Blue Peter garden axed!

POTTY: Stars Noakes (above) and Defries (below)

By Dan Evans, 26/07/2009

BBC bosses really have lost the plot - they're chucking the Blue Peter garden on the compost heap after 35 years and replacing it with a VIRTUAL reality one.

The move - when the kids' show is shipped off from London to be filmed in Manchester - will shock generations of telly fans.

Instead of recreating the cherished green space for future generations of children, BBC chiefs are opting for a more modern computer animated lawn.

The director in charge of Blue Peter's move up north in 2011, Keith Beal, said: "We think it's time the garden moved into the future and became a virtual garden."

The scrapping of the plot is part of a plan by BBC Children's Controller Richard Deverell to re- invent the show and attract new viewers.

Fans will be able to log in to the new virtual garden online, where presenters Andy Akinwolere, Helen Skelton and Joel Defries will appear on screen to teach kids about nature.

The existing garden - first unveiled in 1974 - contains a collection of Blue Peter memorabilia, including George the tortoise who was buried there in 2004. It was also a favourite spot for presenter John Noakes and dog Shep.

Despite the rest of BBC Television Centre in West London being awarded Grade II listed status by English Heritage this month, that protection will NOT apply to the garden.

It means it may be altered by a future owner. The Beeb hopes sell off TV Centre by 2013.

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Your comments

This article has 11 comments

I love Blue Peter!
I dont know what you are all on about?
xxx

By Eve. Posted October 4 2009 at 3:33 PM.

If Richard Diverall (whatever the name) is so desperate to keep this programme going, why doesn't he reinvented the old values Blue Peter had like cookery, gardening, social citizenship, arts & crafts and wildlike. Instead of trying to modenize it? The show is rubbish today anyway. All the presenters do is talk about things like DJs and take up the odd challenge. Hopefully, someday someone like ITV will bring Magpie and reinvent the old values that Blue Peter had back in the John Noates' era. PS: Keep the Garden please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Douglas Varney . Posted September 8 2009 at 9:45 PM.

The BBC bosses should be made virtual & their salaries. Their pay should be capped, and give a little more to those that actually do work!

simply idiots.....

By boss. Posted July 26 2009 at 9:06 PM.

That's one of the most idiotic decisions ever made for Blue Peter, a virtual garden, when the programme does it's best to teach kids about Ecology. Kind of like do as we tell you, not as we do.

By Darren M Gomes. Posted July 26 2009 at 4:13 PM.

Did the BBC director really say:

"We thinks it's time the Blue Peter garden moved into the future and became a virtual one"

That's bonkers! Who's going to eat virtual carrots ?

By Alesha. Posted July 26 2009 at 4:18 PM.

The BBC is right to move certain sections to Manchester to make them less Londoncentric. Also some people dont seem to realise that the BBC will remain in London but at a different site.

As for the garden who cares, no child watches blue peter over the age of 10.

By Mark Davies. Posted July 26 2009 at 2:07 PM.

Blue Peter has really lost its way in recent years, and the current line up of presenters really lets it down apart from Andy. The garden has not been used for quite sometime, in fact BBC Breakfast use it more for the weather presentations other than Blue Peter. The move to Manchester by many programme will be the death of them and especially Blue Peter, why does the BBC keep changing studio complexes and demolish them. They are wasting money...

By Tony Neil Morris. Posted July 26 2009 at 9:48 AM.

Surely BP should be looking at ways to introduce healthy living to our youngsters by encouraging them to grow fresh vegetables in their garden, not feeding their virtual reality habit that is killing off conversation and friendships

By sue. Posted July 26 2009 at 9:15 AM.

i am affraid this is typical BBC running rough shot over it's viewers. Selling the BBC centre in london and moving to a cheaper city up north also is unfair as we all have to pay an unjust and over priced licence fee for what? over paid minor celebrities and programs which are totally rubbish. If the BBC were to be investigated by the monopolies comission then we will have a proper insite to their business deals. Make the BBC an independent company like ITV/CHANNEL4 &5 and then see if they can complete on a fair basis. Lets hope the BP garden is looked after by the BBC and preserved by them as a natural treasure. Keep TV real not computerised and let the children of today see the world in real time and reality.

By Robert. Posted July 26 2009 at 8:48 AM.

What will happen to the bust of Petra, the first Blue Peter dog, that has graced the B.P. garden for so many years? What of the remaining B.P. time capsule, (buried 2000, due to be exhumed 2029) ? Will it be dug up before the move? Everyone of my generation, thirties +, can remember where they were and what they were doing when news broke that the B.P Italian Sunken Garden, (as it was then called), had been vandalised, (circa 1979). Bloody developers! Let's hope the ghost of George the tortoise, (also burried on that sacred turf), comes back and bites them! Why give today's children a
second hand impression of the natural world via a computer screen, when the real thing is available to them if only they dare venture beyond the other side of their front door.

By Ai Laoshi. Posted July 26 2009 at 5:00 AM.

It's a shame the rest of the programme hasn't been allowed to day a natural death altogether. BP had it's day a long, long time ago!

By Blink. Posted July 26 2009 at 1:53 AM.

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