For decades the much loved presenter has endured rumours about her private life. Now, with extraordinary candour, she has chosen to set the record straight – about her many men (including Peter Purves and Albert Finney), about Joan Armatrading...and about the lifelong secret which could have destroyed her Blue Peter career. I have spent a lifetime in broadcasting, so you might think that by now I would have come to terms with my public reputation.
To most people I am the wholesome face of wholesome programming: Radio 4’s PM, Nationwide, The Money Programme and, I scarcely need to say it, the irreproachable Blue Peter.
Even today, I am stopped in the street by people who treat me with an exaggerated deference better suited to a living saint.
For decades the much loved presenter has endured rumours about her private life. Now, with extraordinary candour, she has chosen to set the record straight – about her many men (including Peter Purves and Albert Finney), about Joan Armatrading...and about the lifelong secret which could have destroyed her Blue Peter career.
Many cannot remember a time when I was not on television and perhaps, for them, I will for ever be the voice of benign authority, the queen of famine appeals and sticky-back plastic.
But this view of me, however deep-rooted, is completely false. I am no goody-two-shoes – far from it.
Despite my rather conformist reputation, I was often naughty in my youth – a bit wild, even. So it’s a wonder that I ever appeared on children’s television.
Valerie Singleton joined the Blue Peter team on 3rd September 1972. Her last regular appearance was on 3rd July 1972. She was the show's third female presenter after Leila Williams (1958-1962) and Anita West (May to September 1962).
Singleton co-presented Blue Peter with Christopher Trace until his departure in July 1967. They were joined by John Noakes in 1965. After the departure of Trace, Singleton and Noakes were joined by Peter Purves on 16th November 1967.
The team of Singleton, Noakes and Purves are perhaps the most remembered trio to have presented Blue Peter and certainly the most iconic, setting a bar which all subsequent presenters would have to aim for ...most failing.
Born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire s in 1937, Valerie was educated at Tring Park Arts Educational School and wanted to be a dancer. After a two year stint at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and a short acting career, she went to work for the BBC in 1961 and joined the Blue Peter team a year later.
Described by many as the consumate professional presenter, one former Blue Peter editor, Richard Marson, said of her:
"It was often said that if a bomb dropped on the Blue Peter studio, Valerie Singleton would simply have stepped out of the rubble and carried on presenting. If Noakes was the quintessential male presenter, Val was without doubt his female counterpart. Her serious approach, her superb skill with the makes and her beautifully modulated voice were the perfect contrast to his anarchy. Viewers trusted that Val was in complete control, which meant that they could relax."
Ref: Blue Peter 50th Anniversary - A personal account by Richard Marson / Hamlyn 2008
One of the pinnacles of Singleton's time on Blue Peter was when she accompanied HRH During her time on Blue Peter, Singleton accompanied HRH Princess Anne on her first solo trip overseas in a Kenyan Royal Safari in 1971.
In 1972 she left Blue Peter but went on to present a spin-off series created by Edward Barnes, Blue Peter Special Assignments and Val Meets the VIPs.
She became a news presenter on the BBC's Nationwide programme. She has also presented the BBC's late night news programme, Tonight and hosted many other shows including Radio 4's PM and BBC 2's The Money Programme.
Singleton was awarded the OBE for her services to children's television in 1994 and was also invited back to Blue Peter that same year to receive the coveted Blue Peter gold badge.
Find out more about Valerie Singleton at Wikipedia:
ABlue Peter badge is a much coveted award for Blue Peter viewers, given by the BBC children's television programme for those appearing on the show, or in recognition of achievement. They are awarded to children aged 6 to 15, or to adults who have been guests on the programme.[1]
The badges were introduced to the programme by editor Biddy Baxter in 1963, from an idea by Blue Peter producer Edward Barnes. Except for the "Gold" badge and the pre-2005 "Competition Winners' Badge", the badges are in the shape of a shield containing the Blue Peter ship logo, designed by Tony Hart.
The badge provides the wearer with free entry to many British attractions, particularly museums and exhibitions that are featured on the show. The programme producers suspended the privileges amid concerns about the badges being sold in March 2006, but they were reintroduced with additional security a few months later (see below).
Blue Peter Badges Row: Everyone Wants Free Museum Entry!
