BLUE PETER

Top Peter or Blue Gear
Its target audience are more likely to be found playing with toy cars than driving expensive models, but BBC executives this week announced their intention to model Blue Peter on the successful Top Gear show in a bid to increase viewing numbers.

Well, the last time I saw an episode, it looked like the Fearn Cotton club. Wacky presenters, 'down' with the kids, looking nothing like stuffy versions of your parents/teachers, etc.

So, seeing as there's not been a general Blue Peter thread before..

I never really liked it, it always seemed too worthy even when it was trying to be fun and hip. I was more into the Wide Awake Club, they didn't try and teach you stuff.

nobody LIKED Blue Peter i thought (not in the 80s at least). Janet Ellis tho.

idk why they don't just show repeats from back in the day tbh. would save money. doubt much has changed in the world of whatever it is they do on blue peter.

xpost

otm re janet ellis

if an elephant shat on set today they'd get 10,000 complaints and suspended for months

How about if Jonathan Ross shat on the set?

What if an elephant shat on Jonathon Ross?

Would've been better if that had been the beeb's official punishment.

The classic line-up. Lesley Judd >>> Janet Ellis.
http://www.iconocast.com/B000000000000146_Italy/D2/News1_0.jpg

I always hated Blue Peter. Unsure why.

I have no idea how on earth they could make it "more like Top Gear".

there probably aren't many people who will rep for a period of blue peter that didn't coincide with their own childhood.

I loved it when I was a child. It was definitely my favourite programme for a while - something that brightened up Monday and Thursday (I think those were the days) evenings after school. I found it both entertaining and informative. I never had any interest in any of the 'making stuff' projects, or in writing in for a badge (couldn't be bothered) but I liked the history and travel items.

The big problem with the Blue Peter 'brand' was always that even if a presenter was doing something really cool like bungee jumping off a bridge with dolphins it still managed to seem really frumpy and worthy and something your parents would have approved of.

that's the whole point! otherwise it'd be richard bacon snorting coke off an elephant's cleavage.

I have no idea how on earth they could make it "more like Top Gear"

it basically means having an audience of kids behind them for that 'atmosphere' and maybe doing more exciting "challenges"

What's Konnie Huq doing now?

Talking of cleavage.

it still managed to seem really frumpy and worthy and something your parents would have approved of.

But historically hasn't it been aimed at children of an age group that is fine with things their parents would approve of. I continued to watch it when I was in my teens but the period when it meant the most to me was when I was aged about 7 to 11. At that age I saw nothing at all wrong with my parents' views or opinions.

nsfw obviously but janet ellis is there
http://www.fabulousmag.co.uk/celebs/celeb_naked_issue_014.php

Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman, 48, laughed: “Jeremy would be very good on Blue Peter.

“He was voted the dad children would most like to have in a poll. They think he’d let them stay up all night and drink, and drive Ferraris! In fact, they’d get a grumpy, middle-aged man.”

this country.

This whole thing sounds like the last days of TOTP. There's no reason though why things should just keep going is there?

There's a chip shop in Brooklyn w/ assorted posters of this on the wall. Looks unwholesome.

There's a chip shop in Brooklyn?

There's a guy there, swears he's David Bowie.

With posters of Blue Peter?

well it's owned by Brits!

also Benny Hill, Beatles/Hamburg posters and a Queen Mother memorial tea towel (w/ various death years crossed out).

what are the chips like?

My chippie has posters of upcoming boxing matches, never saw any BP pics in it.

Blue Peter's appeal = aspirationally middle class? (ie was forced to watch by lower middle parents, whereas the real middle class kids were watching magpie)

idk, im authentically middle class (i reckon) and watched blue peter... though magpie was no longer a going concern by then.

I've never had UK chips, so my answer may be meaningless (good)

Blue Peter is about as dead centre middle class as you can get I reckon.

Magpie - more for the arrivistes I would say.

Like having a colour tv in 1970.

(xpost)
http://www.minley.com/watchedit/magpie-team.jpg
Mick Robertson's whole "yeah this totaliser is shite but I don't care" 'tude informed a lot of my pre-teen posturing.

Jenny Hanley has bought her hangbag with her. Oh, maybe this is a rehearsal photo?

thought this was gonna be another Watchmen thread

Magpie looks a bit edgy there. Maybe it's the pose of the bloke on the left.

Magpie was definitely edgier. It featured a rock music theme song, and the presenters were like proper young hippies, which Peter Purves or Leslie Judd never were, although they were more with-it than John Noakes, naturally.

(xpost) that's Robertson

Haven't watched Blue Peter for a long time. Do they still do a story about how awesome Marie Antoinette was once every 3 weeks?

42 posts and no mention of joey deacon

(xpost) I'm sure that if they did, Simon Groom would be able to wheel out a "at her last public appearance, she was topless" joke

thought this was gonna be another Watchmen thread

― some dad (some dude), Monday, March 16, 2009 5:28 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

loooool

I'd like to take this oppportunity to mention joey deacon - and the undeniable fact that I have never heard of him before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Deacon

you have to be a certain age to know of him. Noodle Vague will certainly know who he was.

In 1981, the last year of his life, Joey Deacon was featured on the children's magazine programme, Blue Peter, for the International Year of the Disabled. He was presented as an example of a man who achieved a lot in spite of his disabilities. However, despite the positive light in which the programme's editor was trying to present his story, the impact was not as intended. The sights and sounds of Joey's distinctive speech and movements had a lasting impact on young viewers, who quickly learnt to imitate them. Joey's name and mannerisms quickly became a label of ridicule in school playgrounds across the country. Even today, if a person trips over or happens to otherwise compromise themselves, they may still be mocked as a "Joey". Nonetheless, many who were children at that time now look back on him rather fondly. [4]

also..

Joey's name was also the inspiration for the playground rhymes "Joe A, Joe B, Joe C, Joe D, Joey" and "Acon, Beacon, Ceacon, Deacon!" where the speaker alternately points his finger at himself and a fellow pupil in order to imply that the other person has some (vaguely-defined) handicap in common with Joey Deacon. That variants of these rhymes/games exist is significant because it means they have sufficient maturity and prevalence to diverge.

The second series of cult UK comedy series Spaced also contains a quick "Joey" reference, when Tim tells Daisy to "Get off me, you Joey!".

XPOSTS!

Noodle Vague has shamefully used "Joey" as a term of playground abuse way too many times as a teenager.

i used it on ilx recently to describe the guardian's tv critic. sam wollaston? that guy.

Well tbf

Konnie Huq and Charlie Brooker get engaged

Torontonian me: "Someone actually started a thread on Blue Peter, the cheesy Canadian new wave band? Am I on ILM?" No and no.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5281/5250970591_ac648f8a69_z.jpg

I had an interview with these lads on Thursday. It was going great ("contacts? contacts are the currency of research!") but I think in the middle I gave a story idea that revealed I don't watch the show day in day out...like a normal 27-year-old male obv would. Prob don't matter as I have a job now but BP would be fun.