Blue Peter
| Blue Peter | |
|---|---|
The Blue Peter logo (2011–present)
|
|
| Genre |
|
| Created by | John Hunter Blair |
| Presented by |
Barney Harwood (2011—) Lindsey Russell (2013—) Radzi Chinyanganya (2013—) (See full list) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 4,947 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 15 minutes (1958–1960s) 25 minutes (1960s–2008) 35 minutes (2005–06; CBBC Channel Extension) 24 minutes (2008–11) 28 minutes (2012—) |
| Release | |
| Original network |
BBC Television Service (1958–1960) BBC TV (1960–1966) BBC1 (1966–2012) BBC2 (1964–2012) CBBC (formerly Children's BBC) (1960—) CBBC HD (2013—) |
| Original release | 16 October 1958 – present |
Blue Peter is a British children's television programme, shown currently live on the CBBC television channel. A significant part of British culture, it first aired in 1958 and is the longest-running children's TV show in the world. Although the show has a nautical title and theme, it is a magazine/entertainment show containing viewer and presenter challenges, as well as the famous arts and crafts "makes".
During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time. The current presenters are Barney Harwood, Lindsey Russell and Radzi Chinyanganya. The show is produced mainly in a television studio, but there is also a garden, often referred to as the Blue Peter Garden, used during the summer months or for outdoor activities. The programme has always featured a number of pets; currently a tortoise called Shelly makes appearances from time to time.
Blue Peter's content is wide-ranging. Most programmes are broadcast live, but usually include at least one filmed report. There will also often be a demonstration of an activity in the studio, or a music or dance performance. Between the 1960s and 2011 the programme was made at BBC Television Centre, and often came from Studio 1, the fourth-largest TV studio in Britain and one of the largest in Europe. This enabled Blue Peter to include large-scale demonstrations and performances within the live programme. From the September 2007 series, the programme was broadcast from a small fixed set in Studio 2. However, from 2009 the series began to use the larger studios once more; also more programmes were broadcast in their entirety from the Blue Peter Garden. The show is also famous for its "makes", which are demonstrations of how to construct a useful object or prepare food. These have given rise to the oft-used phrase "Here's one I made earlier", as presenters bring out a perfect and completed version of the object they are making – a phrase credited to Christopher Trace, though Marguerite Patten is another possibility. Trace also used the line "And now for something completely different", which was later taken up by Monty Python. Time is also often given over to reading letters and showing pictures sent in by viewers.
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Wikipedia