please empty your brain below
When I was a cub reported for a Belfast paper almost 20 years ago, I was sent to cover the Blue Peter team's first ever full outside broadcast, from Carrickfergus Castle, and got to meet Caron (RIP), Mark and Yvette. Not the most exciting anecdote of all time, but it's mine.

SimonC | Homepage | 16.10.08 - 2:51 a.m. | #

The best thing ever was the lion in the shop. It said no dogs but didn't say no lions ...

Debster | Homepage | 16.10.08 - 6:58 a.m. | #

Now, if only one still had all one's Blue Peter Annuals, they're worth a fortune. Oh, you do?

Blue Witch | Homepage | 16.10.08 - 9:57 a.m. | #

Oh dear, I remember when Blue Peter was new and them making that Advent crown out of two wire coat hangers and a bit of tinsel for the first time. Thank you DG for taking me on a journey back to my childhood. That's a very long way!

Pamela | Homepage | 16.10.08 - 12:44 p.m. | #

According to Wikipedia, the first Blue Peter dog, Petra, died from canine distemper after just one episode. This obviously could not be revealed on the show at the time, so the B.P. producers had to quickly replace Petra with a lookalike with the same name. The second Petra then gave birth to a litter of eight puppies in 1965. One of these puppies, Patch, soon became John Noakes' pet.

The 1960s, however, were before my time, but I remember eagerly watching Blue Peter when I was a nipper (late 80s/early 90s), so I remember Tim Vincent, Diane-Louise Jordan, Katy Hill and Konnie Huq, and the trademark "Here's one I made earlier". Isn't nostalgia great?

Andrewh | 16.10.08 - 3:52 p.m. | #

I started watching in the Val/Pete/John era but remember most clearly the days of Simon Groom and ?Chris Wenner which were marked by the most egregious double entendres. Does anyone else recall these? One was in the context of putting up a greenhouse, and another (could this really have happened?) in a feature about door furniture.

Sarah | Homepage | 16.10.08 - 5:02 p.m. | #

"What a lovely pair of knockers". As infamous as Michael Fish's "There's no storm coming".

What no mention of baby elephants deficating on the floor of Studio 3 though?

Geofftech | Homepage | 16.10.08 - 5:54 p.m. | #

Oh alright then, here's a comment.

What on earth was sticky-backed plastic? (Yes I know it is cellotape but I didn't when I was a child)

Glue...we weren't allowed real glue in our house. We had to make do with flour and water...no toxic fumes for us!

Fairy liquid bottles, Ha! (Mother 'employed' a dishwasher....a machine, stoopid, long before they became standard kitchen appliances. (She's extreeeeemely lazy, and still is, I might add.)

Bina | 16.10.08 - 7:05 p.m. | #

My sister won a Blue Peter badge and I'm still a little bit jealous. Someone told me the other day that Tony Hart designed it when he was working as a Junior at the BBC. I wonder if it's fact or urban legend...

Serena | Homepage | 16.10.08 - 11:41 p.m. | #

Sticky backed plastic was fablon. Sticky tape was sellotape.

Debster | Homepage | 17.10.08 - 8:59 a.m. | #

wot's fablon?

Bina | 17.10.08 - 11:14 a.m. | #

Ah yes, the pooing baby elephant. Or did it do a wee?

I used to love Blue Peter, I never managed to make anything I saw on there but I made many messy attempts.

We were not a 'Magpie' house. I think it might have been a little bit too groovy.

SSS | Homepage | 17.10.08 - 12:20 p.m. | #

Nobody ever mentions Michael Sundin... I remember when he died - I used to think his stint on BP was a figment of my imagination until the internet confirmed that this did actually exist.

On a lighter note, I was quite jealous of my school friends when they bumped into John Leslie and Bonnie (?) filming at Buckingham Palace on a school trip back in '91. I think I still have the photo of him and classmate taken by our teacher. Ok, maybe not such a light note!

s | 17.10.08 - 12:26 p.m. | #

Oh, DG. You are so cruel.

I remember the Valerie Singleton days with John Noakes,Peter Pervis and Shep.
And was it just before or just after there was Newsround with John Craven? News for children: it was excellent.

(That Konnie Huq is a little cutie isn't she?)

Jon Allen | Homepage | 17.10.08 - 3:48 p.m. | #

I remember being in an office full of sports journalists during an episode of Blue Peter which involved Katy Hill and Konnie Huq being given mud-baths.

Work ceased for a moment.

Funny how BP often featured those "something for the dads" moments in the late 90s...

Inspector Sands | Homepage | 18.10.08 - 3:27 p.m. | #

Val Singleton recently cost me a lot of money.... Remember the summer expeditions?

Val Singleton went to Brasilia, when it was a new capital. My partner watched that as a kid and vowed that one day he'd go and see it too. So - many hours flying later - we've just followed in her footsteps.

Meanwhile - I have hazy memories of John Noakes and the Sahara. So I guess we'll have to do Morocco next year.

RS | 24.10.08 - 4:23 p.m. | #











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