Biddy Baxter, who has died aged 92 after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and breast cancer, carved out a place in television history by shaping the hugely successful format of the world’s longest-running children’s magazine show, Blue Peter – while in charge of it for a quarter of a century. She took over as producer in 1962 – four years after its inception – to overhaul a factual programme then described by BBC management as being like “a rundown property with potential for improvement”.
Its audience of primary school-age children originally saw Christopher Trace, an actor, and Leila Williams, a former Miss Great Britain, presenting the 15-minute weekly show, which began with film of a three-masted schooner lowering its Blue Peter flag, signalling the start of a voyage, accompanied by the 1930s hornpipe theme tune, Barnacle Bill.
The live broadcast was almost entirely studio-based and short on action, with the broadcasting historian Asa Briggs later writing: “Chris played with trains. Leila played with dolls.” A fairer assessment would note that items such as cartoons, stories and competitions were also part of the formula and the graphic artist Tony Hart made occasional appearances.
At the start of 1962, Williams was fired, leaving Trace on his own for a while before being joined briefly by Anita West. When Baxter was earmarked to take charge but still serving notice in her BBC radio job, a temporary producer replaced West with Valerie Singleton. Her serious style, talking to children in an unpatronising manner, perfectly complemented Trace’s relaxed, amiable personality to give Baxter a firm basis for moving Blue Peter into a new age.
With a budget of only £180 per edition, she saw viewer involvement as the key. Just before Christmas 1962, Blue Peter launched two initiatives that would become staples of the programme. The first of its annual appeals, asking children to donate toys for those who would otherwise have no presents, was followed by an idea from the show’s director, Edward Barnes – her “number two” and later head of BBC children’s programmes – to introduce a dog as a member of the Blue Peter team.
Unfortunately, the chosen pup died of distemper two days after its first appearance and, not wanting to upset the young audience, the pair discreetly found a replacement that spent its first night at Baxter’s flat, leaving its mark on every carpet. When the puppy “returned” to the programme, viewers were asked to suggest a name – and Petra became a mainstay until her death in 1977. Other pets followed.
Assisted by Barnes and a researcher, Rosemary Gill, Baxter continued her transformation of the show in 1963 by commissioning Hart to design a logo that would be firmly identified with it. His galleon emblem, tying in with the nautically inspired title, was immediately featured on another inspired invention, the Blue Peter badge, which would never be a giveaway, but a prize earned by viewers for writing in with programme ideas, stories, letters and pictures.
Alongside this, Baxter established a card index system to ensure that they would never receive the same reply twice, having been devastated as a child to find that she received the same standard letter back when she twice wrote to her favourite author, Enid Blyton.
Another winning element to be added in 1963 came after Margaret Parnell sent in a collection of dolls’ hats and instructions on how to assemble them. As Baxter built up a team of expert contributors, “makes” – creating items using household materials such as “sticky-backed plastic” – proved hugely popular. “Here’s one I made earlier” became a national catchphrase.
In 1965, a year after Blue Peter’s running time was increased to 25 minutes and a second weekly episode added, Baxter was given the new title of editor. Barnes and Gill became her producers and, together, the trio made the programme a national institution.
At the same time, film of summer trips where the presenters discover other countries became another popular item, and John Noakes was added as a third presenter, notable for his daredevil escapades such as climbing Nelson’s Column. After Peter Purves replaced Trace, he, Singleton and Noakes became the most famous trio to front Blue Peter during its formative years.
However, Baxter’s iron grip on the show – and memories of her high heels clattering across the studio floor – irked those such as Singleton, who said she treated them like children, and led Noakes to observe that he thought she regarded him as “some country yokel from Yorkshire”. Although Purves described her as a “control freak”, he acknowledged: “I didn’t always agree with her views, but she was right.”
Biddy was born Joan Baxter in Leicester, to Vera (nee Briers), a pianist in local shows, and Bryan Baxter, a teacher who went on to own a sportswear company. While attending Wyggeston girls’ grammar school, she acted at the Little Theatre, Leicester.
She said that her broadcasting work aimed at a mass audience was informed by her time in Durham while studying for a social sciences degree at the university’s women’s college, St Mary’s (1952-55).
“For someone from the affluent Midlands like me, it was a revelation to see the impoverished conditions that some people lived in at the time,” Baxter told the Guardian’s Martin Wainwright in 2012. “I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to live in north-east England.”
In 1955, she joined BBC radio as a studio manager, rising three years later to producer of Listen with Mother and, for schools broadcasting, the Junior English programme. During an attachment to BBC television during 1961, Baxter produced The Hot Chestnut Man, a children’s show of stories told by Johnny Morris, before joining Blue Peter the following year.
She left in 1988 to move abroad with her long-time partner, John Hosier, a former producer of music for BBC TV and radio schools programmes who went to Hong Kong to help set up its Academy for Performing Arts. They returned to Britain on his retirement in 1993 and, from 1989 to 2000, Baxter was a consultant to the BBC’s director general.
She was made MBE in 1981 and presented with Bafta’s special children’s award in 2013.
Baxter and Hosier married in 2000, shortly before his death that year.
• Biddy (Joan Maureen) Baxter, television producer, born 25 May 1933; died 10 August 2025
