Remembering Percy Thrower - a gardening legend

Picture by Robert Broomfield

Percy Thrower was already a well known national gardening icon long before he joined Blue Peter in 1974, having presented the BBC's Gardening Club from 1956 before heading up Gardener's World from 1969 until 1976. He was also a star of radio and a newspaper writer on all things green and natural. 

Percy's first appearance on Blue Peter was when he helped the team to convert a patch of barren waste ground next to the restaurant block at Television Centre into the Blue Peter Garden. 

Lewis Bronze was to observe:

"It was a very lucky day for us when he agreed to pass on some of his secrets and techniques to Blue Peter viewers. Successions of Blue Peter presenters who'd hardly known one plant from another became keen gardeners when seeds they planted under Percy's eye actually sprouted and grew into plants! Perhaps the keenest of all was Peter Duncan, who Percy turned into an avid gardener".

Amongst Percy's most celebrated works on the programme was his design and supervision of the building of the Italian Sunken Garden, complete with an ornamental fishpond. He also designed a patio and built a greenhouse. Percy was respected by the Blue Peter film crew for his experience in front of camera "knowing when to show the leaf, seedling, or whatever to the right camera at the right time" according to Bronze.

Percy Thrower died in 1988 and shortly before his death was honoured with a Gold Blue Peter Badge to go with his M.B.E., his Victoria Medal of Honour from the Royal Horticultural Society and a waxwork statue at Madam Tussaud's. Following letters from viewers, a memorial plaque was put up within the Blue Peter Garden, in an area planted with two bushes of pink roses named after him and two of his favourite hardy fuchsias.

Percy was followed by Chris Crowder, Head Gardener at Levens Hall in Cumbria as the Blue Peter gardener from 1988 and then by Clare Bradley from Kew Gardens who joined Blue Peter in May 1991.. 

   

How To Make A Blue Peter Bicycle Pennant

Back in time to 1968, this was a small leaflet issued by BP with instructions on how to make a Blue Peter bicycle pennant. The leaflet came with a canvas ship emblem to be glued onto a triangular piece of felt, fixed onto a sturdy wire which could then be attached to the handlebars of your bike. By way of introduction the team said "Here's a reminder of how to make a Blue Peter pennant like the ones we've got on our bikes", with signatures from John, Pete and Val and paw prints from the pets. I'd like to have seen Petra trying to get on a bike.

Unfortunately I haven't managed to purchase a ship emblem badge on ebay yet as people keep outbidding me. These days anything that can be perceived as being a Blue Peter 'badge' appears more valuable than the books, games, even presenter autographs. I'm not sure if people think that anything with the BP emblem on will get them into Alton Towers or Madame Tussauds, but badges seem to be very sought after. There is also a roaring trade in fake BP badges on ebay, with a complete range of fake badges including the gold one going for about £20. I have complained to ebay that the sellers should at least be told to list them as replicas, but ebay don't seem to give a damn. So buyer be warned, if the Queen and David Beckham are the only people in the country with gold badges (well ok and a few others perhaps), it's unlikely you'll get the genuine item for a tenner on ebay.

Anyway, back to the Blue Peter bicycle pennant, the leaflet does recommend other uses of the canvas emblem for those who don't have a bicycle (such as Petra et al), which suggestions include sewing it on your knapsack or onto your anorak or blazer (oh yeah, I bet your teacher would be pleased if you turned up to school with it on your blazer - Biddy Baxter was so irresponsible). The 4-fold design of the leaflet even provides panels in which they have advertised the next Blue Peter Book and the Radio Times. What a lovely innocent world we grew up in, when our only decisions in life were whether to glue your badge on a pennant or on your knapsack.

Now, where did I put my anorak?          

 

Nice one Cyril

A lovely letter written by Cyril Fletcher to a fan named Miss Anita Caulfield of Northfield in Birmingham dated 1st February 1961. 

Cyril was appearing in The Legend Of The Sleeping Beauty at the King's Theatre, Southsea alongside Betty Astell, Patrick O'Hagan and Wally Patch. A Maurice Winnick presentation, produced by Cyril Fletcher. 

