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{{
Hey kids, today we're going to learn how to write an article on
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''Blue Peter'' is the longest running children's
The show is best described as a "magazine show". The presenters (usually three or four these days) do a variety of different activities:
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There are often performances by various people. Everyone who appears on the show gets a Blue Peter Badge, which allows free admission to a number of UK attractions. There are other types of badges, the most famous being the Gold Badge, given to people who have done something very special (presenters are now getting them on departure).
Every year, the team go on a Summer Expedition abroad. There is also the annual charity appeal, with the "totaliser" and the attendant "[[Exactly What It Says
The show has a number of resident pets. The most famous of these was a dog called Petra (actually a substitute after the first dog died), whose death became national news.
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* Presenter Peter Purves also played Steven Taylor, a companion to the First Doctor.
* Actress [[Sophie Aldred]] (who played Ace) was awarded a Blue Peter badge as a child, she later wore it as part of her costume (which caused something of a stir until it was confirmed that it was indeed Sophie's badge and not a prop).
* A 1973 edition contains the only broadcast footage of the First Doctor's regeneration and the show has made appeals for lost footage.
* During the 1970s, the show had a nationwide 'manhunt' for a group of criminals who stole a set of Daleks from the BBC. The Daleks were returned within 24 hours, in varying degrees of misuse.
* The show was featured on screen in "[[Doctor Who
* The show ran the competitions to design the monster for "[[Doctor Who
* There's been quite a few Who-related crafts.
* Bits of Blue Peter are often included on the DVD releases of classic series stories as bonus clips, often featuring interviews with the actors or displays of relevant Who-mania.
* There's a myth that the last episode of "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S4
There have been 32 presenters over the years. They include:
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* Sarah Greene. Also known from [[Saturday Morning Kids Show]] ''Going Live'', and ''another'' ''Doctor Who'' actor (one of the [[Humanoid Aliens|Cryons]] in ''Attack of the Cybermen'').
* Richard Bacon. For all the wrong reasons - see below.
* Mark Curry, a man who
* Konnie Huq ("Huck") - having been on the show for a decade, she's apparently a major draw for students, for the rather obvious reason of her looks. On ''[[Mock the Week]]'' Dara Ó Briain implied she was attractive and got mocked for it for the rest of the episode. Left in 2008.
* Gethin Jones. Appeared on ''[[Strictly Come Dancing]]'' in 2007.
* Matt Baker. ''[[Strictly Come Dancing]]'' 2010 finalist, and thought by some the be Konnie's equal in the looks department.
* John Leslie, who's become something of a punchline due to losing a later job on ''This Morning'' over rape allegations and admitted drug use.
* Caron Keating, who sadly died young of breast cancer and left the presenting team having to explain the concept of death to a child audience. Not easy.
* Anthea Turner, whose TV career went stratospheric after leaving the show - the completely opposite trajectory to most ex
* Yvette Fielding, now reduced to presenting those suspicious haunted house shows shot in green infrared light, alongside a camp scouse "psychic" . Her role is to scream in terror at every creak and drip.
* Katy Hill, a statuesque lass who favoured very short miniskirts. This posed headaches for the cameramen doing low-level shots, say of the team together on the sofa. Even despite careful editing and chosen camera angles, her knicker flashes became a ''legend''.
* Zoe Salmon, an ex Miss Northern Ireland, unkindly referred to as a blonde Barbie doll made flesh. Her moment of notoriety came when she expressed on-air fury about a graphic of the British Isles that showed Ireland as a united whole and did not adequately convey the seperateness of [[The Troubles|Northern Ireland]]. Worse, [[Stroke County|Ireland]] was coloured ''green''. Wags suggested ''Orange Peter'' as an alternate name.By way of punishment, Zoe was sent to do a report on Irish traditional dancing - the sort which does not attract Protestants for long-established historical reasons - to indicate that the show was not and would never be sectarian.
* Michael Sundin, a rather fey former dancer who left BP very abruptly when tabloids outed him as not only gay, but a former porn performer and
* Tina Heath, who was asked to leave the show because she had become pregnant outside wedlock, had no intention of marrying the chap, and was therefore a Fallen Woman And Not The Sort Of Example, Good Lord, No.
* Diane Louise-Jordan, who joined some years after Heath's departure, represented a different emphasis. In the politically right-on caring 1990's, it didn't matter that D-L-J was an unmarried single mother, as she was also Black British, and the BBC had been ordered to be more inclusive to minorities. Diane-Louise became the first non-white Blue Peter presenter, just in time for the summer expedition to the Deep South of the USA...
