BLUE PETER HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1976... (UPDATED)

Copyright BBC TV

It's funny how things from childhood become more important the older you get, isn't it?  Take BLUE PETER for example.  When I was a kid I didn't own any of the books (can't remember even seeing them in fact), but now I have all the ones featuring CHRISTOPHER TRACE, VALERIE SINGLETON, JOHN NOAKES, PETER PURVES, and LESLEY JUDD.  I've also got a few random ones from later years with some of the newer presenters, including the very last Blue Peter book ever published - plus an autographed (non-Blue Peter) copy of a book about dogs by John Noakes.

I think there was a spell in the '90s where the books were put on hiatus and a magazine was issued instead.  I've got it somewhere and will put up a picture of it at a later date (now done, three and a half years later), but as far as I know, it was a one-off.  Not that long ago, however, I discovered that there had been a Blue Peter Holiday Special in 1976, published by IPC, and I recently managed to obtain a copy, the cover of which graces the top of this very post.  Again, I believe it was a one-off, yet it's interesting to speculate what further editions of the Special would've been like, and whether they'd have affected the sale of the yearly books.

In an early issue of WHAM! back in the '60s, there was a letter from one Lesley Judd, and I've often wondered whether it was the same Lesley who went on to present the programme several years later.  Again, I'll add the letter here once I find the time to dig through my back issues and locate it, but that might take a while as not all of them are easily accessible.  I find that by collecting things connected to the show (like two genuine Blue Peter badges for example) helps to reconnect me to that particular period in my life when I used to watch it, though I was never a regular or consistent viewer.  Funny thing is though, when I think back, it seems that I watched it far more often than I know I actually did.

It's interesting to see JOHN CRAVEN included in the Special, because I've always thought that he would've fitted right in as a Blue Peter presenter, and I wonder if he ever auditioned for the role.  He was sort of a mixture between Peter Purves and John Noakes and would've made an ideal replacement if either one of them had decided to leave after just a few short years, instead of the mammoth duration they stuck with the show.  (10 years in Peter's case, and 12 years in Noaksy's.) 

Anyway, if you're as old as me, I thought you might enjoy seeing some pages from this one-shot collectors' issue and reliving part of your youth, when you'd get in from school, flick through the TV (which didn't take long as there were only three channels), then decide if you were going to watch Blue Peter or MAGPIE.  I seem to remember flicking between both programmes depending what was being featured at the time, but my memory might be playing tricks on me, as I'm not even sure whether they were broadcast on the same days.  Anyone know?

Update: And, below, is the Blue Peter Yearbook for 1993, which was really just a magazine and not a book at all.  It came with a free three-quarter wraparound card-mounted gift (not shown here), a Blue Peter television studio kit, similar to the one given away with the first issue of Look-In back at the start of 1971.  Like I said, I never saw any further issues in the shops so assume that it was a failed experiment.