Cyril had also added his autographed picture.

The Blue Peter Book Of Odd Odes

Anyone who remembers Esther Rantzen's consumer magazine programme That's Life which ran for 21 years from 1973 to 1994, is sure to also remember a quirky old entertainer named Cyril Fletcher who would recite short verses known as Odd Odes. Veteran comedy entertainer Cyril would be seated in a big leather armchair in the style of Ronnie Corbett, contributing quips and amusing comments in response to features and reports from Esther and her colleagues, and always something called an Odd Ode to accompany some convoluted viewer story about being ripped off or treated badly by some rogue tradesman or 'jobsworth'.

Whilst the tradition of the 'ode' as a lyrical verse or poem dates back to ancient Greece and has included such exponents as Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth and Coleridge, Cyril Fletcher was credited as developing a distinctly comic form of the lyrical stanza known as the odd ode, and very good they often were.

In 1975, Blue Peter ran a competition inviting children to contribute their own original odd odes with Cyril Fletcher helping Peter, John and Lesley to choose their favourites.

The winning odd odes from 11,521 entries spanning the bizarre to the extraordinary, were published in a small paper back book with illustrations by Peter Firmin.

Cyril Fletcher on That's Life

Welcome to Blue Peter Book 13 - lucky for everyone ... but especially Lesley

The introduction to Blue Peter Book 13 says "we're not superstitious! For us, thirteen is definitely a lucky number, because it means there's another addition to our collection of Blue Peter publications. And since our Twelfth Book, we've been able to print some of the very best of your Odd Odes which we've put in a paperback, so watch out for that, too".

Yes I certainly will, in fact its in a large plastic crate under my bed. Anyway, we'll save Odd Odes for another blog post, if I haven't done it already. 

The 13th Blue Peter Book was published in 1976 and looks back retrospectively on the year of 1975, but no clues that 1976 would become the year that punk rock first burst on the scenes with the controversial appearance of the Sex Pistols on another BBC children's television programme, but I will come to that in a while. However, things were starting to feel a tad more contemporary with a three page feature about John and Lesley's appearance on a rehearsal shoot of the Generation Game, competing to reach Bruce Forsyth's conveyor belt where John Noakes managed to recall 12 out of the 18 prizes. Teas Made, cuddly toy, his and hers dressing gowns, etc. Sadly the prizes had to stay on the conveyor belt ready for the real recording of the show later that day. As they put on their coats to leave, Bruce turned to the lovely Anthea Turner and said "didn't they do well?"

If some of us had been uncertain for a few years about how Lesley Judd was fitting into the long-established team, Queen Valerie being a hard act to follow and Lesley's tenure still feeling a bit like the new teacher at school, 1975 was probably the year she stepped up proper, starting to kick some serious ass and nearly being battered to death by the waves of the Atlantic Ocean in the process.

For this was the year that Lesley was nearly dropped onto jagged rocks amidst the crashing waves around the Bishop Rock lighthouse six miles off the coast of Cornwall. This was after all, International Women's Year but even Lesley Judd, who had been gradually turning into the female version of Noakes would not have expected the events of 18 May 1975 when the canvas belt around her waist slipped and she was left suspended mid-air above the rocks, holding onto the winch rope for dear life with just her bare hands:

"My arms were being wrenched from their sockets and my hands were burning on the rope. I really was sick with terror and all the time I kept thinking - "if by a miracle I get there, I've still got to come back!"

But thankfully the former Top of the Pops 'Pans People' dancer did make it onto Bishop's Rock and recovered sufficiently to record a piece about this foreboding place miles from dry land. Plucking up her courage, she also made it back onto the boat via the same pre-health and safety era winch on which she had defied death by the width of one of Jason's whiskers, and lived to tell the story on the following Thursday's episode of Blue Peter though happily sparing us the flash of bruised bare backside which Noakes had treated us to when he came off the bob-sleigh the previous year. 

I remember watching this particular edition of Blue Peter with awe and thinking that Lesley Judd had well and truly made it as a presenter of equal if not more impressive stature than the likes of Noakes, Singleton, Purves and Trace. Her right of passage well and truly accomplished. 

