60 years of Blue Peter: Gossip, scandal and classic memories

Peter Purves on his office romance. Valerie Singleton on THAT lesbian myth. Konnie Huq on the fake phone-in scandal. Blue Peter presenters past and present lift the lid on a scandalous 60 years 

Valerie Singleton, the Blue Peter legend, has a wicked glint in her eye. ‘I’m always chatting to nice men in bars thinking, “I’m getting on rather well here.” Then they suddenly go, “I have to tell you, I was so in love with you when I was five.” It’s an absolute killer.’

It’s great to hear she’s still out there enjoying herself but it’s also disconcerting to hear Singleton talk like this, because the 81-year-old is the queen of Blue Peter, the BBC’s longest-running and most wholesome children’s programme, which celebrates its 60th birthday this month. But when Blue Peter presenters young and old get together to look back at the show’s history and discuss whether it’s still relevant, the gossip flies, the triumphs are recalled, scandals are revisited and myths are busted.

A Blue Peter reunion. A ‘blue Peter’ is a flag flown by ships leaving port, and was chosen for the programme’s name because children were being taken on a voyage of discovery

‘Kids of the right age with the right mentality still love it,’ says Konnie Huq, host from 1997 to 2008. ‘As long as there are fun, intelligent, curious-to-learn kids – which there always will be – then there’s a place for Blue Peter.’

From 15 minutes about trains… to TV gold

The programme began in 1958 with actor Christopher Trace (a stand-in for Charlton Heston in Ben Hur) and Leila Williams, 1957’s Miss Great Britain. The format was simple: the pair played with trains and dolls in a studio. A ‘blue Peter’ is a flag flown by ships leaving port, and was chosen for the programme’s name because children were being taken on a voyage of discovery.

The young actor Valerie Singleton, who graduated from Rada with Albert Finney and Peter O’Toole, was not keen on the idea when she was invited to audition. ‘I bumped into Christopher Trace and he said they were looking for a girl on Blue Peter, which he described as a 15-minute programme once a week about trains. I thought: “That sounds dull”.’

Singleton auditioned anyway, but didn’t get the part. ‘Anita West got it because apparently they fancied her more than me, which was infuriating. She was blonde and rather sexy. Then six months later, she fell out with them and I got the job.’ (West has said she resigned because she was getting divorced: ‘In the Sixties, divorce wasn’t very accepted and I didn’t want my personal life to drag the show into disrepute.’)

Biddy Baxter, who had worked on radio’s Listen With Mother, took over as producer, then editor, beginning a 23-year reign that made the show a legend. By 1964, it had gained a second weekly slot, and Singleton had to choose between Blue Peter and her more lucrative work as a continuity announcer. ‘I chose Blue Peter. My parents were horrified. They said, “You’ve got this jolly sensible job, what’s this Blue Peter thing?”’ But she became a vital part of the classic line-up when the daredevil John Noakes arrived in 1965. The former RAF aircraft fitter had been acting in television dramas. His fellow actor Peter Purves followed in 1967, having been one of Doctor Who’s earliest companions.

‘I was thrilled, because I was broke,’ says Purves now. ‘I did Doctor Who for a year and I was well known when I left, but it was nearly 18 months before I started Blue Peter. I didn’t have a lot of work in between.’

Suddenly Purves was famous again. ‘There would be no point taking my children somewhere we’d publicised on the show. We went to an event in Coniston, and I got recognised in the car park. We never got out of the car park.

‘But it was the best job in television. The worst paid, but the best. When I joined, my starting fee was based on my fee for Doctor Who, so it was 35 guineas. John Noakes was paid five guineas more than me. Valerie was on five guineas more than John.’ So Blue Peter was ahead of its time, paying its female presenter the most.

The trio were together for one of the most memorable events in the history of children’s TV, when Lulu the elephant came on the show in 1969. She urinated and defecated on the studio floor and sent her keeper flying, while the hosts slipped about in the mess.

‘Valerie was gamely trying to continue and keep the show on the air,’ says Purves. ‘John was having fun. I just laughed through most of it. It’s fabulous TV.’

Everyone thinks that scene was chaos because it was live, but it was prerecorded. ‘We didn’t usually prerecord the show, but we were all flying to Sri Lanka the next day for a Blue Peter assignment,’ says Purves. ‘It was put out without any editing, exactly as it had happened. I don’t give Biddy Baxter a lot of praise, but I give her praise for that.’

