Ayo Akinwolere

The beginning of July saw a trip down to Leicester to catch up with Ayo Akinwolere on The Time Capsule Tour.

Ayo at the time known as Andy presented Blue Peter from June 2006 until June 2011. Before joining the show he was working as a runner for CBBC. One evening whilst having drinks with friends in the BBC club, one of the Blue Peter production team heard him talking. She liked what she was hearing and suggested to Richard Marson the Blue Peter Editor at the time that Andy should audition. On 26th June 2006 Andy became Blue Peter presenter 32. His first challenges were abseiling and a bungee jump from a helicopter and this was the start of 5 years of fun and adventures.

During his final challenge before leaving Blue Peter Ayo set a new world record for the deepest location for an open water swim. He swam for more than five miles across the Palau Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the first person to ever do so.

Since leaving Blue Peter he has presenter Fort Boyard - Ultimate Challenge and taken part in Dancing on Ice, Celebrity Master Chef and The Great British Bake off. In 2012 he went to Jamacia to make a documentary for the BBC about Husain Bolt. Since 2014 he has presented Inside Out for the BBC in The Midlands Area.

In 2015 he created the swim challenge. a project to encourage people of colour to lean to swim.

In 2016 he changed his name back to Ayo, his birth name saying he wished to normalise his name and represent his community.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-37289733/ex-blue-peter-presenter-why-i-changed-my-name

Ayo features in Blue Peter books, 37,38,39 and 40.

Katy Hill

In June 1998 Blue Peter presenters Katy Hill and Richard Bacon buried a time capsule at the site of the Millennium Dome. (now the O2 arena) The capsule was filled with items suggested by Blue Peter viewers. In February 2017 the capsule was accidentally dug up by construction workers, 33 years  early. Before its contents along with new items suggested by today's viewers of the programmes are put into storage at The National Archives. The 1998 capsule is going on tour around the UK. Its first port of call was Birmingham and it was here that I caught up with Katy Hill for Project 161018.

Katy presented Blue Peter for 5 years 1995 -2000. Being a Blue Peter presenter was Katy's dream Job. Her first job for the BBC was as a production secretary, she also won a slot on BBC Radio Essex called Katy's Kapers. Later she became PA to The Head of Children's programmes and eventually gained an interview for Blue Peter, after bombarding the Editor Lewis Bronze with letters, showreels and ideas for the programme. Katy joined the Blue Peter team in June 1995.

Some of Katy's many highlights include flying with the Red Arrows, taking part in a Royal Navy helicopter rescue exercise, motor cross and interviewing The Spice Girls. Katy also went on Summer trips to South Africa, Hong Kong/China, Canada, Mexico and Australia. During the 1996 Summer trip she spent a week with a Mongolian family.

For the 1998 Christmas Pantomime (Back in time for Christmas)  Katy played both her 137 year old self and her great granddaughter in the year 2108.

In 2000 Katy won The Best Children's Presenter Award from BAFTA for her work on Blue Peter.

In the Summer of 2000 Katy made the difficult decision to move on from her dream job and when she announced that she was leaving live on the programme she could hardly get her words out.

Katy features in Blue Peter books 28 and 29.

After leaving Blue Peter Katy went on to present the revamped version of Saturday morning show Live and Kicking where she met her husband co presenter Trey Farley. She also did stints on Top of the pops and BBC's Holiday programme. Katy then went on to present the breakfast show on Capital FM  and took part in The Games for Channel 4. Katy has also written many magazine articals for Cosmopolitan, Hair and Beauty and Hello.

Between February 2015 and July 2017 Katy along with former Blue Peter colleague Stuart Miles hosted the weekday breakfast show on Heart radio (Four Counties)

Katy has her own parenting and lifestyle blog. Katy Hill My World

In a future blog post we will take a closer look at The Blue Peter Time Capsules.