Blue Peter went gold

Yesterday, Kaleidoscope – The Classic Television Organisation, held their Blue Peter Goes Gold event at The David Lean Room, BAFTA in London’s Piccadilly.

We were there, and – courtesy of Michael Hoskin – here are pictures from the day. Read more

Blue Peter book competition closed

So who won those three copies of Blue Peter: 50th Anniversary Book by Richard Marson? Read more

Send auntie out of the room

One TV institution salutes another tonight… via the most nauseating union ever seen on screen. Read more

Blue Peter at 50

The forward march of Blue Peter feels like it has, for the time being, halted. Read more

Is the BP theme broken?

As the BBC’s – ahem – flagship children’s programme readies for its 50th birthday celebrations, Michael Hoskin, from cult TV website TV Cream, is asking a pertinent question. Has the theme tune been ‘broken’?

The show returned to our screens last month after its traditional summer break, and sporting an updated version of the famous signature tune – ‘Barnacle Bill’. Nothing odd in that… except is that tune actually still ‘Barnacle Bill’? Or is it now the equally nautical ‘The Sailor’s Hornpipe’? Read more

Blue Peter presenter named

The BBC, this morning, revealed the name of the second new Blue Peter presenter. Read more

The advent frown

Everyone must have a piece of Christmas television that’s become a tradition in their house - The Snowman, The Queen, Top of the Pops. For me, it’s always been the Christmas edition of Blue Peter. Read more

Blue Peter

For all the armies of faces that have marched across teatime screens down the decades, very few have ever possessed the secret of contemporary children’s telly. Read more

A big “how’re you doing?”

There’s a comment on OTT’s Growing Up With The Telly feature about Peter Purves’ departure from Blue Peter being, “as though your parents were suddenly getting divorced”. It’s a perceptive point, because editor Biddy Baxter always said that BP should be “a rock” in its viewers’ lives, always there no matter what was going on elsewhere. That’s why the departure of Matt Baker is so notable. Read more

Blue Peter

As TV experiences go there’s still little more thrilling than the shock of rediscovery. Nothing really beats that feeling of nervously preparing to tune back into a programme you haven’t watched for several years, getting anxious over whether it’ll be quite as great as back during your formative years – and then finding that the show in question is not merely as entertaining and exciting as before, but way, way better. Read more

Blue Peter

“Hello there!…” Read more