Blue Peter - so what should the cat's name really have been?

[BoingBoing]

Anyone know? And to stop my office filtering the response, which I'm assuming is VERY rude can you come up with an inventive way of telling me without spelling it out?! It's not for me you understand, it's vital research for my colleagues

[Scootergrrrl]

I was wondering too... surely it can't be anything THAT bad!

[yaddayah]

The Times said it was an inappropriate version of puss, I can only imagine it had an extra y

[belgo]

see here news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7005053.stm

[UnquietDad]

Why didn't they want it to be called Cookie? Am I missing something? Is Cookie rude?

[Bouncingturtle]

yes, I also heard it was pussy....

[belgo]

is this another BBC cover up?

[Blandmum]

'And today we are going to take a look at our new pussy'

'And that you to everyone who looked at the pictures of pussy on the Blue Peter website....and sorry to those of you who used Google and went to another site!'

Yup, that name would have worked

What next the dogs could be Flaps and Fanjo?

[belgo]

It the name originally chosen was Pussy, why are thery saying it was Cookie?

[Blandmum]

The original name was Pussy, and they decided that it was potentially too embarasing to have the cat called 'Pussy'

I must say, I can sort of see their point

[belgo]

but where does it say Pussy? The link says the name chosen was Cookie.

[Blandmum]

Dh told me it was Pussy.....thinks is dh yanking my chain?

[belgo]

(don't quite know why I'm so bothered about this)

[stleger]

Could you vote by internet. Lots of toddlers and teenagers would choose Pussy for their own reasons...

[lovey]

Was called SOcks but should have been called Cookie

[mammaduck]

I think they should have gone for

STICKYBACKPLASTIC

or

HERESONEIMADEEARLIER

[morgansauntie]

Anybody remember Mrs Slocombe on Are You Being Served and her pussy? I remember watching it as a teenager but obviously it wasn't made for children's tv or with children in mind unlike Blue Peter, perhaps all those fans (i.e. parents) of Are You Being Served thought it would be fun to vote and they shouldn't be blaming the children. On a more serious note if this is the reason why they changed the name why didn't they just say so rather than making up another story and getting themselves into even more trouble.

[beautifuldays]

should have been pussy but they named it socks, according to bbc news

[morgansauntie]

IMO I think there may have been less fuss if they had called it pussy now the BBC has been implicated in another scandal and younger children may be asking their parents whats wrong with the name pussy while teenagers and adults have a good laugh, saying that I'm showing my age because don't think teenagers watch Blue Peter anymore.

[LadyTophamHatt]

"Whogivesashit" has quite good ring to it....

[morgansauntie]

Very well said I'm starting to think this may be a publicity stunt by the BBC or that they are trying to gain more viewers from the mistake. Apparently Blue Peter will introduce a new kitten next week called Cookie,perhaps hoping more viewers will tune in to see it.

[SueW]

This is starting to sound like a story which will pass into BBC Legends like Master Bates.

DD was hugely into this, being a cat fan and a BP fan at the time.

IIRC the children were asked to nominate names then a number were chosen from the nominations and put onto the website. I'll ask DD tomorrow but I'm sure her choice - Snowball, I think - didn't appear in the top ?ten on which viewers voted.

I wonder if bets were placed somewhere and an unusual no of internet votes placed?

About time for a return to 'Answers on a postcard please' I think.