back to article BBC deletes Blue Peter from BBC One

Blue Peter - home to four-legged rascal Shep, the coat-hanger advent crown and school-boy favourite Janet Ellis, is being turfed out of its home on BBC One. The 54-year-old show that gave kids the drama of hibernating tortoises, out-of-control baby elephants and, yes, Janet Ellis, will be shoved into the back end of Freeview. …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    Meh

    Blue Peter was for kids who smelt of TCP and weren't allowed out to play. Magpie was where it was at.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      so they move

      Channels?

      It was so fragmented between channels anyway.

      I'd be more worried about the crap they will replace it with.

    2. daveeff
      FAIL

      Re: Meh

      Magpie was cool (even better with the divine Ms Hanley) but wasn't around for the first N years of Blue Peter. You youngsters get off to bed with your warm milk and leave us grown ups to reminisce ;-)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Austerity Measure?

    How does moving a programme to a different channel and having to replace it with a, presumably, more expensive show to attract bigger audiences save money?

    1. JetSetJim

      Re: Austerity Measure?

      They move it to another channel which replaces some broadcasting there - saving some production money there.

      On BBC1, they replace it with a re-run of some blithering daytime TV classic - zero cost

      1. TRT Silver badge
        Thumb Down

        Re: Austerity Measure?

        "On BBC1, they replace it with a re-run of some blithering daytime TV classic - zero cost"

        Oh noes! More "Crap in the Attic"? Pass me the remote.

        1. Steve Evans

          Re: Austerity Measure?

          No, not more, just the episode they showed the day before in the morning... One they made earlier *ahem*

        2. auburnman
          Holmes

          Re: Austerity Measure?

          Surely whenever the beeb needs an inexpensive show to slot in they call up the Home Guard and have Dad's Army step in? Or perhaps le resistance could hold the breach with 'Allo 'Allo!

  3. Andrew Moore

    Peter Duncan in Flash Gordon...

    His appearance was because he was doing a report from the studios as they were making FG.

    1. TRT Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Peter Duncan in Flash Gordon...

      He reported from Treasure Trap (Peckforton Castle) too. I polished his helmet for him.

      1. Ian K
        Thumb Up

        Re: Peter Duncan in Flash Gordon...

        @TRT: That was the one where the report showed a woman on a rack, wasn't it? IIRC they were swamped by pervy phone calls for some time after.

        Fond memories...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    John Noakes was the dogs bollocks

    The original and only action man. You can keep your modern day pretenders. Our John would have Bear Grylls for breakfast and just chew on chuck Norris before spitting him out.

    1. Severen
      Angel

      Re: John Noakes was the dogs bollocks

      Um, really?

      Are you forgetting Duncan Dares?

      And even he pales compared to Helen Skelton who was the first person to canoe the length of the Amazon and who has walked, kite-skiied, and cycled to the South Pole......

      And she's a DORIS!!

      And she's tightrope walked between the chimneys of Battersea power station!!!

      AND she's cute!!!

      I'm off for a lie down in a darkened room with a nice cup of tea. :-/

      Divine being because that's what she is. :-)

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: John Noakes was the dogs bollocks

        Konnie Huq. Hmmmmmmm!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Severen

        >Duncan Dares

        Duncan had the sort of physique that looked as if it would be eternally in nappies, probably still doesn't shave even now.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Matt LeDeacon

        Never mind Noakes or Duncan Dares, the best spin-off TV series from Blue Peter was definitely 'Joey'.

    2. Fogcat
      Thumb Up

      Re: John Noakes was the dogs bollocks

      I'd give more upvotes if I could .... why isn't there an annual John Noakes day?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Re: John Noakes was the dogs bollocks

      The other good thing about John Noakes and the other presenters of the time was that they didn't pretend to be kids themselves. Kids like stuff that doesn't patronise them. I remember because I was one.

  5. Ashley Stevens

    Viewing statistics?

    How do they measure viewing statistics for children's TV? Do they send survey papers into nursery schools and have them filled out in crayon?

    Or maybe it is 300,000 saddo adults and unspecified millions of uncounted kids watching?

    1. JetSetJim
      Boffin

      Re: Viewing statistics?