They had a tricky relationship, he says. Baxter kept strict control over her young presenters, told them off when they fell short of her high standards and did not want them anywhere near the production office, unlike today. ‘She was a very difficult woman but a great editor,’ he says. ‘The show succeeded because of Biddy. She kept a very firm rein on it. She treated us like kids.’

The truth about that lesbian rumour…

Baxter couldn’t control what they did off screen though – and as Purves has admitted, he was instantly attracted to his co-star: ‘I went weak at the knees the first time I saw Valerie. I fancied her like mad.’

Singleton revealed in 2008 that they’d had a one-night stand while filming on location. ‘We’d had a few glasses of wine at our hotel, and one thing led to another,’ she said. ‘It was one of those impulsive, enjoyable experiences but more a friendship thing than anything else. Sleeping with people you work with is generally not advisable, so we didn’t want to pursue it. There was always an unspoken acknowledgement that something rather nice had happened.’ She also revealed that she had become pregnant – not by Purves – soon after joining Blue Peter and had an abortion when it was still illegal. ‘I’ve just never felt maternal. And I never remotely considered that the children I met on Blue Peter were a replacement for not having my own.’

Purves has been married twice, the first time to scriptwriter Gilly Fraser. They have two grown-up children, Matthew and Lisa. He met his second wife, the actor Kathryn Evans, when they were in pantomime together and they have been married since 1982.

Janet Ellis, Helen Skelton and Konnie Huq. The show was – and is – aimed at children aged between six and 15

Janet Ellis, Helen Skelton and Konnie Huq. The show was – and is – aimed at children aged between six and 15

Singleton had a long-term relationship with the DJ Pete Murray, until he broke off their engagement. She later lost a partner to the IRA, when 24-year-old journalist Philip Geddes was killed by a bomb outside Harrods in 1983. She said in 2008: ‘My big personal regret is not having sustained a deep relationship and, maybe if I’d achieved that, I might have wanted children. I seem to have crammed most of my men into the early part of my life, and then there were great deserts of nobody at all except flings.’

What made her decide to be so candid? ‘I was fed up with everybody thinking I was gay. So I thought, it’s time I put the record straight. I was fed up with looking at Wikipedia and finding I’ve lived with Joan Armatrading when I’ve only met the bloody woman twice. Ridiculous.’

She’s talking about a notorious rumour that began in 1978, when Singleton interviewed the singer-songwriter for a current-affairs show. They were said to have begun a three-year affair, at a time when there were hardly any openly lesbian public figures.

So Singleton set out to quash the rumours with a piece in The Mail on Sunday revealing that she had actually slept with a member of Joan’s band, who was a man. This did not go down well with the self-appointed guardian of Blue Peter’s purity, Biddy Baxter, even though both women had long since left the show.

Right: the Blue Peter line-up in 1971, from left: Peter Purves (with Petra), Valerie Singleton (with Jason) and John Noakes (with Shep)

Right: the Blue Peter line-up in 1971, from left: Peter Purves (with Petra), Valerie Singleton (with Jason) and John Noakes (with Shep)

‘Biddy has never sent me a Christmas card since then, to which I would say: ‘Did you spend 30 years being accused [of being gay]?’ Everybody goes, “Oh, she’s gay isn’t she?” No she’s not. Anything but.’

Did the rumours harm her love life? ‘How do I know? It might have done. How many people thought, “It’s not worth asking her out?”’ Even now, Singleton wishes Armatrading would say something. ‘She must’ve heard of it. Why doesn’t she stand up and say it’s absolute rubbish?’

The action hero who set the bar for stunts

The third member of the classic Blue Peter line-up was John Noakes, the daredevil Yorkshireman with a broad accent and matey attitude, who was the show’s longest-running and probably best-loved presenter. Noakes joined in 1965 and left in 1978, taking his faithful Blue Peter dog Shep with him to other popular shows such as Go With Noakes before retirement.

‘I felt we were telepathic together. I loved that man,’ says Purves. ‘He was a great friend and I miss him very much.’ Noakes died aged 83 in his adopted home of Majorca last year after suffering from Alzheimer’s. Having been such an enthusiastic and engaging man, his decline was very hard for friends and family to take, says Purves. ‘It was horrible. I remember his son saying to me that towards the end it wasn’t Johnny. It developed over a time. He was always a little bit scatty, so you might not have spotted the dementia coming in. Alzheimer’s is so cruel.’

