Blue Peter

Blue Peter is a British children's television programme, shown on the CBBC television channel. 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, its current format takes the form of 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 uses a studio for the main format of the presenting; there is also a garden, often referred to as the Blue Peter Garden, which is used during the summer months or for outdoor activities. The programme also features a number of pets, currently a trainee guide dog named Iggy and a tortoise called Shelly.

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LNER Peppercorn Class A2 60532 Blue Peter

LNER Peppercorn A2 Class No. 60532 Blue Peter is the sole survivor of 15 locomotives of the 4-6-2 Peppercorn A2 Class, designed by Arthur Peppercorn of the LNER. 60532 worked between 1948 and 1966. It is owned by the Royal Scot Locomotive and General Trust (RSL&GT), currently awaiting overhaul at their LNWR Heritage facility based at Crewe.

Construction

60532 was built at Doncaster Works and out shopped by the newly formed British Railways on 25 March 1948. The initial livery was LNER apple green with British Railways on the tender sides.

60532 was named in the LNER tradition of using the names of famous racehorses. Blue Peter III was the name of a horse owned by Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery, which in 1939 won races including the Epsom Derby and the 2000 Guineas. The horse earned almost £32,000 for Lord Rosebury, more than enough to purchase three Doncaster Pacific locomotives at the time.

BR service

Initially all the A2s were allocated to English sheds. 60532 was allocated to the North Eastern Region of BR at York, where it worked principally over the East Coast Main Line.

Blue Peter (instrumental)

"Blue Peter" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1979. It is a rendition of the theme tune for the British children's television show Blue Peter and was used by the show between 1979 and 1989.

Blue Peter

The royalties from the single went to the Cambodia appeal launched by the children's show. It charted at number 19 in the UK Singles Chart.

Mike Oldfield's version of the Blue Peter theme was the first time the arrangement had changed since the programme began in 1958, and it had its genesis in his appearance on the programme in 1979 to demonstrate how modern pop music was created using multi-track recording techniques. The end result was liked enough by both the viewers and programme producers to be retained as the permanent theme, and Oldfield additionally recorded a new version of the programme's closing music, which runs for just 20 seconds and has never been commercially released.

The released version of the theme is actually a further re-recording, which incorporates many subtle changes compared to the TV version, in addition to eliminating the opening snare drum roll, extending the piece to a more suitable duration for commercial release, and being mixed in stereo. The TV version was mono-only (British television was not broadcasting in stereo at that time) and has never been made available for sale.