The cover of the 14th Blue Peter book featured John, Peter and Lesley up in the studio director's control room, behind them a bank of monitors featuring the show's pets which at that time featured Petra, Shep and the two cats who had replaced Jason, namely Jack and Jill.The familiar Hello There! introduction at the start of the book celebrated the achievement of a book published every year since 1963. with half a million copies printed of every edition of books 4 to 14 - a record in the world of hard back books.
Of interest to collectors of Blue Peter books like myself, the article goes on to answer a common question from viewers back then "how can we get hold of books One, Two, Three, Four and Five?" The answer being:
"We just don't know. All the early editions are out of print and the only hope is to get one as a swap, or find one at a jumble sale. We keep one complete set in the Blue Peter office, and we'd very much like to hear from anyone else who's also got volumes one to fourteen. If you have, our advice is hang on to them - they look as though they're well on their way to becoming real collectors' items! In the end they may be very useful too, John Craven's set of Eagle annuals helped to raise funds for our Lifeline Lebanon Appeal."
The author of this introductory piece was certainly right in predicting the demand for Blue Peter books as collectors' items, though with the advent of E:bay they became much easier to track down. Twenty five years ago I forked out the tidy sum of £100 for the first three Blue Peter books on the assumption they were extremely rare, though thankfully Oxfam benefitted from my contribution to their funds. A search of E:bay in 2021 however finds dozens of adverts for all the books, including the first five books rarely more than £10-£15 each and frequently the whole collection of books for around £60. So contrary to the prediction about rarity, there are still plenty of Blue Peter books out there and a lot of collectors still looking to part with them for a reasonable price.
Incidentally, the items that seem more sought after on E:Bay are genuine badges and autographed cast cards.
The 14th Blue Peter book lived up to all expectations and high standards, being packed once again with features, makes, stories, puzzles and competitions. A visit by John Noakes to the BBC Television film studios at Ealing, took viewers behind the scenes of the filming of an episode of the popular comedy series Porridge, with Richard Beckinsale as Godber, Fulton Mackay as Senior Prison Officer MacKay and the legendary Ronnie Barker as Fletcher.
Lesley tells the story of the six brave Burghers of Calais, with illustrations by Robert Broomfield, then visits Noel Edmunds on his Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, another hugely popular BBC kids programme.of that era. Proving every part Blue Peter's action woman, Lesley is then off on a return flight to America on Concorde, a feature she described as the biggest operation in the history of Blue Peter, flying the Atlantic in 3 hours, 49 minutes and 32 seconds, with crack film crews at both ends as John and Pete gave a live commentary from the studio. The cut-away diagramme in Book 14 quite naturally featured the world's most advanced airliner.
The Blue Peter appeal that year was in aid of the victims of civil war in Lebanon and a Clothes-horse Race collected postcards, stamps, badges, buckles, cotton and buttons to help raise money to fund a medical Mercy Mission. The Royal Air Force provided transport for the appeal and Ronnie Barker was in the book for the second time by donating his magnificent album of old postcards for auction.
Stories in Book 14 included a Jackanory favourite, a tale of Rock-A-Bye Littlenose by John Grant. Peter Purves joined Lesly Judd on a Blue Peter assignment, visiting some of Britain's twinned towns in Europe, which included Coventry twinned with Warsaw - two cities heavily destroyed during WW2.
Not be be forgotten as Blue Peter action hero, Noakes was at it again, this time taking part in the annual river race with the Lochaber Mountain Rescue team, surfing down the icy river that runs from Ben Nevis on a blow-up airbed. When a crash-helmet bedecked and wet suited John Noakes asked why one section of the course was named 'the gurgle' his guide and trainer Neil Ewell told him, because you'll spend time more under the water in this section than you will on-top of it. John is back in the water again when he takes a 'rugby bath' after playing for Castleford versus it's own Castleford opposition in an internal friendly Rugby League game commentated by the great Eddie Waring who nicknamed John's team Noakes Nomads, advising him to avoid the "up-and-unders", a famous Waring line.
It was nice to see Bleep and Booster were also still having adventures in Book 14, with another stellarific story set in outer space.1977 was the year of the Queen's Silver Jubilee so the book featured news about the programme's competition to paint a commemorative picture for the Jubilee issue of the Radio Times. The winner was Nicola Griffin, aged 5 from Camberley (see image right)..
Peter Purves had only light mention in Book 14 and is very noticeably absent from features and activities, whereas Lesley and John are literally falling over each other to pull off dangerous stunts and get covered in mud. One wonders whether Pete's time was more committed to the Blue Peter Special Assignment Twin Town series during 1977.
Another great book, fantastic to add to the collection but also well worth a retrospective read!
