Many items from Blue Peter's history have become embedded in British popular culture, especially moments when things have gone wrong, such as the much-repeated clip of Lulu the baby elephant (from a 1969 edition)[8] who urinated and defecated on the studio floor, appeared to tread on the foot of presenter John Noakes and then proceeded to attempt an exit, dragging her keeper along behind her.

Although it is often assumed to have been broadcast live, the edition featuring Lulu was one of the rare occasions when the programme was pre-recorded, as the presenters were en route to Ceylon for the summer expedition at the time of transmission.

Reed got his inspiration after watching Children's Television Club, the brainchild of former radio producer, Trevor Hill, who created the latter show as a successor to his programme Out of School, broadcast on BBC Radio's Children's Hour; Hill networked the programme from BBC Manchester and launched it aboard the MV Royal Iris ferry on the River Mersey, Liverpool with presenter Judith Chalmers welcoming everyone aboard at the bottom of the gangplank.

The "Blue Peter" is used as a maritime signal, indicating that the vessel flying it is about to leave, and Reed chose the name to represent "a voyage of adventure" on which the programme would set out.

[22] The puppy soon died of distemper, and having decided against upsetting young viewers over the news, Barnes and Baxter had to search London pet shops for a convincing clandestine replacement.

In 1978, the show celebrated its twentieth anniversary with a nationwide balloon launch from five regional cities during a special edition of the programme when Christopher Trace, Leila Williams, Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves returned.

[39] In 1979, its theme music was updated by Mike Oldfield, and at the end of the decade a new presenting team was brought in, consisting of Simon Groom, Tina Heath and Christopher Wenner.

In February 2008 the BBC One programme was moved from 5pm to 4:35pm to accommodate The Weakest Link, and as a result, Blue Peter's ratings initially dropped to as low as 100,000 viewers in the age 6–12 bracket, before steadily improving.

Unusually, Harwood was no stranger to Blue Peter viewers, having appeared as a presenter on CBBC for many years, on shows including Prank Patrol and Bear Behaving Badly.

[citation needed] Director/producer Alex Leger who joined the show in 1975 as a production assistant and retired in 2011, making him Blue Peter's longest serving staff member ever.

"[89] Writing on The Huffington Post in November 2012, Leger admitted the "piles of clippings, strange souvenirs from overseas trips, half-finished 'makes' from the show and half-dead pot plants disguised the fact something ground-breaking was happening in the cramped Blue Peter offices".

[citation needed] In 2014, the full traditional content was revived, including the viewers' home-made cards accompanied by the Good King Wenceslas arrangement, the Advent Crown (although now using electric candles for safety reasons) and (after an absence in the previous two years) the sparkling ship logo appearing by the shot of the crib in the studio at the end of the closing carol.

[citation needed] An enduring feature of the programme is the annual charity appeal, which asks viewers to collect items that can be recycled or sold to raise money for the chosen cause.

[citation needed] Between 2001 and 2003 a series of "Bring And Buy Appeals" led many viewers and the media to voice their concern that the traditional method of collecting scrap items to recycle was being abandoned in favour of the "easier revenue" generated by the sales.

As part of this appeal, the Blue Peter presenters held the world's biggest bring and buy sale on 18 February 2009, which was attended by several celebrities as well as regular people.

He was glad he made this decision when it became clear during the recording that the capsule had at some point been opened – probably at the time it was moved and reburied – and that the contents had been wrapped entirely differently from the original burial.

[108] A second box made of wood and fastened with two padlocks was entombed in cement on 26 March 1981 by Simon Groom, Sarah Greene, Peter Duncan, and six students at the Samuel Lucas School in Hitchin, at the latter's request, within the structure of a multi-storey carpark at BBC Television Centre, with no intended opening date in mind.

It marked the 10th anniversary of the 1971 capsule's burial and featured 'records of what life was like in the 1980s', including projects and drawings from the children on snack foods, dance, playground games, fashion, aircraft, travel, and sport.

As well as Blue Peter items including badges, a video tape of a segment on the Oblivion rollercoaster, an official CD-ROM, and a booklet on the history of the programme, the capsule contains a set of 1998 UK coins, a piece of felt from the Dome's roof, a set of Teletubby dolls, an insulin pen, a small yellow scarf and blue woggle, a France '98 football,[112] a roller blade, an asthma inhaler, a Spice Girls compact disc, stamps of Princess Diana, a photo of Tony Blair with the construction crew, a picture of a dove to commemorate the Good Friday Agreement, a toy car, a video tape about a student's walk to school, and a copy of The Roald Dahl Treasury, all selected in a competition, alongside the selection announcement's videotape and 2,000 letters from competition entrants.

Matt Baker contributed a Geordie phrasebook, Simon Thomas an old Motorola Flare, Katy Hill a ring she bought in Mongolia, and Konnie Huq a CD of The Chemical Brothers album Surrender.

Re:Peter, along with a similar highlights show for Live & Kicking known as L&K Replay, ended when the strand was cancelled in April 2000 and became the daily 6 am – 7 pm CBBC on Choice programming block which launched in November 1999.

Between January and June 2007, Dave Cooke (who was the husband of ex-presenter Tina Heath) re-arranged the theme tune, although it was confirmed that Murray Gold's new arrangement would be used from the new series in September 2007, to coincide with the programme's 50th anniversary celebrations.

Hart's original design was never successfully used in a totally uniform fashion, with several different reproductions used in studio, on badges, the Blue Peter books and on-screen graphics.

[136] By the late 1960s, the opening sequence featured extracts of that edition's filmed inserts or an event in the studio where speech was absent accompanied by the signature tune and superimposed presenter credits.

This footage was also mixed in with episode-specific film, introductory studio setting or more predominantly from the 2003 series onwards a preview of many items on the day's programme with a return to a "coming up" caption and presenter commentary.

2006–2008: From September 2006 a new title sequence was introduced, opening with the traditional Blue Peter ship logo, followed by the presenters surrounded by "fact file boxes" displaying statistics and information about them and also pictures of the pets and snippets of previous assignment films.

Following Konnie Huq's departure in January 2008, the order of the opening sequence was rejigged slightly, with a filmed aerial pan of a cliff-face taken from a helicopter, featuring a lighthouse and large-scale impression of the Blue Peter ship on a grass lawn adjacent to it.

The sequence would always end with the Blue Peter ship filling the screen (originally a simple flat image, latterly a more graphically interesting incarnation) and BBC copyright blurb.

[138] However, before Bacon, four previous presenters had left the programme when their contracts were not renewed, each for different reasons: these were Leila Williams in 1962, Christopher Wenner in 1980, Michael Sundin in 1985 and Romana D'Annunzio in 1998.

[143] In August 2007 while the programme was off air for its annual Summer Expedition, long-time presenter Konnie Huq was involved in a press conference to promote the health benefits of cycling along with Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.