But Noakes will always be remembered for daring stunts like skydiving with the Red Devils and crashing on the Cresta Run. He paved the way for the amazing feats of subsequent presenters, most notably Helen Skelton, who kayaked the Amazon and walked a tightrope between chimneys at Battersea Power Station.

Noakes’ finest – and maddest – moment was climbing Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square without any kind of safety harness in 1977. ‘That was the tops,’ says Purves. ‘Absolutely unbeatable.’

Even now, it is an eye-watering piece of footage, as Noakes climbs the 180ft column using only ladders tied on with ropes, including one that goes backwards at the overhang of the plinth. Noakes hauls himself over the void and still somehow remains cheery.

All of which goes to show Blue Peter was a lot racier and more thrilling than its reputation at the time, when there was a great rivalry with the funkier Magpie on ITV. Magpie presenter Mick Robertson looked like an off-duty rock star, Susan Stranks and Jenny Hanley were hippie chicks less aloof than Singelton. The shows came to stand for two sides in a cultural war – the flashy, ambitious world of commercial television and the fuddy-duddy BBC. ‘I know we were rather straight,’ says Singleton. You were either a Magpie kid or your parents would only let you watch Blue Peter, it was said. But the shows were more similar than people realised and the rivalry was real. ‘Sometimes we were fighting for items. We would watch them and think, “Damn, we were going to do that!” Maybe Magpie thought the same thing.’

But during Baxter’s tenure, Blue Peter did innovate, introducing pets and gardens that could be cared for by viewers who didn’t have any of their own. Petra the eight-week-old mongrel puppy was the first Blue Peter pet, arriving in 1962. Petra brought the first whiff of scandal, when she died after just one appearance but was replaced without viewers being told. ‘It wasn’t appropriate to cause them that distress,’ said Baxter later. ‘It wasn’t noticed and I am convinced we did exactly the right thing.’

Champions of the TV charity appeal

The show was – and is – aimed at children aged between six and 15, but it didn’t spare them the realities of life and taught them to care for the less fortunate. The first appeal was in 1962 in aid of the homeless, when viewers were asked to collect postage stamps. Forty-eight more followed over the years, raising the equivalent of £100 million (with bring-and-buy sales bringing in another £57 million) for good causes.

‘Nobody was doing appeals before Blue Peter,’ says Konnie Huq, a later presenter. ‘Comic Relief, Sport Relief, Children In Need, they all followed.’

The Blue Peter badge was an early and very successful experiment in audience interaction, introduced because Baxter had written to Enid Blyton twice as a child and got the same standard reply both times, as she once told Desert Island Discs: ‘I remember bursting into tears and going to my mother and saying: ‘She doesn’t remember me.’”

Incredibly, the number of letters to Blue Peter has soared again in recent years, from 40,000 in 2011 to a staggering 106,303 last year. Current presenters Lindsey Russell and Radzi Chinyanganya say that’s because children still want authentic responses in a digital age. ‘Interactive normally means you tap buttons and images appear on a screen, but this is physical interaction. You may receive a Blue Peter badge. It costs you the price of a stamp.’

He has a strong emotional connection to the show because of what it did for him as a child, when his home life was in turmoil. ‘Blue Peter was just always there.’ Chinyanganya was a superfan who managed to get hold of the same kind of BBC mug the presenters used. He wrote in at the age of ten to say he sat there drinking his tea from it at the same time as they did on the telly. ‘I felt for the badge before I opened the reply. I’m a working-class boy from Wolverhampton, whose parents were splitting up at the time. Life wasn’t great. But that badge let me know: “You matter”.’

The line-up of presenters was stable for many years, but by the late Seventies the team began a revamp. The actor Peter Duncan was meant to replace Noakes, but turned Blue Peter down, fearing it would ruin his career – he had been part of the company at the National Theatre for two years and appeared in Space 1999.

He eventually joined in 1980 and became the next daredevil by running a marathon and cleaning Big Ben without a safety harness. But he was soon involved in scandal, when a newspaper claimed he had appeared naked in a porn film. The Lifetaker was not actually pornographic at all, but the myth was born. These days he finds it amusing. ‘I’ve always enjoyed the mythology,’ he says. ‘It’s quite funny that you’d have a Blue Peter presenter who’s supposedly a porn star. The dinner party jokes are quite fun: “Would you like a copy of the film?”’

