Blue Peter, One of the BBC's best-loved shows...and I might be on it! Options

[Phil the Valiant]

Blue Peter has been going strong for 51 years, so now's the time for those forum members living in the UK to share memories of the past and present. Who has been your favourite presenter or pet? Did you participate in a Bring and Buy Sale for an Appeal? And did you write in and get a Blue Peter Badge?

I wrote in a few weeks back, about my autism. This is what I wrote, minor spelling mistakes and all:

Dear Blue Peter,
I have been enthralled by your programming since 1992, the earliest I
can remember. This would probably make me the oldest of your viewing
audience recently (21 in August), so I hope the viewers won't mind me
having a say-in. While you have covered information and stories about
various disabilities, I for one haven't seen any about autism and
Asperger's Syndrome. Although it has been ages since I last saw Blue
Peter (the year 2001 was the last I saw), your recent book "Dear Blue
Peter" got me inspired to write to you.

I am a young adult with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, that
I've been diagnosed with since I was two years old. It wasn't until I
was three that I managed to speak out for myself, yet I always remained
somewhat shy at playschool and in Primary School. My Primary School
didn't have special needs rooms for people with autism or any other
mental disabilities, so I was constantly bullied by others because of
the way I behaved. "Blue Peter" kept me going on Mondays, Wednesdays and
Fridays, and even items such as 'Children in Need' and 'Comic Relief'
inspired me to raise money with my friends at school, by telling jokes.

When it came to High School, I thought it was the worst years of my
life. The bullying didn't stop, and things around me got so bad that I
constantly lashed out at people, parents and students. I even developed
a skin condition called psoraiasis. The High School I went to, despite
having a special needs room, didn't know anything about autism. However,
through that period, I learnt all about autism, and why I was behaving
so boisterously: even my friends eventually found out, even if they were
constantly apologising! Eventually, my parents found me a Middle School
in Redditch that had a special needs room, BUT knew all about autism,
and that's when my life changed. I made new friends who were all in the
same boat as I was, and the teachers were all very nice and caring.

I kept on going: I transitioned into a High School, Kingsley College,
where everyone knew about me, and started to like me even more. I was
never bullied at that school, and I began to join clubs and help the
school become a much better place. I was the only autistic member of our
Student Council, and some of my ideas became reality. I won an award for
outstanding achievement in two consecutive Awards Nights. When I
graduated to Year 12, I was the very first person in the special needs
room to do so. My teacher was very proud. But the biggest
day was to come. I was nominated by the staff and became the first
person to win a Princess Diana Memorial Award for Outstanding
Achievement. My parents and I had our picture taken in two local
newspapers! Afterwards, Jacqui Smith, before she became a Member of
Parliament, invited me to talk about my autism at a big conference in
Worcester University. I was real nervous, but my teacher helped me to
rehearse and get ready. Now I know what it's like to speak to a big audience....like a BP
Presenter! Everyone clapped, even as I showed them my Princess Diana Award.

Coming back to my point, it would be interesting and ideal for other
viewers to learn about my condition, because it's not as painful or as
horrid to live with as they might think. I've learnt about cystic
fribrosis and meningitis in the past through Blue Peter, and so I think
it's time for the children of today to find out about autism. They may
even have friends with autism or Asperger's Syndrome that they might
relate with when they see the item on the television. With the Autistic
Bill currently passing through Parliament, I think it would be an
interesting, topical programme.

I think I might be a bit too old for a Blue Peter Badge, but I hope you
like my idea and will consider it for your show.

And just today, this is their reply:

Thank you for your email.
The Blue Peter Office receives a large number of interesting ideas and
suggestions every day and unfortunately it's not possible to follow up
every one of them. We have however, passed your email onto our Forward
Planning team who will be in touch if they would like to take your idea
further.
With best wishes from all of us at Blue Peter.

So, I may or may not actually BE on Blue Peter, but stay tuned for further updates. In the meantime, here's one [topic] I prepared earlier!

[mightymarty2]

ok, i remember that program, even used to watch it. Congratulations.....potentially

[Phil the Valiant]

Cool! Which presenters did you like? I liked the mid-1990s group of Katy Hill, Stuart Miles, Richard Baker [before he betrayed us] and Konnie Huq. Mabel the dog was cute, as well as Bonnie.

Thank you for the kind words. I'm not using my autism to my advantage here, you understand, but I'm just trying to educate other viewers further to our disability.

[P-girl]

Sounds cool! I don't really know the 'Blue Peter' television program, but after a quick Wiki-search, I'd figure it's comparible to the Dutch program 'Het klokhuis'.... which has been my favorite tv-program for quite a while, congratz!

[Phil the Valiant]

Woah! There's programes like 'Blue Peter' around the world? COOL!

Thanks for the kind words!

[mightymarty2]

konnie

[Phil the Valiant]

Ah! No, there WAS a dog named Bonnie: a golden labrador who was famous for having puppies. And Konnie's full name IS Konnie Huq. Already, we're starting to miss her, after she left Blue Peter.

Mabel is still alive, thank goodness, yet George the Tortoise passed away earlier this century, sadly.

[mightymarty2]

yep, but i was to lazy to type her surname. i didn't know that george was dead i stopped watching a while ago

[Phil the Valiant]

So did I, but I read this book called 'Dear Blue Peter' that came out last year, and I found out from there about what happened to the old cast. It's what inspired me to write to Blue Peter.

George died around 2003. I kinda liked the ol' tortoise: how, every year, the BP presenters made his hibernation box and showed us George being put into it and in the Spring showing us George waking up and eating the flowers in the Blue Peter Garden. So sad.

[mightymarty2]

yep

[Phil the Valiant]

Did any of the Blue Peter Appeals move you? I remember breaking down when I watched items on the cystic fribosis Appeal and the Mozambique Appeal.

[mightymarty2]

yes and no

[Phil the Valiant]

I see. When I was in Primary School, we never had a Bring and Buy Sale, and I really wanted to raise some money to help out...yet sadly I could never get enough people to help out.

[mightymarty2]

we never did either and on the blue peter badge one you could potentially get one as older people than you have got one

[Phil the Valiant]

Really? Cool! Of course, that means I can get into many attractions across the United Kingdom for free! [Do I get my check now, Auntie Beeb?]

[Another Morning]

That's really awesome, both writing in to the show and all the things you talked about in your letter! ^^ I hope things get worked out so that they can feature your topic on the show. Congrats for speaking up!

[Phil the Valiant]

Why, thank you very much! I'm crossing my fingers that the BBC will allow me to broadcast my item for thousands of British kids to learn about.