Mr Noakes meanwhile was in his element, not just attending but competing in the 1975 Grassmere Sports or Lakeland Games. Billed as John Noakes of Halifax he was to wrestle with Charlie Younger of Throckton in the Cumberland and Westmoreland style, employing such moves and holds as the Inside Hyde, the Dog Fall and the somewhat dodgy sounding Cross Buttock. Having been defeated by Charlie's decisively operated Cross Buttock, John slunk off to watch the Hound Trail before volunteering to take part in the Butter Crag hill race which just so happened to excuse him from fighting 21-stone Wilf Brocklebank in the wrestling. Given the choice most of us probably would choose a heave up the Butter Crag over yet another session of Cross Buttock, this time with a 21-stone Grassmere farmer.

Euphemisms aside, Noakes completed his grueling run/crawl up Butter Crag, crossing the finishing line to the refrains of See the Conquering Hero Comes fittingly accompanied by a dog who had lost its way in the hound trail, trotting in beside him. There have been several Blue Peter action heroes following in the famous Halifax boots over the years, but none pulled it off with such perfectly delivered irony and the Yorkshire man's ability to send up oneself with an indiscernible combination of pathos and comedy.

It has to be said that the dashing Peter Purves, seemed quiet to the point of awol in this edition. Whilst Book 13 features an exciting four page spread firstly about creatures that might lurk on Mount Everest and then a piece on how Chris Bonnington's 1975 Everest Expedition planted a Blue Peter flag on the great mountain's peak, it is immediately followed by an article from Purves telling us how to make a tent for Action Man out of a coat hanger and some old cloth. Ouch! And as for Valerie, she doesn't get any coverage at all.

If we were to read into this a plot from Messrs. Baxter and Barnes to replace Peter and Valerie with some fresh new talent from the housing estates of London by the names of Steve Jones and Johnny Rotten, to name but two, alas in December 1976 the Bill Grundy Show beat them to it and children's television could never be quite the same again. Well, by that I mean we no longer had the short lived Bill Grundy Show.

Blue Peter would of course have it's own moments of controversy over the years, but even so has changed with the times and is still going strong in the year 2020. Whereas Johnny Rotten.... zzz.  

But back to the 1975/76 annual, a great cover, even if a close-up inspection does reveal a bit too much make-up on all three presenters and another great book in the tried and tested formula. Amazing to think that back in 75/76 there was a whole shelf load of BP books still to come.

Bring back the Blue Peter annuals! If I had a petition I'd ask you to sign it.

"He took me up to the topmost balcony and showed 

me the winch that had pulled me aboard".

At which point, the former Pans People dancer took great delight in grabbing the said Captain Bird's Eye by the seat of his Lighthouse Authority issue waterproof breeches and forthwith slinging him unceremoniously into the churning, frothing cauldron of the cold and merciless Atlantic Ocean.... and on Monday's show Leslie insists she will be making ear rings out of unwanted pieces of cooking foil

Girl Power or what? Siouxsie Sioux you've got nothing on Lesley Judd! 

On the twelfth day of Xmas Blue Peter gave to me...

On the 12th day of Xmas Blue Peter gave to me...

12 Cabbages from Percy

11 Swans at Slimbridge

10 Guide dogs for the Blind

9 Makes with glue and macaroni

8 Petra puppies 

7 Ballet moves from Leslie

6 Dinosaurs at the museum

5 Hours of Noakes stuck in a maze

4 Special assignments with Valerie

3 Motorcycle stunts from Pete

2 Tales of Paddington Bear

1 And a Blue Peter book unwrapped on Xmas Day

Apologies for the dodgy scansion but I hope you appreciate the intention in welcoming readers to the twelfth book of Blue Peter, published at the end of 1975 and costing just 90 pence. As usual packed full of programme features, makes and recipes, stories, puzzles, competitions and trivia. Written by Biddy Baxter, Edward Barnes and Rosemary Gill, the presenters were Val, John, Peter and Lesley with paw prints from Petra, Jason and Shep.