March 28 2006
Have you seen the fuss in the papers and on the TV about Blue Peter badges? It caught our eye because it's all about free entry to fun places like museums.
Blue Peter wants to stop people selling their famous badges on the Internet.
Blue Peter badges like this one are meant to show that you've done something special. They're a prize that money can't buy - or at least they're meant to be.
Read the full news item about the Blue Peter badge controversy from 2006 at the Show Me website
Blue Peter producer who transformed weekend children's TV with Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and Saturday Superstore
The following obituary by Biddy Baxter and Edward Barnes appeared in The Guardian,
Rosemary Gill, who has died aged 80, was part of the team that redefined the popular BBC children's television series Blue Peter in the 1960s. The programme had a weekly postbag of around 8,000 letters, which, as well as competition entries, included countless ideas from children about what they wanted from the programmes being made for them. These inspired the Saturday-morning show that Rose produced in the following decade, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop.
Rose knew how much children enjoyed swapping things. The TV programme Z-Shed, an experimental phone-in series inviting viewers to talk to experts about matters such as bullying, homework and pocket money, had proved how good children were on the phone – they were far less waffly than many adults. That show's presenter, Noel Edmonds, was a young, long-haired DJ from Radio 1 with minimal TV experience.
Edward Barnes, the Z-Shed producer, was convinced that Noel was the best choice for Swap Shop. A lunch was arranged for Rose to meet Noel. It was a tentative first encounter, but there was a glimpse of a shared eccentricity and sense of the ridiculous. "I don't believe she had an ego," Noel remembered. "Rose was the silent shadow drifting behind the cameras, stepping over cables and whispering words of encouragement to a studio crew who all knew that in Swap Shop we were creating something very special."
Part of the magic was the show's wide-ranging content. Boy bands, rock stars and famous personalities were all in the mix, but among the candyfloss there was an equal proportion of grit. Much of this was provided by the Newsround team, including John Craven, who presented segments on topical issues. Rose reminded John of "a very, very friendly headmistress. She had all these amazing guests in the studio, and children too, and she handled it beautifully. She had everything absolutely under control, making sure, for example, that famous comedians didn't make blue jokes that would have been wholly inappropriate for the Saturday-morning audience. We all knew Rose's rules!"
Rose was born in London. Her father was a schoolteacher and her mother had been a nurse during the first world war. After attending St Paul's girls school, Rose joined BBC Radio as a teenage secretary in 1948. She worked on women's programmes, and was eventually transferred to Alexandra Palace to join the nascent television service. There she became a secretary to various producers, including Cliff Michelmore.
In 1955, she successfully applied for one of the newly created posts of assistant floor manager, and worked on the programme Music for You, major ballet productions and children's programmes. She was spotted by Edward, a floor manager who became production assistant on Blue Peter. He was instrumental in getting Rose a secondment to Blue Peter when the producer, Biddy Baxter, was summoned for jury service in 1963.
When Biddy's jury service ended, Owen Reed, the head of children's programmes, was persuaded that Rose should be allowed to stay on as research assistant for an additional two months. Fortunately for us, she stayed with Blue Peter for another 13 years. When the show went bi-weekly in 1964, Rose and Edward became producers. Rose later became deputy editor when Edward was appointed deputy head of children's programmes.
The early 60s was a time of crisis in children's programmes at the BBC. Its drama and entertainment programmes had migrated to different departments, and the remnants, including Blue Peter, were combined with programmes for women and called "family programmes". It was this backs-to-the-wall situation that determined the three of us to make a programme that would be worthy of the neglected audience we served. Rose's contribution to Blue Peter was immense. She had a deep nostalgia for her wartime childhood, the happiest time of her life. One of her greatest talents was her skill as a writer. She knew exactly how to inform the Blue Peter audience, which had a huge age-range, without gushing or appearing to be condescending.
After the long slog of two live transmissions each week, the presenters began what was ironically called "the summer break" by travelling the world on filming expeditions. Rose worked on several of these with John Adcock, the senior Blue Peter director, and they always turned up trumps.