Duncan reveals that he threatened to walk out on Blue Peter because the producers wouldn’t show his wife, Lucy’s breasts. ‘The thing I enjoyed most was the show following my eldest daughter’s first year, when I was a dad for the first time. But I nearly quit over breast-feeding, and thought about pulling my wife from the show. In the Eighties there was a feeling of, “No, we can’t show that.” I said, “Well, I’m sorry, that’s what we do.”’ Duncan won. ‘My wife is now a midwife, and my daughter, now aged 31, has got recordings of the show.’

Duncan was with Blue Peter from 1980 to 1986 with a one-year break in the middle, before making documentaries and eventually leading the worldwide Scouting movement as Chief Scout. He was part of Blue Peter’s second golden age in the Eighties with fellow presenters Sarah Greene and Simon Groom – most famous for introducing an item on the restored doors at Durham Cathedral and slipping in the phrase: ‘What a beautiful pair of knockers.’ That went right over the head of the core audience of young children but became part of Blue Peter legend.

Janet Ellis also joined during this time, when Blue Peter had an audience approaching eight million. Ellis had a child, Sophie, who appeared on the show as a four-year-old – and then again many years later as the pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Her worst moment involved a cat fight, literally. ‘We reunited a family of cats from a litter live on air and they did not have any feeling of affection. They went for each other like anything. The poor woman who had homed the mother had a gouge out of her.’

Ellis is clearly delighted to be among former presenters again, as she watches Chinyanganya chat with Singleton at our photo-shoot in London. ‘I became friends with everybody I worked with. I was especially close to Caron.’ Caron Keating, presenter Gloria Hunniford’s daughter, joined the show from 1986 to 1990, but died of breast cancer in 1997 aged 41.

Valerie Singleton wearing a space suit for feature on Blue Peter TV programme about women astronauts

Valerie Singleton wearing a space suit for feature on Blue Peter TV programme about women astronauts

How does Ellis feel about the oft-repeated accusation that Blue Peter is too middle class? ‘I am a middle-class person but I don’t think it’s a middle-class programme. If you scrapped it now, someone would say in a week’s time, “Let’s have a programme for kids”, and the content would look like that. There was never a suggestion that I needed to be middle class to represent Blue Peter. I don’t think it had an agenda to do anything other than what the viewers suggested to it.’

Nor was she sacked in 1987 for being an unmarried mother when she became pregnant again, she says – despite rumours to the contrary. ‘I always found that weird, because I was so obviously pregnant on the programme,’ she says. ‘I left at the end of July, and had a baby in August, so you couldn’t have disguised it. My last programme was a surprise visit from the RAF Falcons [with whom she had jumped 20,000 feet and set a European record for a woman]. They released this safety net and all these nappies fell out.’

Ellis does say there was a strong expectation that presenters would live a moral life away from the show. ‘You can’t be unaware of the fact that you are an ambassador for the programme when you’re on duty. People would have killed you to get the job, so if you can’t do it properly, then don’t do it.’

Bacon sacked and fake phone-ins…

That moral code kicked in when Richard Bacon was sacked in 1998 for taking cocaine, just after the show had celebrated its 40th birthday. ‘I have been stupid and regret making a silly mistake experimenting with drugs,’ the 22-year-old told a newspaper, but his contract was terminated.

Lorraine Heggessey, the head of BBC children’s programmes, famously appeared on television before the show to tell viewers: ‘I believe that Richard has not only let himself and the team on Blue Peter down, but he has also let all of you down very badly.’

Helen Skelton, who joined as a presenter in 2008, was then a viewer of 15. She says Blue Peter has to have standards. ‘There still is an association of what a Blue Peter presenter should be and represents. I’ve got kids. I love that brand. I love what that badge means. And I think anybody who’s looking to be on that show should be good.’

Konnie Huq was on the show when the Bacon scandal broke, having joined the previous year. She was surprised at what happened, given the probing questions the producers had asked before giving her the job. ‘If I had said to them, “Well, I’ve snorted cocaine, got on tables in nightclubs on many occasion and I’ve got photos from when I was a stripper”, then I’m pretty sure I would not have got the job.’ She hadn’t done any of those things though. ‘I don’t drink, I’m a really good girl, so there are no skeletons in my closet. I’m totally boring. They got a dream candidate.’