The front cover of Book 12 was dedicated to the mammalian pets, with Petra taking the central pride of place position to coincide with a special double-page tribute to television's best loved dog on pages 41-43. 

This edition also features the John Noakes Spinning Picture Machine make which inspired Damien Hirst on page 40. As far as Blue Peter makes go this one really was amazing and it is no wonder that the young Hirst was impressed. I might have a go myself sometime as I don't think I'm ever going to get round to making Tracy Island. 

This was also the year that John Noakes memorably came off a two-man Bob Sleigh at 80mph which was only surpassed in shock factor when he revealed the bruises on his backside to 8 million young viewers. I feel traumatised for life at the memory. Too much information - how did Biddy not censor that one?

It was always interesting to see the cut-away diagrams in the BP book which this year featured a R101 airship. I don't think this particular 14 year old ever studied these in detail but I had several friends who possibly did.

Valerie was dressing up in historical garb again in this book, this time as Elizabeth Barrett of Wimpole Street who married the poet Robert Browning. These cartoon style stories were always a great read for kids like me who preferred the visual style to text. Blue Peter books always had a great mix of different learning styles to appeal to different children, retrospectively one wonders if this was intentionally planned.

Well, in spite of my appalling version of 12 days of Xmas, this was another brilliant BP book (I've learnt they shouldn't be called annuals, even though they were) and it would be fitting to finish our review with an image of Noakes the artist as a young man. They'll be claiming Peter Duncan inspired Banksy next!

Bob-sleigh action hero to fine art innovator 

Noakes demonstrates his versatility as a presenter in one book

     

Noakes At Large

 

Noakes At Large was a one-off book published by Hamish Hamilton Children's books in 1980. The book came out two years after Noakes had left Blue Peter. He had in the meantime featured in his own tv show Go With Noakes, 31 episodes of which ran between 1976 and 1980 and half overlapping with Blue Peter, though there is not a single mention of either programme in this book. Noakes famously fell out with Biddy Baxter following a dispute about his canine pal Shep, eventually handing back the dog for someone else to care for. He then purchased a new dog named Skip who looked very much like Shep and he used Skip on adverts for Spillers dog food.

The cover of this book, Noakes At Large, interestingly features two dogs who look like Shep. Throughout the book there are numerous photos and cartoons of John with one dog, though there are no references to it by name. Can we read in to this the theory that the two dogs pictured on the front cover might be both Shep and Skip, whilst the rest of the book leaves an ambiguity around which is the companion to his latest adventures.

Even without the Blue Peter branding and the ambiguity around the identification of his hallmark dog, the Noakes At Large book is a superb work of general knowledge artwork and narrative. A mix of characteristic Noakes travel and adventure, along with factual tales of history and science, the text is dense and advanced and it is clearly aimed at the older age group. It is apparent that Noakes had a skillful team of designers and writers, including great cartoon sketches of a youthful looking Noakes by Toni Goffe, capturing John's exuberant and funny character even if the cartoons had taken about 20 years off his age. The book seems very dated nowadays, especially when we compare it with the electronic mediums which inform and entertain the young generation in the modern age, but it would still be difficult to beat it on the depth of knowledge contained herewith. 

I bet you didn't know that the Niagra Falls is switched off at night time and the water diverted to run a hydro-electric power station? Or that a woodworm is not a worm, it's a beetle? 

Noakes explores the Grand Canyon, gets lost in a maze, flies with the Red Arrows and goes up in hot air balloon. He tells us the history of clowns and the origins of the St John Ambulance Brigade. There is the slight feel of a Blue Peter book with some of this, but without the makes and colouring-in pages, the paper quality is of high standard so I predict vintage copies of this will be knocking around occasionally on E:Bay for years to come.               

A great retrospective read from a Blue Peter legend and his dog(s).       

A youthful looking John Noakes with Shep, er, I mean Skip.

