Blue Peter

Catching up with this week's Blue Peter episodes tonight I noticed that in yesterday's show, the neon Blue Peter ship in which you can see the top of in the picture below, made a reappearance in a corner. I didn't think that had been seen since the mid to late 90's at least.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_02/BPDM2504_468x349.jpg

All of the series so far has been a huge step up from what is has been of late, and it proves with things like the appeal edition last week that there are little glimmers of hope that Blue Peter can still be what made it popular for so long - it just needs a little bit of work and not to be afraid to look back at its "traditions" so to speak.

No, the neons have been used throughout this decade (on your picture, the ship is at the bottom, not the top as you stated!!). They were used a lot in Studio 1 (the sails studiom 2004-2006) and in the current set since 2007, they have always been used in the corner of the set, by the treehouse. One variation of the freestanding sails have been used consistantly since 2007 also.

The neon signature style Blue Peter logo made a comeback for a few editions in summer 2006 - oddly considering it hadn't been in the logo since 1999!

Oh, right maybe I just hadn't noticed it there before, but then as they were using a different part of the studio for the fish segment it might be that you don't always see it.

And I hate to be pedantic but I actually said "in which you can see the top of in the picture below" not at the top of the picture below as you obviously thought I meant. Confusing I know!

Just bumping this as the Christmas show is apparently next week, and unlike last year there's been no mention of the traditional Advent candle.

Presumably deemed not cool enough these days. Like the cooking and make segments of this programme get on my nerve as we can't ever have it done well or nicely, just thrown together with the "who cares" attitude of the immature presenters.

Surely you mean the 'Advent crown'?

They called it an advent 'decoration' last year. The new design isn't the same as the old traditional one. Last, year they had about 5 advent decs, now we have none! Studio looks good and the new badge wall is a nice, bright addition. The totaliser is immense this year, as opposed to the cheap and tacky beanstalk last year. Just hope this consistency continues after Joe Goodwin's statement that BLue Peter is 100% safe. In 2 years time, the show may return to its old 5pm timeslot also.

What's Simon Groome up to these days?

Think he runs his own production company, based on his farm? He was also doing local radio at one point, but not sure if he still does.

Does anyone know what the oldest surviving edition of Blue Peter is? I'm sure that the first-ever edition no longer exists. Do any surviving clips pre-date the earliest complete edition?

I remember seeing a clip years ago of an early Blue Peter title sequence showing the Blue Peter flag being flown - I it looked like stock footage of a ship.

The other problem is that there aren't too many wire coat hangers about these days!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/bluepeter/makes/advent.pdf