TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

A twice weekly magazine show featuring articles on pets, crafts, films, cars, basically anything that children might find interesting or amusing. The show felt that it was always targeting the more middle-class, scouts and girl-guides types, but the show evolved over time and by the late sixties new faces like John Noakes and Peter Purves would give the show much needed wider appeal.

Watching the show sometimes made you feel like you were back at school again, but there would be the odd pop act, and like so many shows from the British pop boom era they would play host to the likes of The Hollies, The Searchers, Freddie & The Dreamers etc and on one occasion The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, with each band playing one or two songs live. Groups would be eventually phased out, but pop features would appear from time to time, and on one memorable day right in the middle of the summer of love they wheeled out John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls Royce into the studio.

Easily the longest running children's show on British TV they more recently awarded Paul McCartney their most coveted award, a gold Blue Peter badge.

BLUE PETER

BBC / BBC1 / CBBC

16th October 1958 - date