Series guide
Series One featured Valerie Singleton looking at six European Capital Cities. These included Rome, Paris, London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Brussels. The first programme to be filmed was the one featuring Rome and included a personal address to the children of Britain from Pope Paul VI in The Vatican.
Series Two continued to feature Singleton looking at European Cities and included Dublin, York and Madrid. Later series looked at Islands and included The Isle of Wight, The Isle of Man, Hong Kong, Malta and Venice, even though Venice had also featured in an earlier series as a 'city'. Later the show began to look at famous houses or famous individuals and included biographies of Vivaldi, The Brontë Sisters, The Duke of Wellington, Saint Therese of Lisieux, Marie Antoinette and Rudyard Kipling and both Lesley Judd and Peter Purves began presenting the series in place of Singleton.
The series in 1977 was presented jointly by Peter Purves and Lesley Judd, with the theme of 'twin towns'.
The final series was co-presented alternately by Singleton and Peter Purves, being broadcast in 1981. The series theme was 'Rivers', with Singleton examining the Yukon and Niagara, while Purves reported on the Tamar, the Tweed and the Singapore Rivers.
Spin off books were published covering the first two series.
Episodes
Blue Peter Royal Safari (1971)
Repeated Monday, 7 June 1971 at 7:20 pm and Monday, 3 April 1972 at 5:00 pm on BBC1.
Series 1: European Capitals (1973)
Valerie Singleton reports on six capital cities of Europe. Produced by Edward Barnes.
The series was repeated on BBC1 in November/December 1973 with the broadcast order changed to: Rome, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Paris, City of London, Vienna.
Series 2: European Cities (1974)
Valerie Singleton reports on five European cities. Produced by Edward Barnes.
Series 3: Islands (1975)
Valerie Singleton reports on six islands. Produced by Edward Barnes.
A repeat season was broadcast in October 1975 on BBC1, featuring the following episodes:
- Hong Kong (3 October 1975)
- Brussels (10 October 1975)
- York (17 October 1975)
- Madrid (24 October 1975)
- Amsterdam (31 October 1975)
Series 4: Great Houses (1976)
Great names of history whose houses still exist. Produced by Edward Barnes.
Series 5: Twin Towns (1977)
Peter Purves and Lesley Judd visit five different sets of twin towns. Produced by Edward Barnes.
Series 6: Biographies (1979)
Peter Purves investigates dramatic settings for the lives of six great personalities from Italy, France and England. Produced by Edward Barnes.
Series 7: Rivers (1981)
A series of five programmes produced by Edward Barnes.
The year 1969 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in 1969.
Blue Peter is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Television Centre in London until September 2011, when the programme moved to dock10 studios at MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester. It is currently shown live on the CBBC television channel on Fridays at 5 p.m. The show is also repeated on Saturdays on BBC Two, Sundays at 9:00 a.m. and a BSL version is shown on Tuesdays at 2:00 p.m.
Valerie Singleton is an English television and radio presenter best known as a regular presenter of the popular children's series Blue Peter from 1962 to 1972. She also presented the BBC Radio 4 PM programme for ten years, as well as a series of radio and television programmes on financial and business issues, including BBC's The Money Programme from 1980 to 1988.
PM, sometimes referred to as the PM programme to avoid ambiguity, is BBC Radio 4's long-running early evening news and current affairs programme. It is currently presented by Evan Davis and produced by BBC News.
Peter Duncan is an English actor and television presenter. He was a presenter of Blue Peter in the 1980s, and made a series of family travel documentaries between 1999 and 2005. He directed, produced and performed in Jack and the Beanstalk which received a national cinema release in the UK in 2020.
Susan Lawley is a retired English television and radio broadcaster. Her main broadcasting background involved television news and current affairs. From 1988 to 2006, Lawley was the presenter of Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4.
Peter Murray James,, known professionally as Pete Murray, is a British radio and television presenter and actor. He is known for his career with the BBC including stints on the Light Programme, Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 4. In the 1950s, Murray became one of Britain's first pop music television presenters, hosting the rock and roll programme Six-Five Special (1957–1958) and appearing as a regular panellist on Juke Box Jury (1959–1967). He was a recurring presence in the BBC's coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest. Murray returned to broadcasting for a Boom Radio special on Boxing Day 2021, over 70 years after his career began. He returned to the station on Boxing Day 2022 where he presented a two-hour show alongside his friend David Hamilton.
A Blue Peter badge is an award for Blue Peter viewers, given by the BBC children's television programme for those appearing on the show, or in recognition of achievement. They are awarded to children aged 5 to 15, or to adults who have been guests on the programme. Adults can also get a Gold badge if they have done something extraordinary. Approximately 22,000 are distributed annually.
Peter John Purves is an English television presenter and actor. Beginning his career as an actor, he joined Doctor Who to play Steven Taylor, a companion of the First Doctor, which he played from 1965 until 1966. In 1967, he became a presenter on the children's programme Blue Peter, where he remained for eleven years. He has continued to make regular television appearances, including coverage of the Crufts dog show.
The Daleks' Master Plan is the fourth serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner and directed by Douglas Camfield, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in twelve weekly parts from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966. It was the show's longest serial until 1986 and remains the longest with a single director. In the serial, the First Doctor and his travelling companions Steven Taylor and Katarina become embroiled in the Daleks' scheme to design the ultimate weapon. They are joined by Bret Vyon and Sara Kingdom.
Lesley Judd is an English former television presenter and dancer, best known as a long-serving host of the BBC children's programme Blue Peter (1972–1979).
Tonight is a British current affairs television programme, presented by Cliff Michelmore, that was broadcast on BBC live on weekday evenings from 18 February 1957 to 18 June 1965. The producers were the future Controller of BBC1 Donald Baverstock and the future Director-General of the BBC Alasdair Milne. The audience was typically seven million viewers.
Joan Maureen "Biddy" Baxter, MBE is a British television producer, best known for editing the long-running BBC TV children's magazine show Blue Peter from 1962 to 1988. As editor of the programme, Baxter devised much of the format that is still used today.
John Noakes was an English television presenter and actor. He co-presented the BBC children's magazine programme Blue Peter in the 1960s and 1970s and is the show's longest-serving presenter, with a tenure that lasted 12 years and six months.
Shep was a Blue Peter dog, a Border Collie. He was bought by the BBC to replace Patch, one of Petra's puppies, born in 1965. Shep became the main Blue Peter dog when Petra died in 1977. Shep debuted on Blue Peter on the 16th September 1971 and was named a week later.
The Blue Peter pets are animals that regularly appear on the long-running BBC children's television series Blue Peter. For 27 years, when not on TV, these pets were often looked after by Blue Peter's long-standing pet keeper Edith Menezes, who died in 1994. The exceptions were the dogs Petra, Shep and Goldie, who lived with Peter Purves, John Noakes and Simon Groom, respectively, for which the three presenters were paid a stipend for their upkeep.
This is a list of British television related events from 1975.
Douglas William Squires was an English choreographer, known best for his work in television from the mid-1950s. He was born in Nottingham.
Val Meets The VIPs is a UK TV series broadcast over three seasons from 1973 to 1974 on BBC1, hosted by Valerie Singleton.
