The A-Z of Blue Peter

A is for alcopops. In perhaps the first Blue Peter scandal, one of the two original presenters, Christopher Trace, showed how to make an alcoholic version of ginger beer. And so was born the show's first catchphrase: "Here's one I drank already. You're my best mate. No, really, you are..."

A is for alcopops. In perhaps the first Blue Peter scandal, one of the two original presenters, Christopher Trace, showed how to make an alcoholic version of ginger beer. And so was born the show's first catchphrase: "Here's one I drank already. You're my best mate. No, really, you are..."

B is for badge. Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and Madonna (see M) are among the proud owners of a Blue Peter Badge though, frankly, you don't see them wearing them much. David Beckham will receive his on Monday when he appears on the programme's 4,000th show. Confusingly, the Blue Peter badge is in fact five badges: blue (for writing an interesting letter or appearing on the show); silver (for swots who already have blue); gold (must do something miraculous like save life); green (must help save planet) and competition winners. To win one you must be under 16, unless you are a celebrity. Make of that what you will.

C is for cocaine. Any fair-weather Blue Peter fan knows the show's lowest moment came in 1999 when the presenter Richard Bacon was forced to resign after being exposed by the News of the World for taking cocaine. But astute readers of the 1998 Blue Peter annual may have realised there was something in the wind. Features included "Blue Peter in the snow" (Stuart Miles does the Cresta Run); "Racing the Dragon" (a guide to the traditional Chinese rowing competition) and "Stone me!" (Stuart Miles becomes a human statue). But the real giveaway was surely "Pot It!", in which Bacon himself explained how to nurture indoor plants.

D is for dog food. When John Noakes left the show he was forbidden from taking Shep with him because BBC bosses were afraid he would try to make money from dog-food commercials. In the end, the Yorkshireman simply found a Shep-alike and did them anyway. Noakes' tears for the late Shep on Parkinson showed that affection for his pedigree chum was never just commercial.

E is for eBay. The British public may profess dewy-eyed nostalgia about the Blue Peter of its collective childhood, but it is not averse to making a quick buck given the chance. At the time of writing, the auction website had 224 Blue Peter-related items including a mint Blue Peter badge (highest bid £41 - part of its value derives from the fact it gives free entrance to numerous attractions) and the dress that the singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor - daughter of former presenter Janet Ellis - wore to one of the show's parties, a snip at £500.

F is for fashion moment. The 1987 Blue Peter annual advised that "100g pack of stockingette roll, from a supermarket or car-care shop, costs under £1 and makes a snood or scarf." Can a revival be far away? Meanwhile, in 1988 - the year that Michael Douglas played Gordon "Greed is good" Gekko in Wall Street - junior yuppies were shown how to make a Blue Peter personal organiser.

G is for George the tortoise. When George died last year, aged 83, Blue Peter editor Richard Marson told reporters that "requests for his photo card have often exceeded some presenters". (You know who you are, Mark Curry.) What Marson failed to explain was why they didn't simply replace him with a look-alike (see L). George had "worked" for the show since 1982 and highlights included escaping after burglars left his hutch open, being stepped on by Mark Curry on the presenter's first day and urinating over the athlete Kris Akabusi. It has been said that George was not the quickest member of the Blue Peter team, but we're not so sure.

H is for Heston, Charlton. Before Blue Peter, Christopher Trace's claim to fame was appearing as the Hollywood hardman's body double in the sword-and-sandals epic Ben Hur. Less heroically, the former army officer left the show when his wife divorced him for having an affair with a woman named Tuna during a Blue Peter summer expedition to Norway. Heston went on to make The Ten Commandments and Planet of the Apes; Trace, by contrast, was destined to present BBC Radio Norfolk's breakfast show, a distinction shared by the fictional Alan Partridge.

I is for innocent. How else would you describe the feature in which Tina Heath, Isla St Clair, Sarah Greene and Maggie Philbin stripped off to present a history of ladies' underwear?

J is for Jordan. Not that one, but Diane-Louise Jordan, the show's first black presenter. She admitted lying about being a Christian when she went on to present Songs of Praise. Her subsequent conversion proves God really does work in mysterious ways.

K is for knockers. Hundreds of internet hours have been devoted to finding supposed innuendo in children's programmes. But the look on Simon Groom's face during the infamous "knockers" exchange leaves no room for doubt.

The knockers in question had been recently restored at York Minster, and the role of (relative) straight man was played by fellow-presenter Christopher Wenner, who told viewers: "Why not go along to the cathedral and see if you can't have a look at the knockers side by side". Cut to Groom (leering to camera): "Mmmm, what a beautiful pair of knockers."