      They ask these fellas:

      http://www.barb.co.uk/

      "Viewing estimates are obtained from a panel of television owning households representing the viewing behaviour of the 26+ million households within the UK. The reporting panel of 5,100 homes is selected to be representative of each ITV and BBC region. The service covers viewing within private households only."

      So they take their measurements and multiply by 463 or thereabouts to get "number of homes watching programme X".

      Then the other widgets BARB dish out come into play:

      "When a household agrees to join the panel their television sets, PVRs, VCRs etc. are electronically monitored by a meter. Each TV in a home is connected to its own meter which holds an electronic record for the set. The meter is a small box which is put close to each television set and connected to it. The meter automatically identifies and collects information about the channel that the panel member is viewing.

      All panel household residents and their guests register their presence when in a room with a television set on. Each individual does this by pressing a button allocated to them on the peoplemeter handset. The metering system monitors all registrations made by each individual for each television in the home."

  6. TRT Silver badge
    Trollface

    Relaunch Blockbusters!

    There's not much for the 15-19 sector. They should take a leaf from Challenge's book and relaunch the 6-formers version of University Challenge, Blockbusters. Plus points if they dig up poor, dead Bob Holness to host.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. chriswakey

      Re: Relaunch Blockbusters!

      They have.

      Simon Mayo hosts it.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ignore the Blue Peter angle for a moment....

    This is about removing all kids shows from the main channels and putting them on CBBC.

    Om CBBC repeat fees and certain rights fees are cheaper hence saving the kids department money. Also presumably the gap on BBC1 and 2 will be filled with the cheapest thing possible.

    Well not the cheapest thing possible as that would be Pages From Ceefax which I would welcome!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ignore the Blue Peter angle for a moment....

      The BBC has been tightening budgets, so cost savings would be welcome but this is more to do with an ongoing trend in children’s television – or rather, how the demographic watching has changed. Less children are watching after-school television and the BBC thinks it can engage with younger viewers by dedicated digital channels.

      What was being touted a few years back was to have CBebbies for pre-schoolers, CBBC for primary school-age children and a brand new digital channel targeting older children. The BBC gave up thinking that older children will be attracted to CBBC years ago and it was a matter of time before all after-school children’s television (or children’s television full-stop) would be farmed out to dedicated channels.

      For a long time now, whenever 12-18 years are surveyed about their favourites shows, children’s shows aren’t mentioned – e.g. soaps, X-Factor, The Simpsons are far more popular. This trend was reflected in a remark when the Beeb cancelled Grange Hill - a corporation suit commented that a recent storyline involving someone to drive was something that the show’s main audience couldn’t relate to, as they were way too young. This was happening way before iPlayer etc. – the simple fact was that older children were preferring television that isn’t aimed at ‘them’'.

      The BBC has been very worried by this trend – various research has shown that young people don’t hold the Beeb in particular high esteem. For example, relatively few shows that young people list as their faves (as above) are shown on the BBC – more worringly, they see the Beeb as ‘just’ a broadcaster. The fear that younger generations of media consumers are growing up with very little brand loyalty to the BBC is a very real one for the corporation.

      1. Asgard
        Mushroom

        Re: Ignore the Blue Peter angle for a moment....

        @"relatively few shows that young people list as their faves"

        When I was a kid the BBC was fun and entertaining and even interesting at times and yes, dare I say it, even at times educational. Now its reality TV, reality TV and more bloody reality TV, just like all the other channels.

        Look at what we have lost. I still (to this day) love watching cartoons, yet you can hardly ever see any new cartoons on TV anymore. So no wonder then, that the UK cartoon making industry is going out of business. They can't get on TV any more. I can also count dozens of sitcoms and series I loved watching in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Yet now I can't find almost anything like that these days. I also loved watching many scientific documentaries on the BBC, yet channel 4 has more science than BBC 4 these days and what documentaries we have left are unfortunately all too often dumbed down these days. That's just a few examples I can give. Genre after genre of TV shows of all kinds are being killed off to be replaced with yet more reality bloody TV.

