‘Being dropped from Crufts was a kick in the stomach’
Peter Purves insists he was dropped from Crufts because of his age. But, at 81, he tells Alice Hall, there’s life in the old dog yet…
Peter Purves fell in love with dogs by accident. During his 11-year stint on Blue Peter – which he joined in 1967, aged 28 – he was handed the show’s dog, Petra, in the hope that a few home comforts might help the unruly mongrel settle into the BBC studio.
“My relationship with Petra was interesting,” he tells me of the dog he describes as a “surrogate pet for the nation”. “She was never totally happy, but she was fiercely loyal.”
That sparked a love of dogs that saw Purves go on to a 41-year career as a presenter and commentator on Crufts for the BBC and Channel 4.
But this year, we are meeting under different circumstances.
In December, Purves received a call about his role presenting Channel 4’s Crufts coverage, and says he was told that he was now “surplus to requirements”.
A sadness clouds Purves’s face. “Ever been kicked in the stomach?” he asks. “It felt like that. It was just awful. I was shocked, I was hurt. I got angry for a little while, too.”
At 81, he has replaced the tie-dye shirts and rippling bell-bottoms with a navy gilet and beige chinos. The floppy hazel-brown locks have given way to a distinguished silvery trim. But the warm voice – with Lancashire undertones – remains.
As for Petra, she is preserved as “a bronze statue” at the BBC studios in Salford Quays.
Purves says he feels let down, having been given no reason for the decision to axe him, besides wanting a “refresh”. It was this ambiguity that encouraged him to air his grievances.
Does he think he’s fallen foul of the “old, expensive, white guy” trap?
“I think it’s ageist,” he says. “I’m the oldest guy there. I’m well aware I’m no spring chicken but, with this, I get the feeling it was first in, first out. The trouble with it is, if you can do the job – which I definitely feel like I can, in spite of my age – why do I have to stop? Do I still have the knowledge? Yes. Do I have the experience? Yes.” But there’s life in the old dog yet. Purves hasn’t retreated to the comfort of his sofa – something he says he wouldn’t do anyway – but has returned to Crufts in a new presenting role for the canine supplement brand YuMOVE, with his coverage streamed on Facebook and YouTube.
There are meet and greets with guests, and interviews with veteran dog owners – while his former employer broadcasts nearby, with Clare Balding presenting. “I can’t imagine not being here. Crufts is part of my life – it’s been my favourite week of the year for 41 years,” he says.
It’s not hard to see how he fell in love with this eccentric world. It’s a drizzly Thursday morning on the first day of judging and already the halls are packed full with a canine cohort.
Some are cocooned in blankets to protect their coats from the rain. The privileged lie in blanket-draped cages. The air smells of perfume and sawdust – probably emanating from the sides of the hall, where the dogs can spend a penny between competing.
For Purves, the controversy with Channel 4 isn’t the first time he has experienced “disappointment” over Crufts. In 2008, the BBC dropped the show from its schedules – a fixture since it was first televised in 1950 – after a dispute following a BBC One investigation that found certain pedigrees were suffering from genetic diseases brought on by inbreeding.
In reaction, Purves worked around the clock with a team of producers to stream the 2009 dog show on YouTube, a move he says “saved Crufts”. When Channel 4 won the broadcasting rights in 2010, he was a key part of the new presenting team.
We stop to film Raiyne, a 14-yearold bichon frise who has just won the veteran class. Purves strokes her luminous white bouffant, fit to rival that of Dusty Springfield. The combination of a canine and a camera animates him in a way I haven’t seen in the hour we have spent together.
Yet even this canine utopia is not immune to the looming threat of Covid-19. Bottles of hand sanitiser line every wall, and two sponsors, Royal Canin and James Wellbeloved, have made the decision not to exhibit.
Purves is aware he is “vulnerable” to coronavirus; he’s not only in the most high-risk age bracket, but has Type 2 diabetes. He has been taking extra measures to prepare for the show, which involves a lot of hand-to-hand (and hand-to-dog) contact.
“This is the fourth pair of surgical gloves I’ve worn today,” he says. “But what can you do? My wife didn’t want me to come, but I think that’s a massive overreaction.”
An actor by trade, Purves knows better than anyone that the show must go on. His 63-year career spans screen and stage, including playing William Hartnell’s assistant in Doctor Who.
But it’s the Blue Peter days he looks back on most fondly. He initially found it “terrifying”, and says it took him a long time to stop trying to play a part and be himself. It was something his fellow presenter and friend, John Noakes – whose eulogy he read at his funeral in 2017 – never mastered.
“He invented the zany John on the screen, as he needed a character to hide behind. In real life, he was a much quieter, shyer type of guy,” Purves recalls.
In those days, Blue Peter could pull in 8.5 million viewers and was, he says, “extraordinary” to work on.
“I got to travel to Borneo, Brazil,
Mexico. In an age when people didn’t really travel that much, it was an absolute treat.”
Despite the exotic benefits, the hours were long and the pay poor. In a reversal of the BBC’s current gender pay gap – which in 2019 was 6.7 per cent – it was Valerie Singleton who was paid most because she had been on the show the longest.
Life for Purves now is distinctly more peaceful – and lucrative. He lives on a country estate in Suffolk with his wife of 38 years, Kathryn Evans, an actress, and their four dogs. He has two children from his previous marriage to the writer Gilly Fraser.
Work, he says, helps keep him young, and he isn’t short of it. Alongside presenting roles, he is active in several dog charities, including being vice president of Dogs for Good.
His services to the canine world have been recognised by the Kennel Club, which has selected him to present the prestigious best in show award tonight – a role he describes as a “fantastic honour”. With delicious irony, the moment will also be shown live on Channel 4.
But Purves seems less perturbed about his own fate than that of his beloved canine companions. “I just adore them,” he says, “and I can’t imagine life without them.”
‘Crufts had been my favourite week of the year, a big part of my life, for 41 years’