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Blue Peter

(June 2008)

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NT
NorthTonight
buster posted:
Steve Williams posted:
noggin posted:
Traditionally BP was always live if it was in the studio.

However more recently some shows have been live and some pre-recorded (not sure if the recorded stuff is as-live or edited) to allow fewer studio days (and thus save money)


Richard Marson's new book on the history of BP (which is absolutely brilliant) gives away a few snippets about the recording schedule. In the late sixties more or less every episode was pre-recorded, including of course the Lulu episode.

More recently, in the late nineties they used to film the Wednesday show straight after the Monday one, and when Steve Hocking arrived he changed the schedule because everyone hated doing that. Then when it went five days a week on the CBBC Channel in 2004, they had an exhaustive schedule with the Monday show live on BBC1, the Tuesday show live on CBBC and repeated the next day on BBC1 and the Thursday CBBC show recorded on Monday morning (the other shows weren't studio-based).

Oh, also, neither of this week's shows were live, they were specials from the expedition.


It is a brilliant book isn't it? I'm surprised he's got away with a lot of what's in there - although it isn't a BBC book it may as well be to the average customer, with the BP logo (the one that's just been dropped but still on the annual this year), BBC logo etc with just "a personal view" to cover the fact it's not an official history.

The presenter pages are really honest about their failings - the Romana one makes especially good reading!


Not bought it yet but had a look at the Michael S page to see what that said. I suppose ( re any presenter ) we'll never know the real or full truth from the editors...
NG
noggin Founding member
Steve Williams posted:
noggin posted:
Traditionally BP was always live if it was in the studio.

However more recently some shows have been live and some pre-recorded (not sure if the recorded stuff is as-live or edited) to allow fewer studio days (and thus save money)


Richard Marson's new book on the history of BP (which is absolutely brilliant) gives away a few snippets about the recording schedule. In the late sixties more or less every episode was pre-recorded, including of course the Lulu episode.


Yep - from memory it WAS mainly live during the 70s and 80s though? (When I was a viewer!)

Quote:

More recently, in the late nineties they used to film the Wednesday show straight after the Monday one, and when Steve Hocking arrived he changed the schedule because everyone hated doing that. Then when it went five days a week on the CBBC Channel in 2004, they had an exhaustive schedule with the Monday show live on BBC1, the Tuesday show live on CBBC and repeated the next day on BBC1 and the Thursday CBBC show recorded on Monday morning (the other shows weren't studio-based).


Yep - when it was 5 days a week it was a slog of a schedule AIUI.
JO
John
Another article below, on the future of Blue Peter given to the press from an unknown source, described as “one of the BBC’s most creative programme makers.” The source points out the budget cuts, the move to the smaller studio and the departure of Zoe and Gethin. (the departure of the Deputy Editor and Series Producer in addition, is not mentioned.)

Also Richard Marson quotes the ‘commissioning editor’ of stating that, “She said last year she tried a lot of things that didn’t work.” So at least they are aware of some of the problems facing the programme.

BBC ‘TRYING TO KILL OFF BLUE PETER’ - Sunday Express

BBC ‘TRYING TO KILL OFF BLUE PETER’
Sunday October 5,2008
By David Stephenson

JUST days from its 50th anniversary, Blue Peter, Britain’s most cherished children’s programme, may be facing the axe.

A well-placed source within the Corporation said: “The BBC is trying to close Blue Peter.”

He added: “You only have to ask why has the show been moved to a smaller studio, its budget cut by over £1million a year to less than £5million, and why did two presenters leave the show at the end of the last series?”

The source is one of the BBC’s most creative programme makers, with a string of recent ratings hits. He insisted: “You must run this story. We have to save it.”

The news, which comes as the Queen prepares to meet the three current presenters as part of the show’s anniversary celebrations, is set against a background of a deepening crisis in children’s television.

There are also rumours that the BBC plans to move all its children’s programmes from the analogue channels, BBC1 and BBC2, to the digital children’s channels CBBC & CBeebies.

Such a move would impact heavily on Blue Peter’s already flagging ratings of only 500,000 viewers an episode and would sound a death knell for the world’s longest running children’s show.

The campaign against Blue Peter began with the misnaming of the new Blue Peter cat last year, according to the source.

As a result, the programme’s editor, Richard Marson, was sacked last year. Shortly after, the show was cut from three episodes to two a week, then several months later, Marson’s 14-year-old son committed suicide.

The source said: “The whole episode was a disgrace. Marson should never been been sacked, not when you compare the incident with what happened at ITV, which involved millions of pounds. It was out of proportion.