        Television is increasingly playing to (and dumbed down to) the Lowest Common Denominator these days. If they wipe out almost everything other than reality TV, is there any wonder more and more people are loosing interest in the majority of Television these days. Yet the bloody minded TV executives still refuse to listen. They are determined that ever more reality TV is the answer. They don't want to listen. :(

        1. frank ly
          Unhappy

          @Asgard - Re: Ignore the Blue Peter angle for a moment....

          I know I've become older (and hopefully wiser) but I can't believe that people in TV land (especially presenters) have become so much dumber and more superficial. (Is it me; is it?).

          I can remember when Horizon and similar programs were fascinationg to watch and were produced as an educational and informative product. Now, when I watch them, I almost feel embarassed for them as I see how they try to present and explain things in a way that makes me cringe ...(ok, I'll stop typing now, before I unleash a torrent of bile on you all)

          1. TRT Silver badge

            Re: @Asgard - Ignore the Blue Peter angle for a moment....

            @frank ly

            Did you see Charlie Booker's guide to making an episode of Horizon? I was ROFPML.

            1. frank ly

              @TRT re. - Ignore the Blue Peter angle for a moment....

              No I didn't but I may try to find it for the lulz. On a happier note: Try to find 'Materials: How They Work' on BBC iPlayer, presented by Mark Miodownik who is a real materials scientist. It's a 3-part gem of a series; very, very rare.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ignore the Blue Peter angle for a moment....

      Perhaps they should combine the suggestions on this forum, and replace BP with reruns of pages from Ceefax. Hmmmm ceefax.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    To save money

    they could re-run the episodes with Janet Ellis in again - on the late-night channel fnar fnar

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: To save money

      AC: "To save money they could re-run the episodes with Janet Ellis in again - on the late-night channel fnar fnar"

      Although Lesley Judd was before my time, one has to wonder about the effect of this clip on any male viewers hitting adolescence back in those pre-Internet-porn-on-tap days:-

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1hiGhJv2oo&feature=fvst

      (Yeah, it's the bloody Blue Peter title sequence, so it must surely be SFW?!)

      Willing to bet this clip was mentally replayed (*) over and over to the point of imprinting during, er, recreational solitude by more than one horribly frustrated 13-year-old . :-O

      (*) Mentally as hardly anyone (except very well-off tossers) would have had a video recorder back then.

    2. NogginTheNog
      Thumb Down

      Re: Janet Ellis?

      What's with this JE fetish?? She was 'meh' - much tastier was Gloria Hunniford's daughter (can't remember her name though!)...

      1. Snark

        Re: Janet Ellis?

        Caron Keating, so sad when she died in 2004 of Breast Cancer at just 41 :(

        1. frank ly

          Re: Janet Ellis?

          Don't kids nowadays have LCD video projectors so they can have soothing images projected onto their bedroom ceiling to help them get to sleep? (Drifting clouds, an albatross in flight, etc)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Janet Ellis?

            School-boy favourite Janet Ellis???

            I just remember her as being some old patronising and boring old frump. However Sally James in a wet T-shirt on Tiswas, was where it was at!

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Janet Ellis?

              But did Tiswas have the equivalent of the Blue Peter "underwear episode".

              undergarments through British history as shown by the presenters. I can't recall if they were helped by Maggie Philbin.....

  9. Pinkerton
    WTF?

    Why does this matter?

    The BBC's Have Your Say forum is awash with yards of debate about this. Why?

    A programme or two gets moved from one channel to another.

    After the digital switchover is complete, everyone who has access to BBC1 and BBC2 will also have access to CBeebies and CBBC. Nobody has lost anything.

    What am I missing, here?

    Someone explain.

    Please type slowly as I can't read very fast.

    1. Wize

      Re: Why does this matter?

      But what about the drunken students, heading back home after a hard afternoon at the pub.

      Easy to remember the number for BBC1, but does anyone, without kids, know the channel number for CBBC (Sky or terrestrial) off the top of their heads? Try doing that through the thick fog of beer. It was hard enough with just 4 channels when I did it.

      Won't someone think of the poor students.

  10. Christian Berger

    In Germany

    The main public channels mostly got rid of their children's programming years ago. It's now, in much worse form, on the combined channel "KIKA".

