The Magpie ABC of Space - book of the year 1969

This is an early publication under ITV's Magpie banner, published in 1969 this is an ABC of Space written by Peter Fairley with a foreword by Magpie presenter Pete Brady.

This being the year that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two astronauts to walk on the surface of the moon, I recall being an 8 year old boy obsessed with the images of space travel and the Apollo rockets. Brady writes that in celebration of this adventure, Magpie had launched an ABC of Space on the programme, the book therefore perhaps aiming to capture some of this content though apart from Brady's foreword there is little by way of specific reference back to Magpie.

Peter Fairley's 'annual-sized' book could have been one of Magpie's first forays into the world of publishing, which Blue Peter had been doing for some years with both annuals and other books with specific topics, and in fairness it has aged well in terms of quality and content. There is a lot of information here which you'd be hard pressed to find online today without a lot of Google searching.

My acid test with anything claiming to an 'ABC of...' is always "I wonder what they have included for the letters like Q, V, W, X, Y, and Z. So let's have a look shall we...

Q - interestingly Fairley points out that Q is for Q! He goes on to explain that Q is a letter used by rocket engineers to indicate pressure, useful to monitor when a rocket accelerates upwards through the atmosphere. When a rocket is on full power, says Fairley, the pressure builds up to its maximum which is known as Maximum Q. So yes we'll let him have that one though I would also have squeezed in Q is for Queen, a rock group who featured space themes in a few of their songs including the great Don't Stop Me Now (even though he'd have to have used a time machine to jump forward a decade or so to enjoy the amazing Freddie Mercury in full throttle). 

V - this one was initially disappointing when I first read it, V is for Velcro. Especially when you've previously been treated to such Boy's Own gems as J is for Jet Shoes (now you're talking), G is for Ground Control (can you hear me Major Tom?) and F is for Firing Pad (whoa!). To then come across V is for Velcro smacks a little bit of scraping the barrel, what next? M is for mittens on the ends of a long rubber band threaded through the arms of one's space suit? But Fairley enlightens us that the Velcro was actually placed in squares on the floor of the Moonship to aid the weightless astronauts walking around and thereby keeping their feet on the ground, as it were. Very clever, I didn't know that.           

W is for workshop. Ok, this does automatically conjure up images of elderly gentlemen polishing up their chisels down the man-shed at the end of the garden in Oldbury, but Fairley does remind us that the whole raison d'etre of going into space in the first place was to collect and study stuff so I guess he does make a good case for having a workshop and even calls it an orbital workshop (different to an orbital sander) at one point which at least does have more of a spaceship ring to it. The orbital workshop on an Apollo spaceship also had an exercise bike apparently and the photo of the exercise bike in the book looks like something you would only see nowadays at a car boot sale... "I'll have you know mate this is what Neil Armstrong used to tone up for his moon walk! Ok I'll take a tenner for it and I'll throw in the Velcro soled jet shoes I noticed you inspecting with a quizzical expression when you stopped by earlier".  

X is for X-Ray. I'm not going to quibble over this. If the alternative was xylophone, I am sure X-Rays have played a role in space exploration somewhere along the line so I'm not even going to bother reading it. Perhaps used for when a weightless spaceman sprains his ankle on the exercise bike? 

Y is for Yaw. No not a species of Arctic long-haired buffalo, a yaw according to Fairley is one of three movements which a spaceship can make without actually changing its orbit, the other two being pitch and roll. Yawing means moving the spaceship's nose from side to side. So if you are ever a space tourist on a Richard Branson flight around the earth when both the pilot and co-pilot both drop down dead, putting you under pressure to volunteer to take over at the controls and you hear ground control shouting "you're gonna have to yaw it man".... at that point you will be glad you read my review of Magpie's ABC of Space. 

And finally...    

Z is for Zero-G says Fairley, which basically means weightlessness and he describes this as being when "a spaceman is said to be weightless when the speed at which he is travelling balances out the pull of Earth's gravity". Apart from getting a bit Bleep and Booster on us with the use of the word spaceman as opposed to astronaut, this all seems in the words of Mr Spock... logical and I like how he suggests that when we reach the highest point on a playground swing and hang there for a split second before descending, we are momentarily at Zero-G (i.e. weightless). I must remember that for the next time this over-weight 58 year old squeezes himself into a playground swing and attempts to experience Zero-G momentarily before the local mums and dads report him to the park keeper.

What a good read. Well worth a fiver of anyone's money on E-Bay. Let them outbid each other for fake Blue Peter badges and forged signed Michael Sundin photos! I have the Magpie ABC Book of Space, will travel.

 

Bleep and Booster

Christopher Trace and Valerie Singleton 

with Bleep and Booster puppets

Bleep and Booster was a cartoon series by the Austrian sculptor and artist William Timym (aka Tim) which was featured on Blue Peter between 1964 and 1977.

