many volunteers helped with the clean up operation including members of 33 Squadron from RAF Odiham. It was at this time that Petra's statue was moved from the front of TV Centre to the Blue Peter garden.

Goldie, Peter Duncan, Janet Ellis, Percy Thrower and Simon Groom
after the clean up operation Summer 1984.

Percy continued gardening on Blue Peter until he became poorly in 1987. Percy died the following year, but not before a tribute programme, when presenter Mark Curry visited Percy in hospital and presented him with a gold Blue Peter badge.

Since Percy there have been three other Blue Peter gardeners, Chris Crowder, Claire Bradley and Chris Collins.

In 2004 when it was announced that the BBC children's department would be moving to Manchester
and TV centre would be sold, everyone wondered what would happen to the Blue Peter Garden.
One suggestion was a roof garden. In September 2011 when the first programme from Media City
was aired, the garden was not mentioned.

In February 2012 it was reviled that the Italian Sunken garden had been carefully dug up and rebuilt
in the public space at Media City in Salford known as the piazza. Gardener Chris Collins oversaw the
the project, and said it was like fitting a giant jigsaw puzzle together.

HRH The Princess Royal officallt reopens The Blue Peter Garden

February 2012.

The Blue Peter Garden was officially reopened by HRH The Princes Royal on 23rd February 2012, and I have visited the garden many times since. The garden and the piazza are now often used on the programme especially in the Summer months.

The Italian sunken garden at Media City UK March 2012.

Imprints of Helen Skelton, Barney Harwood, Chris Collins
and Barney the dog 2012.

March 2012

March 2012

Petra's Statue April 2017.