here’s one i made earlier

Marion McMullen gets ready with the sticky back plastic as Blue Peter celebrates its 60th birthday

FROM milk bottle tops and sticky back plastic to feats of derring-do, BBC favourite Blue Peter is preparing to mark 60 years with a special diamond anniversary programme on October 16. The first programme aired on October 16, 1958 and transmitted for just 15 minutes. Blue Peter is now the longest running children’s TV show in the world and the anniversary programme will be episode 5,037. THERE have been 37 presenters over the last six decades as well as 25 pets and one million Blue Peter badges. It still inspires youngsters to send in more than 100,000 letters and pictures each year with nearly 200,000 under 16s owning at least one Blue Peter badge. If you watched every episode of Blue Peter ever made, back to back without any breaks, it would take around three months. 3 THE ship’s symbol, the famous Blue Peter Galleon, was designed by much-loved TV artist Tony Hart, above, who received just £100 for his work – an estimated £1,537 in today’s money. Had he been paid royalties, they would have made him a millionaire. THE first presenters were Christopher Trace and Leila Williams. Christopher Trace was the stand-in for Charlton Heston in film blockbuster Ben-Hur and Leila Williams, right, had been crowned Miss Great Britain the previous year. The longest-serving presenter was John Noakes, who presented the series for 12 and a half years. MARGARET Parnell sent in the idea for the first Blue Peter “make” in 1962 and spent the best part of 40 years creating them, designing more than 700 in total. The most popular was Tracy Island from Thunderbirds, which received 100,000 requests for the factsheet in 1993. Anthea Turner, above, still has the one she made on the show. BLUE Peter’s pets are almost as well-known as its presenters. There have been nine dogs, five tortoises, nine cats and two parrots over the years. George the tortoise is the longest-serving pet. He made his first appearance in 1982 and he was around 81 years old when he finally passed away in 2004. PRESENTER Peter Purves attributes the blame for Lulu the incontinent elephant’s infamous appearance in 1969 to editor Biddy Baxter, who allegedly asked Lulu’s keeper to do without the stick he used to keep her under control. The ensuing chaos saw Lulu pee, poo and generally misbehave around the studio, dragging her gamekeeper through the mess. 8 THERE have been other mishaps over the years. Mark Curry knocked the head off a Lego model in one programme, Diane-Louise Jordan fell flat on her face whilst covering John Leslie’s run in the London Marathon and Andy Akinwolere dropped the star off the top of the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree. 9 CHILDREN who appeared on the show and have gone on to be famous include Formula 1 ace Lewis Hamilton and popstar James Blunt (then James Blount). Konnie Huq, right, also appeared in 1989 with the National Youth Theatre before she went on to become the programme’s longest-serving female presenter. 10 THE first colour edition of Blue Peter was transmitted on September 14, 1970, and the first outside broadcast was transmitted from Carrickfergus Castle in Northern Ireland on June 8, 1989. Since then the show has broadcast from numerous iconic locations including the Eden Project, Crufts, Buckingham Palace, the Olympic Velodrome and even a Blue Peter viewer’s house.