History Trivia / BluePeter

* ReferencedBy: In ''Literature/IThinkILoveYou'', Petra's classmates make barking noises every morning during roll call because she shares a name with one of the show's dogs.

* ExecutiveVeto: Prior to producer Biddy Baxter, the show had featured up-and-coming musical groups in music slots. However, Baxter was against having musical acts on an educational programme and cancelled scheduled appearances by two quite popular new bands of the time - Music/TheBeatles and Music/TheRollingStones. No musical group ever again appeared on BP until the very late 1990's and Baxter's retirement, when Steps became the house-band for ''Blue Peter''.

* UnderminedByReality: Richard Bacon's drug-related sacking.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor:
** Subverted with Richard Bacon, who was dismissed for doing cocaine. He has since done a lot of other, grown-up television since getting kicked off the show, even on the BBC itself, and was forgiven by the ''Blue Peter'' crew at the show's 60th anniversary party in 2018.
** Averted with Peter Duncan, whose appearance in a soft porn movie was revealed soon after he joined the series, but Creator/TheBBC stood by him and he remained on the show for several years.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Biddy Baxter, who saw the BBC's role (and by extension ''Blue Peter'') as an organization appointed to inform and to educate, at the expense of entertainment (see ExecutiveVeto) Baxter's essentially benign, but still authoritarian, management of BP is said to be the biggest single reason why BP has lasted so long - it is viewed as an old-time quality product. It has been frequently commented on as to how "standards appear to have slipped" since Baxter gave up the reins.

* UnderminedByReality: Richard Bacon's drug-related sacking.

** Subverted with Richard Bacon, who was dismissed for doing cocaine. He has since done a lot of other, grown-up television since getting kicked off the show, even on the BBC itself.

* ContractualPurity - Very much the case here, at least while you're actually on the show. Presenters are required to present a "clean and wholesome" image at all times. This means no smoking, no drugs and certainly no being a PageThreeStunna.

** Even in the morally less hung-up eighties, a female presenter was forced out when it was revealed she was having a baby but not married.

** Subverted with Peter Duncan, whose appearance in a soft porn movie was revealed soon after he joined the series, but Creator/TheBBC stood by him and he remained on the show for several years.

** The very first presenter, Peter Trace, was sacked - for adultery - in 1959.
** A previous presenter's tenure was cut very short when tabloids revealed he'd not only been in porn, it was ''gay'' porn. This was compounded by his having, briefly, been a rent boy. BP takes it ''very'' seriously that its presenters should be morally upstanding and squeaky-clean.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanour:

* RoleEndingMisdeamnor:

* ExecutiveMeddling: Biddy Baxter, who saw the BBC's role (and by extension ''Blue Peter'') as an organization appointed to inform and to educate, at the expense of entertainment (see ExecutiveVeto) Baxter's essentially benign, but still authoritarian, management of BP is said to be the biggest single reason why BP has lasted so long - it is viewed as an old-time quality product. It has been frequently commented on as to how "standards appear to have slipped" since Baxter gave up the reins.

* ExecutiveVeto: Prior to producer Biddy Baxter, the show had featured up-and-coming musical groups in music slots. However, Baxter was against having musical acts on an educational programme and cancelled scheduled appearances by two quite popular new bands of the time - the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. No musical group ever again appeared on BP until the very late 1990's and Baxter's retirement, when Steps became the house-band for ''Blue Peter''.