A catch up

Its been over two years since Blue Peter's 60th Birthday and almost as long since I last wrote on this blog. Shall we have a catch up ?

I have stayed in touch with some of the presenters I met during the charity challenge along with some of the team that work on the show.

Here's what happened next :-

April 2019

At the beginning of April 2019 Blue Peter introduced Henry, the tenth dog to become a Blue Peter pet.

Henry a two year old Beagle Basset cross adopted by the show from The Dogs Trust. It had been six years since Blue Peter last had a dog as a regular member of the team. On the morning of Henry's first live show he appeared on BBC Breakfast with Lindsey and featured in all the daily newspapers. Henry often steals the show in the studio and has been on many adventures with the team.

Later in the month Radzi Chinyanganya presented his last Blue Peter after five brilliant years on the programme. So I headed over to the studios to wish him well. Since leaving Blue Peter Radzi has been a regular face on tv presenting and commentating on many sporting events and has just published his first book - Move like a lion encouraging young children to get active. 

Later the same day I caught up with Razi's friend and former Blue Peter colleague Barney Harwood in a touring production of The Wizard of Oz. After the show it was great to chat to Barney who enjoyed looking through my Project 161018 book which he signed with a touching message.

May 2019

For a few weeks after Radzi's departure Lindsey presented the programme with various guest presenters. Presenter number 38 Richie Driss  bounced onto Blue Peter on 26th May 2019.

Richie began his career in community radio before landing a job with JOE.CO.UK where he took on challenges such as swimming with sharks and interviewed a host of football and film stars.

Richie's first challenge for Blue Peter was to sing with the Kingdom Choir at a concert at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Later in the month I went to support Barney Harwood again, this time he was performing at a comedy club trying his hand at stand up. This would be part of a new show he is working on for Netflix.

June 2019

I had a wonderful day at the end of June watching a days filming at Media city in The Blue Peter Garden. The weather was fantastic. In the morning the team recorded a carnival special to be shown later in the Summer. In the afternoon it was the run-through and then the live transmission of that days edition.

November 2019

Blue Peter supports BBC Children in Need every year. For for the 2019 appeal. Blue Peter went old school with the reintroduction of The Bring and Buy sale. I decided to do my bit and make some Blue Peter Badge and Henry cakes which sold well on the cake stall in the Blue Peter Studio.

December 2019

One last trip of the year to Media City and a chance to wish some of the team that work behind the scenes on Blue Peter a Merry Christmas.

March/April/May 2020

As the Covid pandemic takes hold and we go into lockdown everyone's plans are put on hold as we are told to stay safe and stay home. This includes Blue Peter and its presenters so for the next few months Lindsey and Richie present the show from their homes. 

In the early days of lockdown I unfortunately become unwell with Covid. My recovery was slow, but as I did, decided to take part in the 2.6 Challenge. The charity challenge was set up to replace the 2020 London Marathon, that was unable to go ahead due to the pandemic. My challenge was to walk 26 laps, over 3 days, of the little park near my house with my dog Loch. (One lap for each of the former Blue Peter presenters I originally met for Project 161018. (I actually meet 29, but didn't count Lindsey and Razdi for this challenge as they were presenters at the time of the 60th birthday) In doing this challenge I raised a further £150.00 for Guide Dogs and RNLI.

Part way through lockdown presenter number 39 is introduced as Mwaka Mudenda (Mwaksy) joins the team. She also presents Blue Peter from home during her first few weeks on the show. Mwaksy also completes her first BP challenge from home, attempting to set various records. Prior to joining the BP team Mwaksy worked for BBC Sport.

June 2020

As restrictions begin to ease the team return to the studio. Blue Peter has done a brilliant job entertaining and inspiring the children of the UK during the pandemic. To keep this going the team introduce The six badges of Summer scheme. Each week viewers are encouraged to apply for one of the programmes famous badges.

Although much to old to apply for any badges myself I decide to have a go and promote the scheme across my social.

Green Badge Week

I grew some wild flowers to encourage bees, butterflies and other insects.

Sport Badge Week

I had a go at skipping

Music Badge Week

I dug out my old drumsticks

Blue Badge Week

I made a thank you card for the NHS.

Fan club badge week 

I shared some project 161018 pictures including some outtakes and messages from

special guests Peter Purves and Tim Vincent.

Silver Badge week

I wrote a poem about my lockdown, which I read in the Blue Peter Garden.

July 2020

 

Blue Peter takes a Summer break for the first time in several years.

The six badges of Summer has been a huge success and by the end of the month over 43,000 applications had already been received.

September 2020

Blue Peter returns and introduces Adam Beales the programmes 40th presenter. This would be first time the programme has returned to a presenting team of four since 2007. Adam is an extremely successful and popular YouTuber.

December 2020

Blue Peter commissions artist Sally Marshall to to produce a Blue Peter themed unit for Box on the docks, in the grounds of Media City. It incudes her version of the famous Advent Crown and the installation is called Here's one we made earlier.

I also put my crafting head on again and made these Blue Peter themed Christmas Cards for the team.

Blue Peter continues to produce a brilliant weekly live magazine programme for children. Despite Covid restrictions has been able to stay true to its familiar format. One big change this year was the Christmas show. The traditional mass Christmas carol singing of choirs and The Salvation Army Band filling the studio was unable to take place. Instead Mwaksy leads various choirs virtually in a Christmas Medley and a spectacular film involving gliders and fireworks provide some Christmas sparkle.

At some point this year I do hope to finally meet Mwaksy and Adam to take my total of Blue Peter presenters met to 31.

In the meantime watch Blue Peter every Thursday at 5pm on CBBC and the Saturday Morning repeat on BBC2 at 8am, or on BBC iplayer.

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

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.

Here we go !

On 16th October 2018 the longest running children's programme in the world - Blue Peter will celebrate its 60th Anniversary. The programme has had 37 presenters during its history including the present team of Barney Harwood, Lindsey Russel and Radzi Chinyanganya.

To commemorate this historic television milestone, I have set myself a personal challenge to try and meet as many past presenters as possible and get a photograph or selfie with them, before the16th October 2018.

I have chosen two charities to support during this challenge, Guide Dogs and R.N.L.I, both of these charities have been supported by Blue Peter and its viewers on several occasions during the past 60 years.

I will be posting my progress on the blog, and sharing snippets of Blue Peter history and memorabilia.

I have previously met four presenters, pictured above Yvette Fielding, Barney Harwood, Lindsey Russell and Helen Skelton. However I am starting a fresh for this charity project.

If you would like to make a donation, please visit my fundraising page.

Thank you