    Actually the main "analogue" channels are barely watchable. They spend great deals of money on banale shows. The "digital" channels however actually seem to try to make good television. They are quite experimental with some horribly bad stuff, and a bit of true gems.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: In Germany

      You forgot to lament the current dire crop of wall-to-wall talkshows on the public channels - for those who don't live here, it's sort of like Paxman and Humphries cloning themselves and their guests and invading the evening schedule.

      The less said about private TV the better.

      Interested in what you think of as gems because from where I sit stuff just seems to be getting worse and worse.

  11. Jon Press

    Seeing as how...

    ... they're having to cut back on daytime TV and kids' TV is shown in the, er, daytime, why don't they simply drop (say) BBC2 before 7pm and replace it with Cbeebies and get rid of BBC3 or BBC4 at night? There's a complete 24 hour programme stream they'd no longer have to fill (and could presumably rent out or use to increase bit rates on the remaining channels or give to Jeremy Hunt for local TV without the cost of another MUX).

    1. Gio Ciampa

      Re: Seeing as how...

      I'd just put CBBC and BBC3 on the same channel, given the former stops at 7pm, just as the latter starts - ditto for CBeebies and BBC4.

      That way they'd save by not having to transmit the channel ident on four channels for half the day, when they could use two channels more effectively.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Shep

    "...the Noakes and Shep tear jerker, and – oh, yes, Janet Ellis."

    Well I can't say I cared much for John Noakes, but I distinctly remember being left tear jerked over Janet Ellis a few times.

  13. Smallbrainfield

    What does it matter?

    Most kids are watching CBBC or CBeebies anyway, not BBC1. They're looking for their kids programmes there, so it makes sense to shift it. Of more concern is what they decide to replace it with. More of that bald Dom bloke chasing dodgy builders? Or something about antiques, more likely

  14. Morphius

    * Mum of pop siren Sophie Ellis-Bextor

    "* Mum of pop siren Sophie Ellis-Bextor"

    And from the linked BBC article...

    "Janet left Blue Peter to have her second child. Rumour has it that she was sacked because she wasn't married to the father, but in actual fact it was Janet's decision to leave. The resulting bairn in question also wasn't Sophie Ellis Bextor. "

    Now, in situations like these I refer to the always accurate Wikipedia which agrees with el Reg but not the Beeb....

    In this confused state I am worried I will lose track of what is up too *Sits on head*

    Surely the Beeb wouldnt be wrong?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: * Mum of pop siren Sophie Ellis-Bextor

      Morphius, the Reg and BBC are both correct.

      Janet Ellis is the mother of Sophie Ellis-Bextor, but the baby she left Blue Peter to have was not Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

  15. The FunkeyGibbon

    *Yawn*

    This is this really worth reporting? Neighbours didn't suffer by being binned and then picked up by 5. This is just a juggling of another out-dated program to an appropriate channel. To be honest if people let nostalgia rather than sense rule then we'd still have 'Why Don't You..?', 'Grandstand' and 'Kickstart' clogging up our screens.

    The BBC needs to decide what it actually wants to be, it's not the 1970's it can't be all things to all people any more.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: *Yawn*

      I'd welcome a 2012 revival of Why Don't You for the youth of today.

      Why Don't You Shoot Up Some Smack, Happy Slap A Granny And Go And Hang Out In The Shopping Centre Instead?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: *Yawn*

        Smack is sooo 1980s, Grandad. It's all mephedrone and ketamine these days.

    2. David Neil

      Re: *Yawn*

      Kickstart - I'd watch that no problem, although the H&S brigade would have kittens.

  16. Dave Bell

    The BBC1 schedule for children's programming runs from 3:05 pm to 5:15 pm.

    Going by my recollection of school and travel timing, I would only be able to catch the last hour of that. Even in my days at primary school, I would not have been able to watch all of it. What I remember of those far-off days, there were more hours of children's programming that I was able to watch on a schoolday than there is now.

    So I am wondering who they expect to be watching some of what they put on BBC1.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Of course. Because thanks to the government you can no longer get into the school at the end of the road any more, only one five to ten miles away.

  17. WonkoTheSane
    Childcatcher

    I believe this to be a good thing...

