CBBC Puppets

[Col87]

I think the idea of having a children's continuity presenter being accompanied by a puppet wasn't a fully established one in the early days of Children's BBC, and I think happened more or less by accident - I can't remember the exact circumstances surrounding Gordon's arrival, but according to http://thebroomcupboard.co.uk/page2.html he came courtesy of Phillip's Auntie Diane, and was clearly popular enough with viewers to become a permanent fixture in the broom cupboard.

Andy Crane has said that he deliberately didn't have a puppet for the first few months to allow him to get established. It seemed a bit strange at the time that Edd continued with Andi Peters after Andy Crane left, while Gordon had left with Pip, but as Pip has said, he approached BBC Enterprises, as was, with the idea of doing some marketing about Gordon and they said they weren't interested so Pip kept the rights for himself and made absolutely loads of money out of the merchandising. Clearly the Beeb weren't going to pass up on the opportunity for the second time so Edd was very much CBBC's puppet, not Andy Crane's.

CBBC also used to air a Sunday morning show called Smile from 2002-2007, which featured a blue bear called Nev who went to star in his own show, Bear Behaving Badly!

In Richard Marson's Blue Peter Diaries, he talks about Smile, because he wanted to hire Barney Harwood as the new Blue Peter presenter, and Barney wanted to join, but they wouldn't let him leave Smile. Marson went to see the Controller of CBBC to argue that he should be allowed to do it because he and Barney wanted it to happen, and that Smile was a crap show (he said Barney was the best thing about it, by miles) and Blue Peter was far more important. But they said it wouldn't be fair on Smile, and Barney's agent complained bitterly to Marson about him being messed around. Marson says he was delighted when Barney finally joined Blue Peter, years later.

I never really understood the idea of Smile, it just looked to me like the worst examples of zero-budget, studio-bound Saturday morning shows like Scratchy & Co and Mashed, but it carried on for ages.

Smile had an interesting history. I think it probably existed so that they was a live morning show on the CBBC channel on both days of the weekend ( when the Channel launched the Saturday Show Extra was on 9 - 12). X change was not live on a weekend and was pre recorded with the best bits of during the week so it allowed them to have live programs across the weekend with the UK Top 40 also been live. CBBC 2 continued with live links in between scheduled programs at that point titled the Sunday splash in a throwback to Saturday Advark / planet Saturday. However within months Dick and Dom in da Bungalow was commissioned which meant Smile had to move to CBBC 2 and then within 6 months had to change its start time to 7:30 to fit in with something for the weekend starting from around 10. Fearne and Reggie within 2 year and it was Barney and Kirsten o Brian as the new presenters who for about where joined by Rochelle Humes in her first TV presenting job. It stayed that way till it got axed in about 2007. To get back on topic I believe Nev was not planned and only came about someone who worked for the BBC found him in a skip.

[Col87]

Would that have been to replace Simon or Matt then when they left, so the role Gethin ultimately got?

I think it would have been to replace Matt who left in 2007. The irony is Barney then more or less replaced Gethin anyway with Joel I think replacing Andy. Barney certainly enjoyed Blue Peter as I think he spent about 5 years there but has not done any telly since then. When Barney first started on CBBC in 2002 they was an actor in the sky one football drama Dream Team who looked the double of him so quite often between February and May that year you would have Barney closing down the CBBC channel at 7 and then an hour later his double would be on Sky one playing Football or getting into some sort of trouble.

[Classicnewcbbc]

Bobby the Banana has been cruelly overlooked here…

Bobby the Banana was legendary - even if he didn't do very much! He got rather overshadowed when a certain duck turned up. Which reminds me...

Gordon the gopher ( 8 years 6 of them for going live ) 1985 - 1993

Edd the Duck 6 years 1987 - 1993

Those dates aren't strictly correct, as Gordon didn't arrive until Christmas 1986 (surprisingly late on during Phillip Schofield's tenure), while Edd didn't turn up until late 1988.

I think the idea of having a children's continuity presenter being accompanied by a puppet wasn't a fully established one in the early days of Children's BBC, and I think happened more or less by accident - I can't remember the exact circumstances surrounding Gordon's arrival, but according to http://thebroomcupboard.co.uk/page2.html he came courtesy of Phillip's Auntie Diane, and was clearly popular enough with viewers to become a permanent fixture in the broom cupboard.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguar...tv-puppets

This link is an interview with paul smith who was producer of cbbc and originally portrayed Gordon and how they was testing ideas out and it was sent in by a viewer

[sjames]

Would that have been to replace Simon or Matt then when they left, so the role Gethin ultimately got?

I think it would have been to replace Matt who left in 2007. The irony is Barney then more or less replaced Gethin anyway with Joel I think replacing Andy. Barney certainly enjoyed Blue Peter as I think he spent about 5 years there but has not done any telly since then. When Barney first started on CBBC in 2002 they was an actor in the sky one football drama Dream Team who looked the double of him so quite often between February and May that year you would have Barney closing down the CBBC channel at 7 and then an hour later his double would be on Sky one playing Football or getting into some sort of trouble.

From reading Richard Marson's book, I have a feeling it might have been to replace Simon, but Barney had auditioned a couple of times by that point already. In fact reading the book is fascinating to see who actually auditioned and lost out in being presenters.

Barney was ultimately a replacement for Joel, who'd left on the Christmas show 2010, with Barney starting in January 2011 to host alongside Andy and Helen. He was on it for a total of nearly 7 years (6 years, 240 days to be precise) which makes him the 10th longest serving Blue Peter presenter. He was on the One Show at the beginning of August doing a report about Blackpool, but apart from that seems to have mostly disappeared from telly into other projects.