Cartoon by Toni Goffe

Blue Peter Gallery

 Christopher Trace and Leila Williams

Past and present Presenters 1998

Valerie Singleton, John Noakes, and Peter Purves with Princess Anne

Peter Duncan, Simon Groom and Janet Ellis

Simon Groom and Sarah Greene with Goldie and Jack and Jill

Mark Curry, Caron Keating and Yvette Fielding

John Noakes, Konnie Huq, Lesley Judd, Diane-Louise Jordan and Peter Purves with the Queen

Konnie Huq, Richard Bacon, Katy Hill and Stuart Miles

Matt Baker, Konnie Huq, Zoe Salmon, Liz Barker and Gethin Jones

Presenters past and present

Presenters past and present

Konnie Huq, Andy Akinwolere, Zoe Salmon and Gethin Jones

Barney Harwood, Lindsey Russell and Radzi Chinyanganya

Damien Hirst credits Blue Peter for Spin Pantings

Damien Hirst has revealed the secret behind his spin paintings - they were inspired by a 1975 episode of the UK BBC children's TV show, Blue Peter. Hirst says 'patent picture painter' demonstrated by John Noakes on the show in 1975 inspired him as a child

Hirst appears on today's programme (August 30) and will receive a coveted gold Blue Peter badge for his services to UK art. He joins a select group of about 1,000 people who own a gold badge which includes the queen and David Beckham. "I grew up with Blue Peter," he tells the programme. "I got my idea for the spin paintings from an episode in the 1970s."

Hirst adds: "I never thought it was real art. I remember thinking: 'That's fun, whereas art is something more serious.' And then as I got older, I started thinking about Van Gogh and all those painters, and cutting your ear off when you're painting, and at that point I just thought: 'Why does it have to be like that?' I thought: 'No, actually, the better art is the art made with the spin machine.'"

Read the original article here:

https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2012/august/30/damien-hirst-credits-blue-peter-for-spin-paintings/

Legs Eleven - it's number 11!

The eleventh Blue Peter annual was published at the end of 1974 and was the second book to feature John Noakes on his own on the front cover without fellow presenters or pets. This one showed Noakes probably at his peak as the show's original if unlikely 'action man' when he flew with the RAF Flying Falcons and did an incredible five-mile parachute drop to become Europe's Civilian Free Fall record holder.

Having officially left the show as a presenter in 1972, Valerie Singleton still featured in the annual in her roving associate role, with a feature dedicated to her Blue Peter Special Assignments to such European cities as Madrid, Venice, York, Dublin and Brussels whilst elsewhere in the book she visits the elegant Somerset city of Bath where she donned the costume of Jane Austen. Val also played the part of Cinders in the Blue Peter Panto, partnered by a swash-buckling Lesley Judd as Prince Charming. John and Pete got to play the Ugly Sisters in six inch heels and frilly pants with veteran comic Arthur Askey playing their step-father, the Baron.

Lesley Judd was by now well-established as a Blue Peter presenter and had very much taken on the role of 'makes-presenter' alongside John and Peter on occasion. In this edition there are necklaces and bracelets made from junk materials, as well as an amazing table-top native American camp, complete with a forest made from plastic foam, a lake made from a mirror and brown paper wigwams with a red cellophane camp fire. Other makes included a fishing game made from old Christmas cards and a Scone Pizza in celebration of Princess Anne's wedding.

    

The 1974 annual contained some of the features which had become mainstays during the previous decade, including a mystery story with clues to solve, a Bleep and Booster adventure and a Paddington Bear story by Michael Bond. This year's cut-away illustration featured the Waveney Life Boat, which was no doubt connected to the news that three members of the crew of Blue Peter III, the show's Inshore rescue boat stationed in North Berwick in Scotland had received top awards for bravery from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

Celebrations continued with Blue Peter winning the Sun newspaper's Top Children's Programme for the fifth year running and in April that year Blue Peter opened their second Old People's Centre, this one near me in Wolverhampton.  

In spite of Noakes stealing the limelight with his record breaking free fall that year, Peter Purves was quietly keeping up appearances by climbing the Black Crag in North Yorkshire with Chris Bonnington and surfing the cold November waves of Newquay with European and British campions Graham Nile and Tigger Newling.

All in all another fabulous Christmas gift I well remember receiving and enjoying. Bring back the Blue Peter annuals!