“I’m not saying you can blame the BBC for the death of Marson’s son, but the editor was the victim of a witchhunt.”

Richard Marson said: “The source is incredibly canny, and very well connected, better connected now than I am. But equally, I’ve been in touch with the commissioning editor at the BBC.

“I said, ‘If you decided to end Blue Peter you would have an uproar. But equally if you have a good reason to end something, people will have more respect for it’.

“She was absolutely adamant that she does believe in the programme, but she may be alone in that view, and maybe other people in the BBC don’t feel the same.

“She and I violently differed about what Blue Peter should be, but she does believe in the programme.

“She said last year she tried a lot of things that didn’t work. They were in a difficult position. If you suddenly lose over a million quid in your budget, what are you going to do? Plus every time presenters change, that rocks it too because the audience have to get to know them again.”

He added: “You needed to be a rottweiler to defend the programme. I was boss for four years and I had a different boss every year and each one with a completely different view on what to do with Blue Peter. And the scheduling changed all the time.”

Affection alone, he said, won’t save Blue Peter: “The only thing that will save it are the figures. But it has to fight with the fragmenting of the audience. As for the future, the jury is out.

“I used to say you can’t imagine a future without Blue Peter. I’m not so sure I can now.

“If you look at what the long-running shows on the BBC were 10 years ago, most of them have gone: Tomorrow’s World, Top of the Pops, Grandstand, Grange Hill, Saturday Morning Live TV.

“People were outraged and upset as they fell, but I don’t know with Blue Peter. Can it earn its keep? If it can’t earn its keep, it shouldn’t be there. There’s certainly no point in having any programme just for nostalgia.

“If you did decide to axe Blue Peter, the impact would be more on adults than children.”

Blue Peter began in 1958, with Leila Williams, a former beauty queen, and Christopher Trace as its first presenters. There have been 32 others since then including Valerie Singleton, John Noakes, Peter Purves, the late Caron Keating, John Leslie and Anthea Turner.

It is currently presented by Andy Akinwolere, Helen Skelton and Joel Defries.

Blue Peter’s renowned former editor, Biddy Baxter, said: “Journalistically, there’s no reason why it should ever stop. The world’s your oyster. But I wouldn’t dream of predicting what will happen in the future.

“They have two promising presenters after the exodus at the end of the last season.”

Asked about the falling figures, she said: “We got eight million but you can’t hope to get that now. I think it’s a huge pity it goes out so early [4.35pm] because you miss out on those children who have after-school activities, but there’s always been battles.”
BR
Brekkie
Lazy journalism there - a recycled story from a few months back. No doubt there is some truth in it though.
PT
Put The Telly On
Well, Sunday papers, what do you expect.

Here's an article with all the BP female team from the past 50 years together. (Yvette Fielding, Romana D'Annunzio, Anita West and obviously Caron Keating were unavailable).
BU
buster
Interesting to see Lesley Judd in there - she's been notably absent from most of the recent presenter gatherings (last one she attended was 35th in 1993 I read)
NT
NorthTonight
The celebrations, looking at the coming week's tv schedules do seem low key compared to the 40th birthday.
FA
fanoftv
Am i right in saying that BBC Two had a Blue Peter night as part of the 40th Birthday celebrations?
BR
Brekkie
They've definately had a Blue Peter night at some point - but it would make me feel old to admit it was 10 years ago. I'm sure it was more recent than that.

I think possibly at the time they did "I Love Blue Peter".
BH
BillyH Founding member
It was indeed 1998! The links were done by the Purves/Noakes/Singleton presenting trio of the 60s and 70s.

Pretty big year for the show, all the birthday celebrations, Richard Bacon's sacking, and the first Blue Peter Book released for six years. There were rumours that they'd withdrawn it from sale because of its Bacon-heavy content, but in fact they never did, so it's pretty easily available.

I Love Blue Peter was near the end of 2001, and just featured a couple of repeats from Blue Peter Night but with new links from the 80s team of Janet Ellis, Simon Groom and Peter Duncan.
BR
Brekkie
Two specials this week then - one at 8.40pm on BBC2 on Saturday, and then one next Thursday at 5.15pm on BBC1.
RM
Roger Mellie
BillyH posted:

There were rumours that they'd withdrawn it from sale because of its Bacon-heavy content, but in fact they never did, so it's pretty easily available.


More to do with the potentially embarrassing titles for some of the features, as highlighted by HIGNFY at the time.

If I recall righty, one article about winter sports, with Richard skiing under the title: "Blue Peter in the Snow". Another was about gardening, with Richard under a title that read: "Pot It".

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