Now that Magpie had successfully dipped a clawed foot into the domain of the annual, there was no stopping them and Christmas 1970 saw their 2nd book hit the festive shops.
Annual 2 continued with the tried-and-tested format and featured their three presenters, Susan Stranks, Pete Brady and Tony Barstable. The annual opened with an article about the making of Magpie and a reminder that it went out live every Tuesday and Thursday. Blue Peter fanatics like me will no doubt recall that BP went out on Monday and Thursday, so there was clearly competition for the Thursday evening audience (BP started at 5 to 5 if memory serves me correctly, as did Crackajack on Friday).
The introductory article also highlighted the role of the Magpie Producer, Sue Turner, like BP they obviously felt it was important and perhaps educational to let us see behind the scenes.
The 1970 annual featured lots of animals, historical costumes and features from the shows of that year. Sadly there was no Pete's Pick of the Hit Parade in their second annual, although Pete Brady does show readers how to make jazz instruments out of items of household junk. For a programme whose USP was being more hip than its rival, teaching teenagers how to create a skiffle band might have been better suited to the late 1950s than the era of Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. Having said that, a recent documentary about the making of Dark Side of the Moon did show the Pinks using some fairly antiquated items of studio equipment to make their amazing sound effects, so perhaps Magpie might have had some influence there after all.
