Biddy Baxter’s Blue Peter and the end of a common culture

Ihaven’t written a poem in memory of Biddy Baxter, stern matriarch of Blue Peter, who died yesterday but here is one I made earlier. First, a brief thought on the programme that she edited from 1962-1988. On one level, it was just a magazine show for children – a bit of chat, a few guests, a craft section (famous for its use of ‘sticky-back plastic’, as they weren’t allowed to say Sellotape, and the phrase ‘here’s one I made earlier’). But on another level it was our virtual community, our virtual school, our first taste of national culture.

Baxter decided against having Paul McCartney on the show. What a huge and victorious decision

It is hard to express this thought, because it sounds like nostalgia for something fairly mundane, but the BBC used to create common culture in Britain. Or