Did you get a Blue Peter badge? Do tell - fame and fortune await (well, possibly)

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello. Some very nice folks at the Beeb have been in touch with us because they're making a programme to mark the 50th anniversary of the Blue Peter badge next year.

And they really want to talk to some people who won a Blue Peter badge when they were young(er).

So, were/are you the proud owner of Blue Peter badge? What kind was it? What did you get it for? And did getting the badge inspire you to bigger and better things?

Do please post your Blue-Peter-badge tales on this thread.

The BBC folk will be watching, and they may ask us to contact some of you to see if you'd be interested in taking part in their programme. (Obviously, you'd be quite free to say no, if you didn't want to.)

Thanks, MNHQ

[LadyWellian]

I've got a little round white one with a blue ship that says 'Blue Peter Competition Winner' round it. I got it for writing a limerick some time in the late 1970s. I can't remember how it went, except the first line probably had 'Blue Peter' in it as I seem to remember the last line being something about a cat ending up under the heater. I also got a signed photo of Simon Groom and Goldie. I never used it to get in anywhere as I was never quite sure it was the right kind to get you into places, and I couldn't have dealt with the humiliation if it wasn't.

DH has a blue shield-shaped one with a silver ship that he got for writing in (in the late 1960s) saying he and his sister had probably the youngest pop band in the world (though I don't think it involved any actual instruments) and could they come on the show (no). I had no idea it was so easy to get one of the shield-shaped ones - I always assumed they were for real feats of specialness.

[LottieJenkins]

I didnt get one but my dad did. Sadly i dont know what happened to it. In 1984 Dad did a charity gypsy caravan drive from Suffolk to Epsom via two London Breweries (who had drays) and The Royal Mews. The Gypsy Caravan and Horse (not Dad) appeared on BP with Janet Ellis and Simon Groome.

[MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic]

I didn't but my younger sister did. Her and her primary school class performed on the programme sometime in the early 80's (playing instruments and singing I think, might have been a Christmas thing?). She had a signed photo as well iirc, but I've no idea if she still has them!

[reastie]

I have two [proud] . A white one and a green one. I got the green one for writing in to blue peter and giving them an idea to do on their program for homemade bird food. I actually can't remember how or why I got the white one , but I was very very proud of them OK, I still am . I remember getting into some tourist attractions discounted or free when I was younger with them (do they still get you in to places?). I've still got them

[Takver]

I got one :) For writing a letter in to the programme - I think with a poem and picture complaining that there was no Blue Peter on when Wimbledon was running. I gave it away to my best friend who was moving away and then regretted it ever after

DD also has one - she was actually on the programme when we lived in a housing co-op and two of the children there were featured in the 'Being Me' segment (identical twins, hence why two of them). She was only about 5 at the time though so I don't think she appreciated the honour!

I also used to have a card from Playaway (? think that was the programme name, would have been early 70s) signed by all the toys - I wonder whether my parents still have it tucked away somewhere . . .

[PoohBearsHole]

Taker I had one of those, yes play away with duh der derrrrr Jeremy Irons!!!

[catsrus]

I got one - it must have been mid 60's - I entered a competition in the back of the BP annual - I got one every Christmas and remember it was a huge deal to tear out a page from it for the competition (no photocopiers in those days), Maybe they just gave a badge to everyone brave enough to desecrate their precious annual .

I was very upset when Christopher Trace left and it took me a good while to get used to Peter Purves the interloper. I thought Valerie Singleton was totally wonderful and I wanted to be her - not because she was on TV but because she got to do such interesting things and was surrounded by animals . The BP pets really were surrogate pets for me, my mother didn't much like animals so I had to make do with a budgie and the odd newt which always escaped from the jar . I was devastated when Petra died . One day when offspring have all left home and no longer have a vote on these matters I will have a dog called Shep, just so I can say "down Shep" and smile at the memory of a totally out-of-control Shep and a desperate-looking John Noakes.

Am now smiling at the memory of him jumping out of a plane to do a Sky dive . Oh, and the infamous poo-ing elephant, and PP being very embarrassed when John got all soppy when PP was leaving the show - priceless!

I have never got over obsessively saving loo roll insides and plastic bottles just incase I need them to make something one day. Luckily I have a very artistic friend who does make wonderful things with them because my dds think my home made bird feeders make the garden look naff .

I had hoped the long lost badge would surface when my parent's house was cleared out - but no luck

[LivingInAGoldBubble]

I got one in the late eighties, it was green with a white ship which I vaguely recall was an environmental badge. I sent them a story about a gnome who looked after animals, and some treats for the dog at the time. I loved my badge.

[greenapples]

I got one for a drawing I did in the mystery objects competition. It was a round white one. I was quite disappointed really (I was only 10), I thought it would be shield shaped like the presenters wore.
On the plus side, Portsmouth Dockyard Museum were pleased that I got a badge from their mystery object... And sent a load of goodies too!
I used it for quite a few years to get in places like Wookey Hole.
Was there ever an age limit on it?

[BillComptonstrousers]

My husband has one he did a tandem bike ride from Oxford to Bristol with his dad for charity. I think his mum still has the episode on a VHS tape somewhere

[StrangeGlue]

I had three blue peter badges! The normal one, the green one and the silver one. The silver one has gone missing but I still have the normal one and green one. The normal one was for a poem, the green one for a save the seals poster. I also have the letters they sent me, the booklet of places they got you into reduced and all in the envelop they sent them in (which is marked as "recycled paper')

[StrangeGlue]

Mine are shield shaped greenapples they gipped you!