One question did get her worried. ‘I did temping at Q magazine and I remember being at their party with people like Rod Stewart. Somehow we ended up in a hotel suite. There’s all sorts of things going on in those environments. I’m the good girl. But then people are taking photos and stuff. Blue Peter asked me, “Are there any photos that might surface?” I’ve never done illegal substances, but it does make you think about when you’ve been in the company of people who have. It’s like when you’re driving and you see the cops are behind you and you feel guilty even if you’re not.’

She clearly felt some sympathy with Bacon, because they started dating four years later. She was still on the show at that time but he had gone on to host programmes for BBC Radio 5 and ITV. They were reportedly together for six years before a mutual parting. Huq now plays down the scandal: ‘It didn’t really change things. Blue Peter will just bounce back and keep going.’ It didn’t do Bacon much harm either. He has broken America in recent years with a National Geographic series called Explorer that began with a walk with Barack Obama. He spent 12 days in a coma this summer after going down with pneumonia but declared his recovery by tweeting: ‘I am alive.’

However, in 2007 Huq had to apologise for one of the show’s big lies, when the production team faked the results of a live charity phone-in competition. Nearly 14,000 calls were made but a ‘technical failure’ meant that the producers couldn’t access the callers’ details. A girl visiting the studio was asked to pretend to be the competition winner.

The BBC was fined an unprecedented £50,000 by Ofcom over the affair and it was castigated for making a young studio visitor ‘complicit’ in the deception.

Huq left the following year after beating Singleton to become the longest-serving female presenter. She married the writer Charlie Brooker in 2010: ‘I’d still be doing Blue Peter now if I had my way, but you’ve got to let others have a piece of the pie,’ she says. ‘It’s the ultimate job.’

Skelton says that as a devoted fan growing up in rural Cumbria she loved the show’s upbeat attitude. ‘I know some people go, “Oh, it’s all a bit giddy”, but positivity breeds positivity. Blue Peter was a smiley, happy place and you went around the world with them. I didn’t take a holiday for years because I didn’t want to miss out. You take a day off and someone else is off to meet the Queen or fly with the Red Arrows.’

She also took the challenges to another level, becoming only the second woman ever to finish a 78-mile ultra-marathon in Namibia in 2009. ‘I was lying behind a bush, hallucinating, freaking out, seeing seals that weren’t there. I’d been running for 12 hours. But I thought of all the letters from kids saying, “You’re going to win it”. I didn’t want to come back on the show and go, “I didn’t do it”. As if you want to be the person who turns round and tells the kid the tooth fairy’s not real! You want to tell them anything’s possible. And that’s what makes you do it.’

The mystery of the missing viewers

Skelton entered the Guinness Book Of Records after kayaking all 2,010 miles of the Amazon and became the first person to reach the South Pole on a bicycle. She left after five years in 2013, and has gone on to appear on Strictly Come Dancing and Countryfile, by which time Blue Peter had switched to CBBC, and many people were predicting its end. The average audience began to fall below 400,000 and reached a nadir with an episode that was repeated at 2.30pm on June 13 last year, when the Broadcasters Audience Research Board gave it an audience of zero.

The BBC responded by stressing that the episode had been watched by 252,000 people across all its broadcasts as well as 39,000 times on iPlayer. Others pointed out that the repeat was on at a time when most children would have been at school.

But it is Peter Purves who puts up the most robust defence. ‘It’s absolute nonsense – you can’t compare the eras. People don’t watch TV in the same way now. Blue Peter is huge. The best thing that’s happened to Blue Peter in a changing world is that it went on CBBC. Now you’ve got it on a channel that is devoted to people who want to watch the show.’

The 37th and most recent presenter is Radzi Chinyanganya, who ambushed a presenter to get noticed. ‘I went to the BBC Television Centre with my showreel but they said, “We can’t take unsolicited material.” I thought, “What am I going to do?” Then Andy Akinwolere [who had just announced he was leaving the show] walks past. I thought, I’m going to have to do this, so I went up to him. He said, “That’s a showreel isn’t it? Do you want me to take it to the editor?” He very graciously did that.’ He didn’t get the job but he did get to work as an intern at the BBC. Then, after a stint on CBBC show Wild, in 2013 Blue Peter producers offered him the job he had always dreamed of. ‘I’m not an emotional guy but I cried when they told me that. Cheryl the commissioner said, “I think we should leave it there.” I couldn’t form a sentence. It was the accumulation of all that hope, all of that frustration, all of that dreaming that you think might be futile.’

