Selfsufficientish.com

Sounds cool,

I have never seen it, must not have made it over here!

Nev

Wombat wrote:Who the heck is blue peter? Nev

Hi Nev,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/bluepeter/

Long running children's TV magazine programme that started in the late 50s. I guess it could be considered as a flagship of BBC TV - no pun intended.

A regular feature would be a 'make', when one of the presenters would try to construct a toy or a model, using things like empty toilet rolls, egg boxes, washing-up liquid bottles, and (all together now) sticky-backed plastic. It is also from this endevour that we get the classic phrase "...and here's one I made earlier." This often seemed to be at the point when the demonstration became rather difficult, and the sometimes cack-handed presenter was having trouble.

If you wrote a good letter to the programme you would get sent a Blue Peter badge (I can never remember getting one), http://tinyurl.com/7k3ku and if you did something heroic like saving your sister's hamster from the jaws of a passing tiger, you got a gold badge.

In it's heyday a chap called John Noakes would regularly jump out of aeroplanes and go over Niagara Falls in a bath tub. After leaving the show, in real life, he was shipwrecked while sailing around the world.

I gather the programme is still trying to uphold these sort of values, but I haven't seen it for 20 or more years.

I still 'well up' when I think about John Noakes announcing that his beloved Shep had died (Nev, Shep was his trusty sheep dog - border collie). May Shep RIP.

Aye, shep was as much of a Hero as John. Although Peter Duncan was much more my era. He even made an apperance in the film Flash Gordon and went onto make Duncan Dares.

'Get down Shep!'

Nev, Shep was always jumping up. I have the same problem with my wee dog Jim who has short dog syndrome.

Wow, this show really has struck a cord with you guys! I guess it is one of those shared heritage things, thanks for filling me in everyone.

Nev

I have to say that I'm utterly shocked at the price that a Blue Peter badge will fetch on ebay.

The winning bid from the link in my post above ( http://tinyurl.com/7k3ku ) is £29!

These things were sent out free by the thousand (probably still are).

You're right, Nev, some of us are getting misty eyed; BP was archetypal TV for kids in their formative years, from an era when children aspired to something other than spending their spare time in front of a computer. Oh, look, that's what I'm doing now!

I wonder if my sister still has her badge. She sent in a picture when she was about 12 or 13. It was ok, but she told them that she was 7 as she felt sure they would give her a badge for drawing far better than a child of her age could. Crafty eh? (well just downright dihonest really )