Blue Peter prepares for move to Salford

Children’s magazine programme Blue Peter prepares to move North to Salford as it makes its last broadcast from Television Centre in London.

Blue Peter is the longest-running children’s programme in the world having launched in 1958 – several years before BBC Television Centre was opened. However, it is one of the most identifiable programmes associated with Television Centre – perhaps because of the Blue Peter garden which is in the grounds of the studio complex. The gardens have been vandalised on several occasions leading to some memorable moments on Blue Peter.
However, Blue Peter is leaving Television Centre behind and heading to the BBC’s new home in the north, Salford. As part of the corporation’s drive to relocate some of its services away from the capital to Salford children’s programmes, BBC Sport, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC One’s Breakfast are all relocating. The Blue Peter garden will move to onto of a studio roof in the Salford Media Village. This afternoon, the BBC reports, Blue Peter will broadcast for a final time from Television Centre and then go on its summer break. When it returns in the Autumn it will be from Salford.
Earlier this month the BBC announced it was indeed planning to sell off Television Centre. Over the years the studios have been home to a wide range of programmes from dramas such as Doctor Who and The House of Elliott to comedies like Fawlty Towers, Absolutely Fabulous as well as telethons Children in Need and Comic Relief.