Dear Blue Peter...: The Best of 50 Years of Letters to Britain's Favourite Children's Programme 1958-2008 [Hardcover]

I bought this for my mother for her 63rd birthday and she hasn't stopped reading it. This compilation is a tiny fraction of the letters received by the world's longest running children's television programme (up to a staggering 1,000 EACH DAY at one point) and is by turns charming, hilarious and, sometimes, heart-breakingly moving.

Although there are some letters by parents and older viewers, it is the youngsters who dispense devastating honesty and irresisitible logic through this brilliant collection. You can also admire their shaky spelling and handwriting as the book produces some of the letters as is. Replies from legendary programme editor Biddy Baxter and the presenters are also included.

As well as the letters you can also enjoy lots of anecdotes about the show and there's also a foreword by Ewan McGregor.

I can't imagine anyone who had Blue Peter as part of their own (or their offspring's) childhood failing to be engaged by this lovely book. It almost makes you want to go off and make an advent crown!

I wonder if there has ever been a TV series for children anywhere in the world to match the success of the BBC's Blue Peter, which has now been going for more than half a century. This book, put together by Biddy Baxter, is a fitting tribute to the series. The series actually started in 1958 and I'm not absolutely clear if letters were a feature from the beginning, or whether (as seems likely) Biddy, the Blue Peter producer from 1962 to 1988, decided to make them a feature of the series. Whether it was her idea or not, the fact remains that in the days when the Royal Mail was the only way for most people to communicate thoughts in writing, Blue Peter became interactive. Letters from viewers were an important feature of the series and they are even more important in this book, which gathers a selection of them to use as a means of looking back at the first half-century of the series. Biddy explains in her introduction that she learned a hard lesson as a child, when as a child she wrote two letters to her then-hero Enid Blyton and received the same reply on both occasions. So in her time as Blue Peter producer, she set up an elaborate system that indexed all letters, ensuring that people who sent in more than one letter were remembered. The absence of canned responses brought its rewards in the end and no doubt ensured the longevity of the series.

Biddy does not give us a comprehensive history of Blue Peter (or even come close), but captures the essence of the series and what it meant and still means to the British public. So it is an affectionate tribute rather than anything else, but some controversial issues are included. I was once a regular viewer, in the days when all televisions transmitted pictures in black and white, but I don't remember any detail, only the generalities and the two presenters and dog who were the stars in those days. In fact, my memory is even hazier than I thought, because I don't remember either of the two female presenters that preceded Valerie Singleton. Christopher Trace, the other presenter that I remember from my days as a regular viewer, was there from the beginning. Given that I was able to watch TV in 1958, I probably saw Leila Williams and Anita West present the series, but even this book (which includes a 1959 picture of Leila with Christopher) doesn't jog my memory of them.

The book's chapters focus on different aspects of the series - badges, presenters, pets, criticism, babies, makes (all the things that the presenters taught the viewers how to make at home), appeals (for good causes), news headlines, competitions and PS. Of courses, some of these categories overlap; critical correspondence is not limited to the chapter on it. The appendices at the back list all the pets and presenters as well as the appeals targets and results.

The pets chapter inevitably has much about Petra, who was extremely popular with viewers but not with professional dog breeders. They were upset that so much prominence was given to a mongrel (Petra was an Alsatian cross), rather than a pedigree breed. Towards the end of Petra's life, she was diagnosed with diabetes and this became big new. A diabetic child wrote in with an invitation for Petra to a party for diabetic children and Blue Peter accepted the invitation. Nice touch, and while they obviously get far more requests and invitations than they can accept, this one showed that they picked good ones.

If you are or were a regular Blue Peter viewer, this book will amuse you while jogging the memory at least a little. Perhaps sociologists might also find it interesting as a study topic. I'm not sure who else would be interested, but as just about every Brit under 60 (and maybe quite a few over that age) watches or used to watch the series, that's still a huge potential market. Biddy Baxter did a great job as Blue Peter producer and now she's done a great job in putting this book together.

As someone who worked alongside Biddy Baxter on Blue Peter I can vouch for the authenticity of this book. It is an accurate reflection of the empathy between Biddy and the millions of children who loved the programme.

Their letters not only provided the raw material for 90% of the programme's content, but are an example of the feeling of belonging and ownership that children felt for Blue Peter.

I loved the facimilies of the letters produced in the book, which sometimes provoked a smile, at other times a belly laugh and occaisionly a tear.