Swap Shop - the last show
Rose's sense of humour was at its best when the going was tough. On one occasion, filming in Tonga in the south Pacific in 1972, the extremely tight schedule was disrupted when the inhabitants of a small village decided to honour her and the film crew with a surprise banquet featuring a specially roasted pig. But at the very moment when Rose and the crew, with presenters Lesley Judd, John Noakes and Peter Purves, should have been at the airport, the pig was still turning on the spit. To have left before eating a slice would have been an insult, and in the ensuing race to catch the plane – there was not another one for seven days – Rose lost her coat. As the tiny aircraft took off, the entire village gave them a rousing farewell, singing, waving and dancing. As Rose and the crew waved back, far, far below, leading the group, was an extremely smart Tongan lady – resplendent in Rose's coat.
Rose produced Swap Shop from 1976 until 1982, when Noel decided it was time to move on and the series came to an end. The show launched the television careers of Keith Chegwin and Maggie Philbin: Maggie named her daughter after Rose, describing her as "a brilliantly intelligent and wickedly rebellious woman who was completely self-effacing, refusing to take credit for her sheer genius in putting together the first truly interactive television show". Delia Smith, who also appeared on Swap Shop, said: "I always use Rose's name when explaining to people that everything works if the person at the top is good. I will never forget how calm and reassuring she was while coping with three hours of live television."
Swap Shop's replacement, Saturday Superstore, was based on Rose's happy childhood memories of playing shops with her older sister, Hazel, and their childhood excursions to Harrods and Selfridges. The studio was designed as a sort of department store, with presenter Mike Reid playing the manager. Rose set up the show, which first aired in 1982.
By the time Saturday Superstore ended, in 1987, Rose had retired early from the BBC. She and Hazel, who was head of the Blue Peter correspondence unit, travelled extensively, and it was a devastating blow when Hazel died of cancer in 2001.
Rose was engaged in her late teens, but her fiance was killed in a submarine accident while serving with the Royal Navy.
• Rosemary Ffolkes Gill, television producer, born 17 December 1930; died 22 February 2011
As programme editor and producer, Biddy Baxter and Edward Barnes were the formidable partnership, along with Rosemary Gill, who developed Blue Peter into the format which viewers came to know and love over the next four to five decades.
Edward Barnes became an assistant producer of Blue Peter following the illness and death of the man who started it all off, Hunter Blair. Blair's departure from the team in June 1961 was followed by the appointment of a series of short term producers including Clive Parkhurst (who dropped presenter Leila Williams) and John Furness (who appointed Anita West to replace Leila).
Barnes then worked as assistant producer to Leonard Chase prior to the appointment of Biddy Baxter. It was under the stewradship of Chase and Barnes that Valerie Singleton was appointed as co-presenter to Christopher Trace on 3rd September 1962, a position she held for the next decade until her last regular appearance on 3rd July 1972.
Barnes and Baxter had first worked together professionally in the spring of 1962, though not on Blue Peter. The making of a series of radio programmes featuring megastar singer Eartha Kitt nearly turned into a disaster with Biddy playing a certain amount of gamesmanship in the face of an Eartha Kitt tantrum. In the event the recording sessions were a great success, leaving Edward Barnes impressed by Biddy's astute handling of a difficult situation.
Later that year, as the new leadership team on Blue Peter in the early 60s and working with a budget of just £180 a week, they were to introduce many of the fundamental ideas which turned the programme into such a massive hit with the UK's children.
Barnes (actually his wife Dorothy), for instance, came up with the idea of introducing a pet onto the programme in time for Christmas 1962. Christopher Trace and Valerie Singleton cutting the ribbon of a large cardboard box covered with Christmas paper to reveal a tiny eight-week-old mongrel puppy. Years later it was revealed that the pup died of distemper within days of its one and only appearance on the show to be replaced on the next show in January 1963 by a very similar looking pup who was to be named Petra after a vote by 10 thousand viewers.
Another idea from the Barnes-Baxter team was the famous Blue Peter badge, using the ship logo designed by television artist Tony Hart. 1963 also saw the introduction of the much loved Blue Peter makes - over the years some 700 of which, from outfits for Teddy to the legendary Thunderbirds' Tracy Island were the designs of 'makes genius' Margaret Parnell.
Margaret's involvement with Blue Peter started with a letter to Valerie Singleton and soon her makes became an instant hit with viewers, presneters and the production team alike. Working in a shed at the bottom of her garden Margaret became the brains behind a plethora of fantastic items made from discarded boxes, kitchen roll tubes, pieces of string, Sellotape, wire coat hangers and not forgetting ...sticky-backed plastic!
