BLUE PETER

From left: John Noakes, Christopher Trace and Valerie Singleton with Joey the parrot and Patch the dog, looking at competition entries in the late Sixties; the 1982 Treasure Hunt appeal; Biddy Baxter at hef home f tr»iy ^WI D t2n\ *jk-3*R.i"ff* e ue

In 1958 a television show was launched that transformed British children's lives. Biddy Baxter, Blue Peter's powerhouse editor for 26 years, opens the archive to reveal the amazing relationship its viewers formed with the programme inters u^i turner portrait*™ «■«

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Before its integrity was rocked by a phoney phone-in and a cat named Cookie, before its innocence was besmirched by cokesnorting presenter Richard Bacon, long before it became absorbed into Seventies nostalgic kitsch. Blue Peter set the course of my life. It i.s uncool to admit this, safer to make glib gags about sticky-backed plastic and "Get down. Shep!". but as a knowledge-hungry working-class child in a leaden northern town. Blue Peter offered me the world. A safari in Kenya, training a guide dog, Noakesy on the Cresta run. even those history segments on Marie Curie or Christopher Wren, jazzed up with just a few line drawings... Every moment gripped me. Blue Peter made me long to see and know and do and travel. And the greatest measure of its power is that I watched until the last name rolled offthe credits: "Editor Biddy Baxter". What other TV producer was...