    When I watched kid's BBC (back before the dawn of time), I was always really annoyed when it got pre-empted for the budget, tennis, snooker or pro-celebrity tiddleywinks.

    Dedicated channels like CBBC/CBeebies will not see this.

  18. Dick Emery
    Headmaster

    Best kids show!

    I Horrible Histories. No contest. Adults can be amused by it too!

  19. David 45

    Not the best

    I always thought the Blue Peter presenters were rather too condescending and/or supercilious for my taste. Got the impression they were recruited to be that way. The opposition program, Magpie on ITV was the business as far as I was concerned, with the added plus of Jenny Hanley! She certainly added a certain something, which also made the dads watch as well.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Not the best

      Ooooh dear. Prepare for a massive downvote. Blue Peter was for kids who wanted more school after school.

      Still, while the Blue Peter viewers were counting their milk bottle tops while drinking their weak lemon drink, Magpie viewers had Jenny Hanley:

      http://flofblog.com/images/blog/63.jpg

      Paris because like Jenny she also has some "interesting" performances in "films".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Devil

        Re: Not the best

        Jenny --even in that picture always reminded me of a creepy aunt. 50 yrs old and enough blue eyeshadow to mistake her for a lost peacock. Shades of Norma Desmond there, folks.

        Contrast Peri Brown/Nicola Bryant. Now she was a reason to watch the telly.

    2. David Evans

      Re: Not the best

      I thought that as well, right up until the time my youthful eyes were opened by the sight of John Noakes and Peter Purves staggering out of a pub in Beaumaris (where they were filming something about the RNLI I seem to remember), three sheets to the wind in the middle of the afternoon. Always watched BP in a different light after that, as it turned out they were human after all.

  20. TeeCee Gold badge
    Happy

    For the record.

    If Janet Ellis is reading this, it was I driving the white 3-ton truck that shuddered to a halt in a cloud of tyre smoke next to your door when you pulled out of the car park next to the BBC Television Centre without looking. You dozy cow.

    @Janet Ellis fans: You owe me one.

  21. Bluey1701
    Happy

    There goes my concentration for the day...

    Janet and Sophie together, bugger, if they knew the thoughts that mother-daughter combo puts in my mind thay'd take away my Blue Peter badge!

  22. A J Stiles

    So what's the problem?

    Analogue TV has already been turned off, meaning nobody is stuck with just five channels anymore. Ergo, there is no need for the BBC to keep programmes meant for the widest audience on BBC1 or BBC2.

    1. mark1978

      Re: So what's the problem?

      Not everywhere it hasn't, granted it will be in October.

  23. Purlieu

    Are you all mad

    SUSAN STRANKS

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sticky backed plastic

    I never made any of the projects as I never had any sticky backed plastic.

    Reams and reams of sellotape* mind, but no sticky backed plastic.

    I mind that Anthea Turner Thunderbirds Tracy Island.

    Never tried that one either. It's like cooking, they make the recipes look simple, but when you try it yourself it looks amateurish and rubbish.

    I've noticed that the likes of Live and Kicking is no longer, Saturday Mornings are devoted to showing old clips of Keith Floyd and seeing who can give James Martin salmonella in a half-cooked omelette.

    What will fill the gap between Escape to the Country "where he helps a couple with £550,000 (who the hell gets a Mortgage like that??) to find a property" and the News?

    Bargain Doctor Homes under the Hammer in the Country Attic?

    (* It turns out that other brands of sticky backed plastic are available...)

  25. mark1978

    Why only mention Blue Peter?

    ALL the programming is being moved. Blue Peter is but one programme out of $lots.

    Typical headline nonsense. Blue Peter is not being axed, nor is it being singled out in any way.

  26. nijam Silver badge

    Who cares? They're just channels (check it out, there are lots of them). Specifically, why do the BBC continue to obsess about which of their many channels programmes are on?

  27. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Janet Ellis?... seriously?

    That annoying, helium-voiced frumpa-lumpa.

    There's no accounting for taste!

  28. P. Lee

    Seriously?

    If BP costs too much, you're doing it wrong.

    How much does it cost to make a walkie-talkie from tin-cans and a bit of string?

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like