Happy birthday to Blue
Tracy Island was the most popular, with 100,000 requests for the factsheet in 1993. Anthea Turner still has the one she made on the show.
Blue Peter appeals started in 1962, when viewers were asked to collect postage stamps to raise money for the homeless.
The 49 appeals are estimated to have raised the equivalent of more than £100million, with more than half coming from bring and buy sales held by viewers.
From 1962 to 2010 the appeals raised money for two guide dogs, 25 RNLI lifeboats, eight flats for homeless people, 32 ponies, 57 lorries, three caravans, two day centres, six bungalows, 12 houses in Romania, three schools and 8,350 toilets.
Helen Skelton kayaked 2,010 miles down the Amazon river for Sport Relief and completed a 500-mile trek to the South Pole. Lindsey Russell tried to cross the Irish Sea in a three-metre inflatable ball.
The show supports Comic Relief and Helen Skelton walked a 150m long, 66m high tightrope between the chimneys of Battersea Power Station in aid of it.
Since 2013 over 23,000 kids have pledged to support Children In Need via Blue Peter.
Simon Thomas once tackled the dreaded Royal Marines Tower Bridge death slide, Matt Baker tried the recruits’ course and Konnie Huq undertook a PE class in the mud of the River Exe.
2016, Radzi Chinyanganya became the latest Blue Peter presenter to free fall with the RAF Falcons – following in the footsteps of John Noakes, Janet Ellis, Stuart Miles and Simon Thomas.
In 2018, Radzi Chinyanganya learned how to become a tank commander with the British Army.
Blue Peter has funded 25 RNLI lifeboats at seven different stations, which have saved over 1,040 lives. The association with Guide Dogs for the Blind goes back to 1964 with the first Blue Peter Guide Dog puppy, Honey. The most famous was Goldie, who lived with presenter Simon Groom from 1978. Nine of her pups became guide dogs.
The Blue Peter Garden was launched in March 1974. Percy Thrower was the first gardener.
The garden at Television Centre was vandalised three times – in 1978, 1980 and 1983 – before security cameras were fitted. It now has a new home in Salford.
In 1968 Blue Peter featured a baby to show viewers what it was like to have a brother or sister. On September 30, baby Daniel appeared at 14 weeks old.
Presenters who had babies while working on the show were Tina Heath, who had Jemma, and Liz Barker, who had Dexter.
The blame for Lulu the elephant goes to editor Biddy Baxter, who asked Lulu’s keeper to go on without the stick he used to control her. Lulu famously peed, pooed and misbehaved in the studio. Other bloopers include Simon Groom saying, “What a beautiful pair of knockers” about Durham Cathedral and Andy Akinwolere dropping the star off the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree.
A competition to design a frock for presenter Caron Keating drew responses from 69,928 dressmakers. A competition to design a Christmas stamp generated 74,000 responses and a contest to design a character for Aardman Animations attracted 47,268 entries.
A recent competition gave viewers the chance to go where TV cameras have never been before – inside MI5’s HQ.
Children who appeared on the show and went on to be famous include Formula 1’s Lewis Hamilton and pop star James Blunt.
A young Prince Edward visited Blue Peter in 1969 and, the next year, Valerie Singleton and Princess Anne filmed their Royal Safari in Kenya.