Last night my stepson was transfixed, as ever, to Blue Peter. It's still as uncool as it was when I was a kid, writes Jon Dennis. Confession time: I may in early adulthood have allowed people to think that I was a Magpie viewer. Well, I wasn't.
I liked the wholesomeness of Blue Peter, the fresh-faced enthusiasm of its presenters, and subscribed (albeit unwittingly) to producer Biddy Baxter's Reithian blueprint of an informative but entertaining children's magazine programme. My stepson, like I did, loves the badges, and the educative elements of the programme, and the competitions and charity appeals Like me he's transfixed by Blue Peter's rubbish dramatisations of historical events: Marie Antoinette, for me, IS Valerie Singleton - a defining role. And he couldn't give a monkeys about the animals.
Anyway in last night's programme came the shock announcement that Bafta-winning presenter Matt Baker is leaving the programme after seven years. From my wizened, cynical adult perspective, all the presenters are more or less interchangeable, coming from the same model production line that produces the other identikit children's TV presenters, as well as boy bands and leaders of the Conservative party. Surely they could just find another?
Perhaps it was this realisation that prompted Baker to start blubbing on TV yesterday as he told his legions of fans that he was leaving them for pastures new (actually, another CBBC series involving rubbish re-enactments of historical events). Or perhaps his tears were a desperate bid to elicit comfort from his glamorous female co-presenters.
Either way, my stepson showed no reaction whatsoever to this public display of emotion. How unlike the momentous departure from Blue Peter of John Noakes - whose steely resolve would never have allowed him to sob in front of the children.