** HRH Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, was a guest presenter on the show between 1970-74, although she is not usually counted as one of the "official" thirty-two. A friend and fan of the show, Anne Windsor accompanied the then presenters out to Africa on a summer safari, generally enjoying herself in the company of the presenters, and being very good PR for the Royals. Princess Anne also reported on horsey matters for the show and very graciously gave riding lessons to BP presenters hitherto innocent of the charms of equine contact. Her association with the show diminished after marriage in 1974, but she has returned at intervals.
There have been a number of very notable moments:
* An elephant defecating on camera and walking out of the studio, stepping on John Noakes' foot in the process.
* Richard Bacon's [[Role
** A [[Christmas Episode]] [[Reunion Show]], about ten years later, casting various current and past presenters in a musical, featured an [[The Ghost|unseen]] villain named "Richard". Following his defeat the male lead said to the camera "I've cooked ''his'' bacon.".
* Vandals breaking into the Blue Peter Garden and wrecking it, which was treated on-air by the hosts with all the gravitas of a ''murder''. (An American equivalent would be slashing Mr. Roger's tyres. You just don't ''do'' it.) {{spoiler|The series [[Ashes to Ashes]], about a cop who wakes up in the 1980's, features a [[Historical In-Joke]] where Gene Hunt turns out to be the vandal, destroying it while apprehending a suspect.}}
* In 2007, there was a handful of scandals about "rigged" audience participation events, including a child who was backstage apparently winning a phone-in competition when the lines went down; the decision to ignore an internet vote on the name of the new cat; and two actors being amongst the kids interviewing impressionist John Culshaw, to ensure the right sort of questions got asked.
At the time of writing, May 20th 2012, the BBC has announced the end for Blue Peter on mainstream BBC TV. The show is to leave its long-time home on the prestigious [[BBC 1]] network (along with the last residue of
{{tropelist}}
* [[Brand X]]:
* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Here's one I made earlier" and "And now for something completely different". The former is rarely used now - it's that cliché - and the latter is [[Weird Al Effect|far better known]] for its use on ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''.
* [[Getting Crap Past the Censors]]: Lesley Judd, a seventies presenter with a habit of wearing low-cut tops displaying
** Similarly, Eighties presenter, the buxom Janet Ellis, was talking about the evolution of the humble doorbell - how do you tell somebody's at the door? - and demonstrating the devices mankind has used down the years. Cue co-presenter with "What a lovely pair of knockers!"
▲* [[Getting Crap Past the Censors]]: Lesley Judd, a seventies presenter with a habit of wearing low-cut tops displaying decolletage, was holding two appealing juvenile dogs up to camera, close to the Judd chest, when her male co-presenter (possibly Peter Purvis) declared "Aren't they a lovely pair of puppies!"
▲** Similarly, Eighties presenter, the buxom Janet Ellis, was talking about the evolution of the humble doorbell - how do you tell somebody's at the door? - and demonstrating the devices mankind has used down the years. Cue co-presenter with "What a lovely pair of knockers!"
* [[Mood Dissonance]]: The cast's response to {{spoiler|Katarina's}} death scene from ''The Daleks' Master Plan'' in the Tenth Anniversary of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode.
* [[Nipple-and-Dimed]]: Anthea Turner once did a feature about training with Great Britain's Olympic high-diving hopefuls. Anthea allegedly has a reputation for being ''difficult'' and rather ''perfectionist'' with
▲* [[Nipple-and-Dimed]]: Anthea Turner once did a feature about training with Great Britain's Olympic high-diving hopefuls. Anthea allegedly has a reputation for being ''difficult'' and rather ''perfectionist'' with backroom staff such as cameramen and sound recorders. On this day, the cameramen took delight in filming her from unflattering angles, such as climbing the ladder to the dive platform in a one-piece bathing costume that was rucking up around her nethers in the classic "camel-toe". She was also filmed shivering in the cold with both visibly erect nipples making a very obvious point about the air temperature. All this suggests put-upon cameramen getting their own back on Madam.
* [[One I Prepared Earlier]]: The [[Trope Namer]], from the above [[Catch Phrase]].
* [[Panty Shot]]: In the late 1990's/early 2000's, when miniskirts were in fashion again, and presenters Katy Hill and Konnie Huq seemed to be in competition as to who could flash her knickers most often when sitting on the Blue Peter sofa. Just to make it more obvious, Katy appeared to
* [[Shout-Out]]: On ''[[Monty Python]]'', there was once a sketch featuring a spoof children's magazine
* [[Sideboob]] exposure: Zoe Salmon became the first BP presenter to go topless in the history of the show, and quite possibly the first presenter to do so in the entire history of BBC
* [[A Winner Is You]]: The 50th Anniversary of Blue Peter and what do we get? One very short montage and the other 44 minutes talking about McFly. We did get a cool book about it though.
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