Blue Peter

Blue Peter was the best program to watch if you were a family as it catered for most tastes. It was like a variety show with presenters who would go off on adventures or meet people in the studio, or demonstrate how to do something. I loved the craft part. You could make everything out of a washing up liquid bottle and ‘sticky-back plastic’ (they weren’t allowed to use brand names so couldn’t say sellotape).

The program ran from the fifties, and still runs today – reinventing itself with new presenters every time there is a new generation of kids. It’s an interesting TV phenomenon, probably similar to Top of the Pops, that when it changes, the kids who loved it suddenly think it’s naff but the kids of the agegroup it’s directed at think it’s fab.

Lesley Judd was my favourite presenter, though I did love Valerie Singleton as she made me feel grown up because she was like a newsreader. I only saw Valerie in old clips as she was off the show by the time I was two. John Noakes was also cool but I thought Peter Purvis a bit strange. There were also the animals, cats who kept disappearing and a dog called Goldie who was lovely.

Classic Blue Peter moments often involve having animals on the set (best clip was John Noakes falling over elephant poo, but I think this was sixties), it being a live show all the gaffes were broadcast. So any fudging of lines or forgetting where we are in the script, it was all on show. The set sometimes fell over, and the children who were guests froze in front of the cameras. It was all good stuff and I loved it. The most memorable for me was the Blake’s 7 teleporter bracelet made from, you guessed it, a washing up liquid bottle. Here’s one I made earlier.

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Josie Henley-Einion, author, blogger, Legend in my own Living Room