In penance, perhaps, Groom went on to make a documentary about the film-maker Ken Russell, while Wenner became a foreign correspondent, who in the mid-1980s disappeared for 18 days in Beirut and was later beaten up by a group of militant Serbs while reporting for Channel 4.

L is for look-alike. The original Blue Peter dog, Petra, died of distemper two days after being wrapped in Christmas paper and introduced to the viewers. The producers simply replaced her and said nothing.

M is for Madonna. When Mrs Ritchie appeared on the show in January to promote her children's book The Adventures of Abdi, she was told she could go filming with the Blue Peter team whenever she liked. "Do you ever go shopping for shoes?" she replied. M is also for the ITV show Magpie, but we don't talk about that.

N is for Noakes - the man who came down Nelson's column on his backside, the man who climbed the Cresta Run (or was it the other way round?) but above all the man who has made a second career complaining about the world of children's TV. "Given my time again I wouldn't have done Blue Peter," he said. "The pressure was terrible. One year I did nine weeks with only one-and-a-half days off. I collapsed on the floor and couldn't go on. That's the nearest I came to a breakdown." (See also Q).

O is for OAPs. After regrouping for the programme's 40th anniversary in 1998, Valerie Singleton, Peter Purves and John Noakes floated the idea of a Blue Peter aimed at pensioners. "When we did it first time round, we helped give a lot of bored children ideas of what to do," Noakes said. "[Now] I see a lot of middle-aged people retiring early who never did anything but work and really don't know how to fill the time." Laugh if you like, but some people said that Saga Magazine would never succeed.

P is for perks of the job. John Leslie is said to have kept a collection of Blue Peter badges in the glove box of his car with which to bribe traffic cops. Well who wouldn't?

Q is for queens. The Queen has a Blue Peter badge. Original presenter Leila Williams was a former beauty queen as is the current team's Zoe Salmon (see U). But the show's real figurehead is its formidable producer Biddy Baxter. Baxter didn't, as is commonly believed, invent Blue Peter - credit for that goes to John Hunter Blair, a man so dedicated to his creation that he died watching it. But between 1962 and 1968, she introduced most of the elements that are still recognisable today such as the collecting appeals, studio animals, daredevil stunts and badges. By 1967, she had also brought together the definitive Blue Peter team of Peter Purves, Valerie Singleton and John Noakes. Not that Noakes seemed particularly grateful: "Biddy Baxter was an awful woman," he told one interviewer. Baxter finally left the show in 1988, and is now on the council of David Bellamy's environmental charity, The Conservation Foundation.

R is for royalties, of the other kind. When the artist Tony Hart first drew the show's galleon logo, the BBC paid him a flat fee of £100. Had they agreed to his original request - a penny for each time his design was used -- he'd never have had to keep running that gallery with Morph.

S is for sticky-backed plastic. Buying shares in it in 1962 must have been like getting in early on Microsoft stock.

Tis for Tracey Island. Building the Thunderbirds model was Anthea Turner's finest moment. Instructions are still available on the BBC website. T is also for Top Dogs magazine, which Peter Purves went on to edit.

Uis for Ulster, red hand of. In January the producers were forced to apologise after Blue Peter new girl Zoe Salmon suggested the red hand of Ulster represented the best of British. The symbol is a favourite of loyalist paramilitaries. Salmon - who comes from Northern Ireland - compounded her gaffe the following week by selecting a child's drawing that showed the Irish republic covered by the Union flag.

Vis for vandalism. Was former Spurs striker Les Ferdinand to blame for wrecking Percy Thrower's Blue Peter garden in 1983? And was Millwall's Denis Wise, a pupil at the same West London school as Ferdinand, an accomplice? "What I will say is I helped people over the wall," Ferdinand told the press in 2000, "but I'm not at liberty to say whether Denis Wise was one of them."

W is for Wise, Denis. The footballer's spokesman was not amused: "Denis was certainly not involved and had nothing whatsoever to do with it. He told me he didn't even know where the Blue Peter garden is."

X marks the spot. When the 1971 Blue Peter time capsule was dug up in 2000, half of its contents had turned to slush. Better luck next time. The 1998 capsule was buried under the Millennium Dome and includes a Spice Girls CD, a picture of Diana, Princess of Wales and a set of Tellytubby dolls. That should give the people of 2050 plenty to think about.

Y is for youthful indiscretions. Simon Groom once stole an inflatable figure from a restaurant while drunk and Michael Sundin's career never recovered from being videoed stripping at an all-male night at the Hippodrome. Peter Duncan appeared in a soft-core porn film called The Lifetaker. Duncan is now Britain's Chief Scout.

Z is for zoo-keeper. Is Alec the zoo-keeper and his incontinent elephant Lulu really the funniest thing that has happened in 4,000 episodes? And, if so, what does that say about the other 3,999? I hope his family is getting repeat fees.