Proof that the Blue Peter garden lives on.
But would it have been better to let it die so we could remember it as it was, rather than resurrect it like this?
The Blue Peter garden - dug up from the back of TV Centre, London and transplanted to a plot next to the tram stop at Media City, Salford. Former Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon, wearing headphones, asks some bloke: "How soon before we can go back inside/down south? It's bloody cold out/up here and nostalgia won't keep me warm. Assuming there was any. Which there isn't. Because of the wind."
Having camped it up one night in the original Blue Peter garden with lovely tentmates Stephen K Amos and Kaye Adams, I find this picture sad somehow.
But at least it reunites Richard Bacon, the second greatest* Blue Peter presenter ever and my personal favourite, with the Italian sunken garden.
But I’m sorry Richard. You can’t go back.
You just can’t go back.
Sigh.
* John Noakes of course. As if you even had to ask.
Blue Peter’s official website is here.
And what mention of Blue Peter would be complete without the third greatest Blue Peter presenter of all time – Lulu (seen here in action with John, Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves.)
(Actually, to be fair to Val, upon reflection, she has to rank above Lulu.)
Blackwatertown 
I had to check the “Blue-Peter” link to know what it is, but, fantastic…a kids show that was born the same year as I …and like the Eveready bunny…still going…
And like you, it’s wholesome and robust.
I’ll have to admit…at first glance…I did a double take to see exactly what some guy named “Purve” and his cohorts were doing to that poor little elephanant…lol
about 18 months ago, we took the girls on a Children’s tour of Television Centre. They loved playing at Dick and Dom, the Newsround type scene and the weather bit- but they didn’t ever get as excited as I was in the Blue Peter Garden…
My Top Girl got to play the CBBC cactus (I can’t remember his name) at a BBC roadshow. does it get any better than that?
Well that elephant debutant(e) was only reluctant to leave (s)he had read about Andy Warhol and was intent on maximising her/his 10min of fame. It paid off, he and it was he I discovered led the elephants in a film that I saw Jungle Book and he definitely had a baritone voice.
Typical – just the one elephant hogging all the good roles. She was such a diva. I understand (on the basis of no research at all) that Nelly the Elephant was written for her by a lovelorn suitor.
If I remember ‘The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens’ rightly, I quote it in reply to you:
“You are guilty of a terminologicl inexactitude (twice), ye lxxr loud,
Sae weel I hear you ‘guilty of a terminological inexactitude.”
So, I still maintain that that the elephant is male.
Like Sonsothunder, I had to check the Blue-Peter link to know what it was. What a delightful find – like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Elephants live a very long time, here’s hoping that Miss Lulu is still around…
I’m not sure there’s an American equivalent – though we enjoyed Sesame Street.
It is said that elephants have a good memory; wonder if Lulu will ever forget her TV appearance … all that fun. Blessings – Maxi
Though the keeper looked a bit cross with that elephant goad when he finally tugged her off.
Blue Peter passed me by somehow. I must have found it all too twee. And I never had any urge to do ingenious things with egg boxes.
You were a Magpie man then?
That was banned in our house. Too racy. Like the rest of ITV.
I’d never even heard of Magpie. Had to google it. I watched very little telly at that time (late 60s and 70s) as I didn’t possess one. I see the theme tune was played by the Spencer Davis Group, but under the pseudonym of the Murgatroyd Band so as not to destory their rock credibility!
Aha – top trivia worthy of being the landlord’s question for the accumulating pot at the end of the Sunday night pub quiz.