His job is to represent the children who watch, he says. ‘When Blue Peter’s at its best, we are the viewer. If I’m talking to WrestleMania wrestlers, I’m going to ask them questions I think you want to know. “What’s it like to get slammed on the mat? What’s it like to hear the crowd respond to your name?” And I will be as excited as the viewer.’

Chinyanganya grins when the legendary Valerie Singleton appears in the doorway and starts chatting away about the perils of live presenting. ‘I love it when things go wrong,’ she says at the end of a day of laughter and revelations. ‘The secret is not to be embarrassed. You just keep going.’

And they shoot each other a look that says: ‘Just like Blue Peter…’ 

Blue Peter celebrates its 60th birthday with a live one hour special on CBBC on October 16 at 5pm, then continues every Thursday on CBBC at 5.30pm

How John Noakes kept a stash of badges in his car to bribe traffic wardens… and other tantalising facts

1 Blue Peter first aired on October 16,1958 with Christopher Trace and Leila Williams. 

2 There have been 11 versions of the theme tune, Barnacle Bill. The latest is by composers Banks & Wag. 

3 The Blue Peter badge was launched on 17 June 1963. There are eight types, the highest being Gold (the Queen received hers in 2001). John Noakes once admitted he kept some starter-level blue badges in the glovebox of his car as potential bribery for parking wardens.  

John Noakes’ five-mile freefall with the Red Devils earned him a civilian world record in 1973

John Noakes’ five-mile freefall with the Red Devils earned him a civilian world record in 1973

Willow, a beautiful but vicious Burmese cat that was the only animal to be sacked from the show

In 1977, the intrepid John Noakes executed one of his most famous and dangerous stunts – climbing Nelson’s Column without any safety equipment

Blue Peter cat Willow, left, a beautiful but vicious Burmese cat that was the only animal to be sacked from the show. Right: In 1977, the intrepid John Noakes executed one of his most famous and dangerous stunts – climbing Nelson’s Column

Children who appeared on the show and went on to become famous include Formula 1 ace Lewis Hamilton

Children who appeared on the show and went on to become famous include Formula 1 ace Lewis Hamilton

Blue Peter first aired on October 16,1958 with Christopher Trace and Leila Williams

Blue Peter first aired on October 16,1958 with Christopher Trace and Leila Williams

The most popular Blue Peter ‘make’ was Thunderbirds’ Tracy Island. The show which received 100,000 requests for the factsheet in 1993

The most popular Blue Peter ‘make’ was Thunderbirds’ Tracy Island. The show which received 100,000 requests for the factsheet in 1993

4 There have been nine Blue Peter dogs, five tortoises, two parrots and nine cats, including Willow, above, a beautiful but vicious Burmese cat that was the only animal to be sacked from the show. 

5 In 1977, the intrepid John Noakes executed one of his most famous and dangerous stunts – climbing Nelson’s Column without any safety equipment. At one point he was hanging from a ladder with nothing beneath him. On reaching the top, he puffed out his cheeks and said: ‘Oh, it’s a long way up really, isn’t it?’ His plucky cameraman had to go up first to film Noakes’ ascent.  

6 Children who appeared on the show and went on to become famous include Formula 1 ace Lewis Hamilton, pop star James Blunt (then James Blount) and actor Jude Law. 

There have been some memorable mishaps on the show: Lulu the incontinent elephant peed and pooed her way around the studio in 1969

There have been some memorable mishaps on the show: Lulu the incontinent elephant peed and pooed her way around the studio in 1969

7 Many Blue Peter presenters are also record-breakers: in 2010, Helen Skelton broke the Guinness World Record for longest solo journey by kayak; John Noakes’ five-mile freefall with the Red Devils (top) earned him a civilian world record in 1973; and in 2002 Matt Baker earned his place in the record books with the highest tandem hang-glide behind a microlight, at 11,000ft. 

8 There have been some memorable mishaps on the show: Lulu the incontinent elephant peed and pooed her way around the studio in 1969 (above) and Andy Akinwolere dropped the star off the top of the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree in 2008.     

9 Blue Peter appeals have raised more than £100 million since 1962. Funds raised have bought two guide dogs, 25 lifeboats, eight flats for homeless people, 32 ponies, 57 lorries, three caravans, two day centres, six bungalows, 12 houses in Romania, three schools and 8,350 toilets. 

10 The most popular Blue Peter ‘make’ was Thunderbirds’ Tracy Island (above). The show which received 100,000 requests for the factsheet in 1993.

 

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