Long-running children's factual magazine programme

Like many long running TV programmes, Blue Peter has a very simple format. It is essentially a variety of factual items placed together in one programme. These items cover a very wide range of subjects and fields of knowledge from history and geography, to cooking and reading. Blue Peter is also famous for showing children how to make things using things they would find around the house. Since it would take too long for an entire item to be made live on the show, ready-made versions would be used, to show the viewers what the completed item should like. This gave rise to the programme's famous catchphrase: "Here's one I made earlier!".

Blue Peter is also famous for its Blue Peter Appeals. These are fundraising events for charity. Viewers are asked to send in items such as old toys, books and aluminium cans, that will be turned into money for charity. Each Blue Peter Appeal has its own "totaliser", a device that displays how many of the required items have been sent in, and how many more needed in order to reach the target. On many occasions, the targets have been exceeded, and the totalisers have needed to be modified to accommodate the new totals.

Blue Peter has always encouraged children to be active in participation in the programme. It often runs competitions for things such as stories, poems and pieces of artwork. Competition winners always get a Blue Peter competition badge.

On top of this, Blue Peter badges are awarded to children under 16 for specific achievements. The standard Blue badge features a blue ship on a white background. This is given to anyone who appears on the programme, and is awarded for interesting letters, stories, poems, etc. The Silver badge (silver ship on a blue background), is awarded in the same way as the Blue badge, but to people who already have a Blue badge. The Green badge (white on green) is given for letters or pictures that have an environmental or conservational theme. Finally, the Gold badge (a badge in the shape of a ship with no background) is given for outstanding and exceptional achievements, such as saving a person's life.

Blue Peter started on the BBC in 1958 and is still running today. It was invented by John Hunter Blair, and the first presenters were Christopher Trace and Leila Williams. Tony Hart was also present, and told stories and drew illustrations for them. The famous Blue Peter logo was designed by Tony Hart.

When Blue Peter started, each programme was only 15 minutes long, and the programme was shown once a week. In 1962, the programme was extended to 30 minutes and was shown twice a week. In 1995, the programme was extended to three weekly episodes. This format continues today on BBC One, but the CBBC channel now shows Blue Peter every weekday. The programme is shown all year round, except for a few weeks each summer, when the presenters go on a "Summer Expedition" to another country to films special items abroad.

Blue Peter now has five presenters: Konnie Huq, Matt Baker, Liz Barker, Zoe Salmon and Gethin Jones, who is the 31st Blue Peter presenter.

A Blue Peter is a blue flag with a white square in the centre. It is raised by a ship that is about to set off on a journey. The programme was so named to suggest that viewers would also be taken in a voyage of discovery when they watch.

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Blue Peter Annual 2007 (Book)