Bleep and Booster were friends who had adventures in space. Bleep was a robot-like alien from the planet Miron and Booster was a human boy who travelled around with Bleep on his father's spaceship, Space Freighter 9, performing missions and getting into adventures. The technique used on Bleep and Booster was called animatic animation, which basically means still pictures that were scanned with narration from Peter Hawkins. This was a technique commonly used in the sixties and seventies on programs like Jackanory but was used with great affect on Blue Peter for many other features including historical and science items.

There were 313 five-minute episodes featured on Blue Peter and many of the stories also appeared in the Blue Peter annuals in book form. Bleep and Booster also had their own annuals for a number of years. 

The narrator of Bleep and Booster also provided narration and voices for The Flowerpot Men and Captain Pugwash. The artist Tim also created the cartoon character Bengo, a boxer puppy who first appeared in the Daily Express before becoming another regular on Blue Peter in 1962. Tim also created a statue of Petra and a sculpture of Guy The Gorilla in London Zoo.

 

Petra A Dog For Everyone

This delightful book dedicated to Petra, the first Blue Peter dog, was authored by Biddy Baxter and Edward Barnes and published by Pelham Books with the BBC in 1978. The book tells the story of Petra's first appearance on the programme in Christmas 1962, presented to Christopher Trace and Valerie Singleton in a large cardboard box covered with Christmas paper and ribbons. 

This book does not reveal that the tiny eight-week old brown and mongrel puppy that was introduced to viewers at Christmas 1962 sadly died of distemper just two days later. That part of the tale (excuse the pun) story was revealed by Baxter and Barnes in their 1989 book Blue Peter The Inside Story in which they describe the frantic search for a substitute, driving around London in Edward's Mini to try and find the dead pup's look-alike:

"It wasn't until they reached Lewisham they struck lucky. In a dingy shop window, there was one small brownie-black puppy, shivering in the corner of a pen".

In the days before video or digital replay and freeze-framing, not a single viewer noticed the swap. Baxter and Barnes claimed it was the first and last Blue Peter deception. 

And talking of voting....

The name Petra was decided by viewers, with over 10 thousand votes received. She very quickly became part of the team, joining Chris and Val on all of their outside filming and creating the sense of being a family pet.

In early 1964 Petra was joined on Blue Peter by Jason, a thoroughbred Siamese cat. Initially Petra was not delighted at having her new co-star but it is said that the two animals eventually settled for mutual toleration then bored indifference on one hand and lofty disdain on the other. 

Petra's puppies made a great impact and became the first time that a children's television programme made frontpage headlines... and for all the right reasons!

The puppies found the following homes:

Candy was given to the British Rail Children's Home   

Peter and Kim also went to Children's Homes

Rex and Bruce became farm dogs

Prince was given to an Old People's Home

Rover became a regimental mascot with the Junior Leader's Regiment of the Royal Engineers

Finally, Patch joined Blue Peter as the programme's second dog

In this book, Petra A Dog For Everyone, it is remarked that Patch's arrival at Blue Peter coincided with the arrival of another new boy, John Noakes, with whom he shared personality traits:

"Right from the beginning Patch was a nutcase, and by some quirk of fate he became the firm friend of another nutcase, John Noakes. Some people say that dogs grow like their masters, and others that people get to look like their dogs, but John and Patch bore an uncanny resemblance to each other, both in looks and temperament from the word go". 

After the departure of Chris Trace from Blue Peter, Petra became very close with his replacement presenter Peter Purves. Loving nothing more than joining Peter on a nature walk with the Blue Peter naturalist Grahame Dangerfield. Peter's love of dogs would continue to be demonstrated in his later tv career when he became well-known for presenting commentary of the Cruft's Dog Show.

Petra retired from Blue Peter in the summer of 1977 and died aged 14 years and 10 months on Wednesday 11th September 1977, her death hitting the national headlines once again.

A bronze sculpture of Petra was made by artist Tim (William Timym) the man who had created cartoon boxer pup Bengo and the space friends Bleep and Booster. The statue was placed outside BBC Television Centre. 

            

Hart for Arts Sake

A BBC institution in his own right, Norman Antony Hart (1925-2009) was an artist from Maidstone in Kent who built a career in children's television which included regular appearances on Blue Peter from the late 1950s.

The ex-officer in the Ghurkha regiment is credited as designing the ship logo on the Blue Peter badges as well as going on to work with Peter Lord's animated plasticine character Morph.

Writing about 'The Famous Badge', Biddy Baxter and Edward Barnes would later recall:

"We decided that it was essential for the programme to have a symbol. A logo that would not only be seen in the studio each week, but would be printed on every sheet of Blue Peter writing paper, every envelope and every photo of the presenters. The extended use of the logo would give Blue Peter its identity. Above all, the logo would be on the programme's badges. What should it be? We turned to Tony Hart, the young, up-and-coming artist who had appeared in some of the very early Blue Peters. He designed a symbol wholly appropriate for Blue Peter's nautical overtones, the galleon that was to become the most famous vessal never to sail the high seas. He received the standard graphics fee of a few pounds, for which he was immensely grateful. Later when Blue Peter was a household name and Tony was presenting his own programmes, Take Hart, and Hartbeat we all bemoaned the fact that he hadn't been on an artist's equivalent of the composer's Performing Rights contract. With literally millions of Blue Peter galleons bobbing about in homes all over the British Isles and beyond, he would have been the first of the TV millionaires!"   

