So it's goodbye Blue Peter: Here's one I wish they'd got rid of earlier …

As BBC1's flagship kids' show gets shunted onto digital, I say good riddance to milk bottle tops, loo rolls and Lulu the elephant

By Rupert Sawyer

The Guardian, May 2012

On July 3 1969 a baby elephant, Lulu (no relation), took a dump on the floor of a West London television studio before pulling a zookeeper through his warm brown slurry – the beast had no manners, but what an insightful critic.

43 years later, and that same sorry incident is still the best thing to have ever happened on Blue Peter. Yes, in over half a century of broadcasting, 4,670 episodes to be precise, this remains the pinnacle of the BBC's flagship children's television programme – yet for some reason the people, and the leftwing rag in which these wise words are printed, are worried that it's leaving BBC1.

Blue Peter is one of the best examples of everything that's wrong with British television. In its heyday, it showcased a bunch of hyperactive long-haired layabouts and their dubious relationships with the show's pets and each other as they attempted to make quality children's toys out of nothing but dog-eared toilet rolls and cellophane – they never succeeded.

In its modern incarnation, it is the domain of the shouty, the metrosexual and the insufferably annoying. None of these are role models that children should be looking up to – these are not the bags of manure in which our children should be planted to ensure that they become tomorrow's David Beckham or Amy Childs.

Read the rest of Sawyer's 'critique' here

Editor:

What starts off as a funny and well written critique of Blue Peter as an insitution descends into an opportunity for Sawyer to trot out his personal prejudices on a range of topics which seem to have more to do with his own politics with the BBC than with the entertainment value of Blue Peter.

Blaming Blue Peter makes for creating a generation of young people obsessed with bling and suggesting that the programme's summer expeditions were to blame for hooligans interrupting his romantic moments with ladyfriends in Thailand, just don't make any sense as an argument and suddenly turn what started off as an interesting and entertaining take on Blue Peter into an irrelevant and poorly completed rant in which he makes his personal prejudice about the BBC in general plainly obvious.

A Jeremy Clarkson wanna-be.

Blue Peter annual scrapped following sales slump

It has been a staple in Christmas stockings for decades but the Blue Peter annual is being ditched this year because of plunging sales.

Publishers of the hardback, which has a history dating back to 1965, admit it can no longer compete with the likes of modern favourites such as The Simpsons and The Beano.

They had planned to release a 2012 volume but were forced to scrap the idea after shops failed to show enough interest.

Read the full article published in The Telegraph Online in 2011 here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8779762/Blue-Peter-annual-scrapped-following-sales-slump.html

Editor:

I love how they refer to The Beano as a 'modern favourite' - though apparently The Beano was the top selling annual in 2010 followed by Doctor Who.

The highest-selling annual of 2010 was The Beano with 201,277 copies – followed by Doctor Who (140,044) and Peppa Pig (133,651). Data from 2010 reveals that the children's annuals market is worth £15m a year made from the sale of more than four million units.

Blue Peter Annuals - Number Two

Following the huge success of the very first book of Blue Peter published by Lutterworth in 1964, the BBC realised the potential marektplace for their own product and in 1965 the second annual was published by BBC Enterprises. 

BBC Enterprises, later known as BBC Worldwide, were to publish the Blue Peter annual right up until 1986.

The second Blue Peter book was edited by Biddy Baxter with Edward Barnes and Rosemary Gill. The acknowledgements section also thanks Christopher Trace, Valerie Singleton, Margaret Parnell and Gillian Farnsworth. The book's cover features Chris, Val, Petra and Jason and, significantly, the Blue Peter badge designed by Tony Hart.

The book was introduced with the hall mark "Hello there!" feature signed by the presenters, Christopher and Valerie, with the paw marks of Petra and Jason, which highlighted scenes from some of the past year's shows and an invitation for regular readers to recall each feature. 

The second book introduced Honey the Blue Peter guide dog, who had been purchased for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association following the show's very first fund raising appeal in 1964 where silver paper had been collected in a Marylebone scout hall.

The book also featured more illustrated stories by Tim about Bleep & Booster and Bengo the boxer cub. There were also plenty of puzzles and a crossword.

In the second annual there were several 'makes', mainly from Valerie who provided guidance on making party chocolate cake, pencil cases from plastic bottles, a pyjama clown and a soldier's outfit for Teddy. 

The make from Chris was somewhat more ambitious and a great deal more technical as he attempted to solve a big problem for model railway enthusiasts by demonstrating how to build a folding table from two 8ft lengths of blockboard, wall brackets and a swivel pulley system screwed into the walls and ceiling ...and not forgetting a 36ft length of hoisting rope.

Considering that anyone setting out to construct Chris's foldaway table for a full sized model railway would have had to do things like, for instance, stand on step ladders to drill the swivel pulley block into the ceiling or use a heavy duty saw to cut 2 x 1 inch pieces of timber to the correct lengths, nowhere does he add the advice "you might need to consult an adult about this project". Perhaps demonstrating what a different world we lived in back in 1965.

In fairness to Chris he also showed readers how to make a bird table and a nesting box for blue tits, although even these items contain detailed technical instructions which would no doubt seem completely alien to modern children for whom unpacking and plugging in the PS3 is as techically demanding as it gets. 

The second book had plenty of features on subjects that were rapidly becoming Blue Peter standards including stamps, pets, historical stories and model collecting. There were additional items on the international code of signals, lifesaving and the changing of the guard which together create an impression of Blue Peter promoting high standards for it's young readers and viewers if rather stuffy and establishment compared with children's television in 2012.