Blue Peter

Does it ? Why doesn't it prove that they couldn't think of anything better to do than follow tradition slavishly and lazily? The previous editor was almost a curator of the history of Blue Peter. This isn't an insult - but you have to be careful not to be too reverential to history... Good ideas should survive, anachronistic ideas have to be ditched. The judgement between the two is a key skill

Unless you were in the production meetings for the past few years you can only second guess what the production team were thinking... Or do you have a bug in the BP production office?

Personally I miss the advent crown and the flame-retardant tinsel warnings. However I'm more than twice the age of the BP target audience - in fact I'm probably more than three times the age now... The show isn't aimed at me - nor is it aimed at other kids born in the 70s. It is aimed at kids born after Thatcher, and probably Major, left power...

Times change. Programmes change. Balancing tradition with relevance is tricky.



Well he has a long track record with Newsround - with a brief stint blogging for Sky News - so his journalistic, editorial and kids TV credentials are probably as sound as they come.

In the current climate having a journalist editing the show is no bad thing...

So, Konnie's leaving Blue Peter this week. It's her final live show tomorrow, followed by a highlights programme on Wednesday

In recent years, when other presenters left (such as Liz Barker & Matt Baker), they always had 2 highlights shows, although now they're down to just 2 shows a week, I suppose they can only have 1. It seems a shame, given that Konnie's been on the show for over 10 years.

Has it been confirmed yet if Konnie is going to be replaced, or will they just have 3 presenters from now on?

Going to be quite a poignant edition tomorrow, even if the current format of BP is flawed. Konnie is rare in BP history in as much as she spans almost two generations of BP viewers... something not seen since the 60s/70s.

Incidentally, my mother raised the subject of the non-Christmas edition the other day when I visited home. She was disgusted at the blatant disregard for the show's heritage.

I have to see this...I hope they show a clip of her first show (when I was 9!) as it'd be cool to see the old presenters and set again. I think it was Stuart Miles, Katy Hill, and... I think Richard Bacon, Tim Vincent would have recently left.

To think that a Blue Peter viewer who turns 10 this month won't have been born when she joined the show!

Well I think he's proven it is!

I understand why you've put that, but it just depends upon the individual.

Bryan Cowgill was probably the most successful Controller of BBC1 and, prior to his appointment, he'd worked almost exclusively in the coverage of sport.

True, and former editor Lewis Bronze also had a journalistic background and had been editor of Newsround. Tim Levell however seems not to understand the ethos of the programme which is why it has survived all these years.

Having axed some of the annual traditions and completely altered the style of the programme, from the few editions I have seen editorially it has changed quite considerably. Before last autumn a typical programme would have four or five different varied items. Now, most of the studio content is about “surprising” one of the presenters with a challenge to do at the end of the show.

There is an interview with Konnie Huq on BBC News website:
BBC News Konnie Huq

Couple of interesting points she made were:

"What do you think about how the show has changed since you started presenting it?
The good thing about Blue Peter is it updates with the times.
More recently it's changed a lot more - it's very into surprises and challenges, which is probably a good time for me to be leaving, as I'm not good at this You've Been Framed-type stuff.

Blue Peter will be 50 this year - are you involved in the celebrations?
I hope I will be but as of yet I don't know what they've got in mind. I don't think they'll be celebrating it on children's TV, I think it will just be on grown-up telly. "

Not much archive stuff today but I suppose that's being saved for the highlights show. A brief glimpse of the old (very colourful and 90s) set I remember as a kid, though, which was meant to be based on a ship or something:

I think it came in about '96ish, before that there was one with a big triangle shaped clock!

Well I know with the 40th they made a big deal of it on "children's TV", getting ex-presenters in to host shows for a good number of weeks - though that of course had nothing to do with filling a slot recently vacated by a certain Mr Bacon!


How he has managed to ruin 50 years of history in just six months is amazing - I'm not that bothered about the loss of the Advent Crown (god, that was dated when I was a kid!), the smaller set or even the Salvation Army band - but just catching shows occasionally over the last few months it really has lost the plot.


I think one problem now is they're more focused on the presenters, than the kids (i.e. Strictly Geth Dancing), but also like Grange Hill it's been damaged by this completely misguided CBBC policy of aiming all their shows at 6-12 year olds.

Oh I remember that! I see some elements of the set remade in todays bargain bin set they currently use.
Konnie got a good send off, I'll expect her on 5Live next with her partner and ex blue peter presenter Richard Bacon!

Well perhaps if she's willing to change her name to Judy they'd be a slot on C4 they could fill for six months of the year.

There's a nice page on the BBC News website which includes the few minutes of Konnie starting all those years ago.