Blue Peter The Inside Story/Biddy Baxter and Edward Barnes/Ringpress Books/Page 33

As well as his work on Blue Peter, Tony's appearances on television included Saturday Special, Playbox, Tich and Quakers, Vision On, Take Hart, Hartbeat, Artbox Bunch and Smart Hart. 

An innovative feature on some of Hart's shows was The Gallery, which displayed art works sent in by viewers to the tune of Left Bank Two. He was also remembered for his DIY approach to art which inspired many children's art programmes for decades to come.

Tony Hart was awarded two BAFTA awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Shortly after Tony's death on 18 January 2009, a Facebook organised tribute was paid to him by a flash mob of around 200 people with Morph figures outside the Tate Modern.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO0gLgQkp3o

   

The Gang of Four

Described by Baxter and Barnes as the gang of four, left to right, Peter Purves, Lesley Judd, Valerie Singleton and John Noakes. 

Valerie Singleton joined Blue Peter on 3 September 1962 and left on 3 July 1972

John Noakes joined Blue Peter on 30 December 1965 and left on 26 June 1978

Peter Purves joined Blue Peter on 16 November 1967 and left on 23 March 1978   

Lesley Judd joined Blue Peter on 5 May 1972 and left on 12 April 1979

Whilst there was only a period of two months where all four of the gang appeared together in the studio on a weekly basis, Valerie Singleton continued to be an associate or roving presenter on Blue Peter for many years including the production of the Blue Peter Assignment spin-off series up to 1981. In his Blue Peter 50th Anniversary book, Richard Marson said that "Singleton never really left Blue Peter".

  

Enter Lizzie Dripping aka Tina Heath

 

Actress Tina Heath joined Blue Peter as a presenter on 5 April 1979 having already established a television career going back to 1969 when at the age of 16  she appeared in Broaden Your Mind on BBC 2 alongside Goodies legends Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor.

Other pre-Blue Peter credits include a one-off appearance on the police serial Z-Cars in 1970, but her regular star role was playing the character Penelope Arbuckle in the children's television serial Lizzie Dripping. Lizzie Dripping was first introduced in an episode of Jackanory Playhouse in 1972 and 9 additional episodes were subsequently aired between March 1973 and March 1975.

Lizzie Dripping was written by by Helen Cresswell. In the pilot for the show it was narrated by Hannah Gordon but this was changed to Tina Heath narrating in the first person. The location for the show was in Eakring in Nottinghamshire.Tina's character in the show was actually Penelope Arbuckle, a girl with a vivid imagination who is befriended by a local witch played by Sonia Dresdel, whom only she can see and hear. The series was well written and well produced, following the dreamy North-country adventures of Penelope and the very strange witch. 

The name of Lizzie Dripping is a slang term in Nottinghamshire for a girl whom others believe to be a liar and who can't differentiate between fact and fiction. Her mother was played by the marvelous Barbara Mitchell (Beryl's Lot, Please Sir! and Fenn Street Gang).

Watch an episode of Lizzie Dripping here:

https://youtu.be/K7F6KHyz108

Tina Heath was chosen for Blue Peter as a replacement for Lesley Judd who departed the program to care for her husband who had fallen ill with multiple sclerosis. Baxter and Barnes describe how the crew and cast of Blue Peter were flabbergasted when they were first introduced to TIna Heath for drinks and realised she was much older in real-life than in the Lizzie Dripping series.

"A girl with that kind of spirit seemed just the person to replace Lesley Judd. She had considerable experience as an actress by the time she joined Blue Peter in 1979. No one with her determination was going to stay unemployed for very long! 

"Tina had a lot going for her as a Blue Peter presenter. She had been a lifelong fan and really understood what the program was about."

Blue Peter - The Inside Story / Biddy Baxter and Edward Barnes

When Tina Heath became pregnant Blue Peter followed the progress of her pregnancy on the show, which was very innovative for children's television and every week there would be a conversation about the growth of the baby, which had a great impact on the viewers who responded with cards, letters and baby gifts. Tina's doctor Dr Anne Cobbe even came to the studio to perform an ante-natal examination on camera. The National Childbirth Trust wrote to congratulate Blue Peter saying "you have done more for birth education in that sequence than we could have done in years of talks, producing book lists for children and so on".

Tina left Blue Peter on 23 June 1980 after 14 months as a presenter. Her daughter Jemma Victoria Cooke was born on 22 September 1980.