[fluffywhitekittens]

Yes, I got one in must have been 1984 as I wrote in after seeing the Ethiopian famine on the news asking if BP would raise money for that year's appeal. I still have the letter and envelope somewhere. Sadly my oh so trendy habit of wearing many badges on my denim jacket in sixth form meant that the badge disappeared during the early 90s :(
I am still deeply traumatised that I lost it so if any of you Blue Peter lt are reading this could I possibly have a replacement? Pretty please.

[LeeCoakley]

I got mine like catsrus. It was a competition in the BP Annual to find as many words as you could from 'Blue Peter'. Possibly they sent badges to everyone who entered but I told my friends that I'd won with the most words. Liar.

[PlentyOfPubeGardens]

I never got one. I did once pretend I had one after a few gins to impress somebody at a party.

I had a poem read out on Tony Blackburn's 30 second theatre and won a load of radio 1 goodies.

[Jellykat]

Yes, i won one when i was 7, for a 'design a dress for Val competition', unfortunately i lost it years ago - Well it was a looong time ago!..
but i do still have the accompanying letter from Biddy Baxter dated 1970 and did go on to do a degree in Fashion and Textiles many years later.

[TheLazyGirl]

Yep I got a Green one, when John Leslie, Diane Louise Jordan and Yvette Fielding were the presenters (so around 1990?1991?) I got their autograph and a nice letter too. I think it was printed on the inside front cover of one of the annuals.

It was for a poem, I was at Primary School. It was called "Save the World"
I can remember how it went but it was disgracefully bad and embarrassing.

I know my Mum has my badge somewhere, and I did used to feel very impressive going to the front of Museums and getting in for nothing. The Science Museum even gave me a free programme.

Would love to take part!

[KateF]

I never got one but dd2 has- for a drawing of Barney the dog and writing a letter about her dyslexia and her experience of bullying.

[Bicnod]

I got two a normal one and a green one.

The normal one was for writing a letter about lambing when I was about 10 I think. I had gone up to the local farm during lambing season and helped deliver a lamb - an experience which I described in graphic detail (and I mean graphic - those poor researchers or whoever read the letters )

The green one was for setting up a club when I was about 8, imaginatively named 'The Green Gang'. The club was made up of me, the girl next door, my little sister (when she wasn't being annoying) and a couple of other kids up the road. Our mission was to save the world and we did this by producing a newsletter which my Dad photocopied at work, lucky Dad. Said newsletter was distributed to all the neighbours (lucky neighbours) and was basically preaching to them about the importance of being green (can't quite remember what being green consisted of at that point in my life, but I was very earnest about it).

I went on to work in the international development sector, continuing my quest to 'save the world'. My parents find it hilarious to remind me of the reams and reams of paper wasted as a direct result of my saving the world age 8. My Dad even mentioned 'The Green Gang' in his speech at my wedding - don't think he mentioned the Blue Peter badge though.

[CaseyShraeger]

Like GiraffesMum I got a runners-up badge for the Train of the Future competition. It was going to be the last competition I was eligible to enter so I went all-out in my attempts to finally secure a badge.

[sillymillyb]

I have one too! The white one with a blue ship on.

I seem to recall writing a letter in about my parents fostering and my role as goody two shoes welcomer to the children, and how I tried to make them feel at home etc.

My mum still fosters, maybe I should write in again and see if I can get another one?!

[RubyCreakingGates]

I had a round blue and white one, from the early 70's. I think I had a recipe published in their cookbook competition.

[MirandaGoshawk]

I got one! The white shield-shaped one with the blue ship on it. They got four labrador puppies and named them Val, John & Peter and had a competition to name the fourth one. My mum I came up with 'Biddy' because Biddy Baxter was the producer and it won!

But I think there were probably about 93 million people who suggested 'Biddy' and got badges. But my mates didn't know that! Not sure of the year, but maybe about 1975 or a bit before.

[Wigeon]

I did too! I'm sure I've still got it somewhere too. It was a green one, because my class at school wrote poems about recycling and sent them in. I think we all got a badge. I was very pleased and still am. I can still remember roughly what the poem looked like - I did an ever-so-original design round the edge with the letters R E C Y C L E in a circle with arrows between the letters. I seem to remember you got discounts off entry to places like London Zoo with it.

I remember my teacher was Mrs Bridgeman, I was about 9 or 10, so this was about 1988 / 89, in the days of Mark Curry, Caron Keating and Yvette Fielding.

Looking at this list of all Blue Peter presenters it seems that Mark Curry stood down as a presenter on my tenth birthday!

I used to watch it every week, after Newsround with John Craven. I liked the garden, and the pets, and the making-things, and the performances of dance / singing etc, and the daring deeds they did (like jump out of an aeroplane), and the Blue Peter appeals with the totaliser, and the bring and buy sales, and the campaigns about things like acid rain and CFCs and the ozone layer (what happened to acid rain?!).

According to Wikipedia, they only introduced the green badge in Nov 1988, so I must have got mine in the first few months.

[jamaisjedors]

I've got one. Must have been in the early 80s.

I wrote in to ask for the instructions to make something (as seen on TV) and then the page looked a bit empty so I added a load of blablabla about me and my cat and dog etc etc.

It turned into a 2 page letter and I was totally at getting a badge back from them (white with a blue ship).

I was proud of it but felt secretly guilty (over-riding emotion in my life!) because I felt a bit of a fraud and thought I didn't deserve it.