Blue Peter’s move to Salford Quays is plain sailing for BBC
Blue Peter sailed into Manchester last year in a move by the BBC along with the rest of the children's television and sport departments.
And MM takes a look at how it’s settling into its new harbour.
Blue Peter is the longest running children’s television show in the world having first aired in 1958. It was created to provide a programme at children aged between five and eight.
The show is called ‘Blue Peter’ after the maritime signal flag. Any ships or vessels that were about to leave the harbour would present the blue peter flag to indicate they were going to set sail.
The creator of the show wanted to use this to symbolise the adventure that viewers were about to embark upon.
The programme was so successful that it quickly went from a monthly airing to weekly, then twice weekly before briefly being aired three times a week until January 2012.
It is now shown once a week on the CBBC channel on Thursday and is repeated on BBC One on Friday.
Blue Peter has held a similar format throughout its airtime with presenters participating in a variety of indoor and outdoor activities, including craftwork, science experiments, gardening and sports.
The show had few external reports in the early days however the majority of the programme now involves pre-filmed pieces from somewhere else around the country or even abroad.
However, it has not all been plain sailing for Blue Peter as the show has found itself at the centre of controversy on more than one occasion.
One instance was in 1998 when Richard Bacon became the first presenter to have to walk the plank and end his contract mid-run after he admitted taking cocaine.
Blue Peter hit more choppy waters when its 2006 UNICEF Shoebiz Appeal competition was revealed to be rigged, the phone-in winner was a studio visitor pretending to be an outside caller.
BBC staff explained that the incident occurred because of an error in receiving calls, and that the editor was unaware of the situation.
The show’s technology let it down again in September 2007 and was accused of another breach of trust.
Online users were given the chance to vote for the name of the show’s new kitten, however problems with the voting system led to staff overruling the chosen name – Cookie – and calling the kitten Socks.
The show later got another kitten to join Socks and called it Cookie to represent the viewers’ decision and apologised for what had happened.
But Blue Peter proved unsinkable and the move northhas presented a fresh new beginning.
The Salford base of Blue Peter, at MediaCityUK, features a new set and brings with it an updated remix of the theme tune created by production team Banks and Wag.
The Editor of Blue Peter, Tim Levell, explained that the ethos of the show remained the same.
He said: "We are about telling younger viewers about things that are interesting to them – that's always been the same.
“The wrapping is slightly different but the present inside is still the same."
Two of the three presenters, Helen Skelton and Barney Harwood, boarded the Blue Peter for its northbound voyage but producers decided not to replace Andy Akinwolere, who left at the end of the last series in London.
This is the first time in 50 years that only two presenters have fronted the show, but they will be joined by guest hosts including Deadly 60 presenter and wildlife enthusiast Steve Backshall.
Mr Levell said that the new set-up seemed to be very successful so far.
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He added: “We’re loving our new home. It’s great to be able to get out and about filming in the area, including around the MediaCityUK campus and the new Blue Peter garden.”
It's not only the Blue Peter team who enjoy the show being broadcast from Salford, it has also been notably well received by members of the public.
Mr Levell added: “We’re really pleased to have settled into our new home and are loving being in and around Manchester and Salford.
“We’ve had such a great response from local people too, such as when we held a Blue Peter session at a recent event to celebrate CBBC and CBeebies tenth birthdays.
“Thousands of people came along and it was great to hear how much they love Helen, Barney and the show.”
The Blue Peter team have also moved the gardens to the show’s new home.
This brings with it great significance as the gardens will be made accessible to the public for the first time ever without a prearranged tour.
Mr Levell said: "We’re really excited that we’ve been able to open up the garden so Blue Peter viewers can come along and visit it – we wanted to make it as accessible to the public as possible."
The garden, which boasts the statue of Petra, the show's first dog, a sunken pond and a time capsule that was buried in 2000, has relocated to the new studios piazza and was officially opened in February by Princess Anne as part of the Jubilee Woods Project.
Speculation has arisen as to how much security this now public garden will need. So far, it only employs 24 hour surveillance but there is nobody on hand if something were to happen.
The shows more mature fans will remember the vandalism attack to the gardens in 1983.
Presenter Janet Ellis broke the news to viewers that vandals had broken into Television Centre in London and smashed an ornamental sundial, pulled up plants and poured oil into the pond killing its fish.
However there are no plans to add any further measures suggesting that Tim Levell and his team have faith that this incident will not be repeated.
Blue Peter has fully embraced the winds of change that came with the BBC's move, and after dropping anchor at Salford Quays with Tim Levell at the helm let's hope the Blue Peter flag flies high over Manchester for many years to come.
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