Blue Peter badge

[2] The pin badges were introduced to the programme by editor Biddy Baxter in 1963, from an idea by Blue Peter producer Edward Barnes.

The programme producers suspended the privileges amid concerns about the badges being sold in March 2006, but they were reintroduced with additional security a few months later.

The presenters almost always wear their badges on the show – the only exception being when their apparel is incompatible (for example, a life jacket), in which case a sticker with the ship emblem is normally used instead.

This has since become a tradition with Liz Barker, Matt Baker, Konnie Huq, Katy Hill, Joel Defries, Andy Akinwolere, Helen Skelton, Lindsey Russell, Adam Beales and Barney Harwood also being awarded gold badges on their final show.

Her fellow presenters John Noakes and Peter Purves were given gold badges on the first programme in 2000 when the time capsule for the year 2000 was dug up.

Trace was working at a factory at the time and his colleagues made the award to be presented to a viewer who had achieved some remarkable endeavour, such as saving a life or overcoming a particular adversity.

[27] In 1989 the show honoured the boys of Emanuel School who had assisted the victims of the Clapham Junction rail crash on 12 December 1988[27] This was the last time the award was presented.

In March 2006, the news that Blue Peter badges were available for sale on auction websites such as eBay attracted a great deal of media interest, with the suspicion that the right to free entry was being abused.

In a leader article The Times described the news as "a knife to the national psyche",[28] while The Sun launched a campaign in which readers could "send in the names of people they know who have an illegal Blue Peter badge".

[30] Accompanying the statement of suspensions the show's editor Richard Marson said Blue Peter wished to "protect children who have earned their badges and who are feeling very let down by this cynical trade."

[31] ID cards for previous badge winners aged 6 to 15 can be obtained by entering details into a form on the Blue Peter website.