This year's
Blue Peter
appeal has started, and, in an eiree echo of the aluminium can appeal of around a decade ago, this year it's... old CDs, DVDs and computer disks.
Launched with a marvellous world record attempt involving using old disks. Fantastic.
Anyway, the latest phase in "Operation axe Blue Peter" looks like it'll involve moving it to an earlier slot in order to make way for a replacement for Neighbours which may be longer than the current 25 minute slot.
I could see CBBC airing something like 3.45-5.15pm to make way for a new 45-minute programme - even if it's just moving The Weakest Link to BBC1.
I still don't understand the justification in axing the third Blue Peter too - CBBC are having to commission an extra programme for the slot, and with new commissions in most of the weeks 4.30pm / 5pm slots (which should be praised), I'd have thought a third Blue Peter would be much more cost-effective than an extra programme in the mix.
And watching last night for the appeal launch felt more like watching an extended trailer for Strictly Come Dancing!
The third episode of Blue Peter was axed in the hope that some " quality " would be brought back to the show ( ) Earlier in the year the BBC were looking at putting Waterloo Road, Doctors or ( God help the rest of the UK ) River City in the Neighbours slot...
I still wait with great anticipation to see how all the carol singers get through / into the studio...
I expect that they will enter through that gap between the stairs, and head over to the curtained area. That's if they do have carol singers.
Saying that though, when I've put it on over the past couple of days, its felt more like Blue Peter of old, with record attempts, an appeal, a location piece (and a live OB) to a snowdome, and plenty of films, even Gethin doing ballet dancing, though the Strictly bits are getting too much.
Where did the other area come from, or more, why hasn't it been used before?
I was thinking about the old X Change studio where they had a large space similar to blue peter when CBBC moved out. It brings back a familiar set look too. And the best thing is that they're using the seating area less. They should add a new proper sofa instead of those low things.
I also don't understand the cut back in episodes, though I think it would work better if they had them in seperate parts of the week rather than back to back. Because they had a halloween special on Oct 31st, the next show wasn't on until Nov 6th, therefore they couldn't do a bonfire night based edition.
For me the late 90's/early 00's highlight of the week was the friday edition.
As for the replacement, I think the best idea would be to have a 45 minute replacement with Newsround at 5pm. Though it will have to be seen.
Having read today that the old studio was using up a third of their budget, you can understand why they relocated - but I imagine with the third episode gone too the savings have probably been swiped by Jonathan Ross.
Looks like Konnie Huq is hoping to be the next David Frost, with her first post-Blue Peter role being a Thursday night politics show for ITV1 (London presumably) - along with Vanessa Feltz. Such a shame I won't be able to watch!
It's quite strange isn't it - funny that Newsround now has a larger set than Blue Peter. Oh how times have changed
It doesn't though - Newsround have a corner of the newsroom - Blue Peter now have a smaller set, but Tuesday showed it can be expanded when necessary.
I wonder if that area has been there since they moved into the studio, and just hasn't been used before.
Is the set now a permanent set, as is it still owned/leased to childrens?
I know it's a smaller studio, but should they have designed it so that they could have used it for many shows, so that Blue Peter could have used it in the early week and have TMi use it at weekends?
It's quite strange isn't it - funny that Newsround now has a larger set than Blue Peter. Oh how times have changed
It doesn't though - Newsround have a corner of the newsroom - Blue Peter now have a smaller set, but Tuesday showed it can be expanded when necessary.
Yep.
The Blue Peter studio, BBC Sport studio and BBC News studio (the one used for Working Lunch / Newsround / Newsnight) in the doughnut are all roughly the same size in floor area terms. However the BBC News studio uses far less of this floor area as the walls of projector cubes are quite a long way in from the edges of the studio. Newsround only uses half of this already reduced area. It feels large and spacious because there is not a lot of set and only one real area, large bold graphics, and it is shot in a manner that makes it appear large. (A lot of use is made of a jib with a wide angle lens quite a long way away from the presenter)
Blue Peter has a lot more set, with the result that individual areas are quite small (smaller than the Newsround set area), though the set as a whole is a lot larger than Newsrounds. They also shoot the show with more hand-held cameras, again with wide angle lenses, but much closer to the presenters.
) Earlier in the year the BBC were looking at putting Waterloo Road, Doctors or ( God help the rest of the UK ) River City in the Neighbours slot...
