Chatterbox, when the stars talk, they talk to
Nick and Sue. Welcome back to the Chatterbox
Redux podcast with Sue and Nick and today our
special guest is Blue Peter and Cruff's presenter
and former Doctor Who actor Peter Purvis. This
is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox giving you all
you need to know about musical entertainment
Chatterbox, the best interviews with Nick and
Sue Chatterbox, the best news And now on Chatterbox
UK, we're just lucky enough. Listen to this.
We're just lucky enough to have Peter Purvis
from Blue Peter. Peter, welcome. How are you?
Hi Peter. I'm fine. Thanks very much, Nick. And
hi Sue. How are you? I am very well. How are
you? Good. So Peter, so it's been obviously that
reaction from me. We speak to people every week.
So actually, remember, you were the guy on Blue
Peter when I was a kid, growing up in the 70s,
before Doctor Who and it goes on. So basically,
it's like in a Chatterbox UK world, you are the
superstar. So there you go. Welcome. Very flattering,
very kind. I'm very leisurely at this immediate
moment. There we go. Haven't we all been? Oh,
well, yeah, yeah. Peter, I understand that you
come from Blackpool. Yes, that's right. I wasn't
born there. I was born in a village called New
Longton outside Preston. But my parents moved
to Blackpool and they had a hotel. We moved in
1942 there, so I was just three when we first
moved to Blackpool. I was there until I was 18.
I stayed at boarding school there. a TV presenter
as opposed to, sorry, an actor as opposed to
a TV presenter to start with, I believe. So did
that start in local rep or where did that start?
It was local rep. I didn't go to drama school.
I went and auditioned when I was still at school.
In the summer holidays, I auditioned for my local
refugee theatre in Barrow and Purness, which
was where my parents had moved to. And so in
one of the... My school holidays when I was 17
I contacted the theatre and asked if I could
audition and amazingly they said yes. So I went
and saw the artistic director there and they
can't have been all that good the performances
because I've never done it before and I really
wasn't sure what I was doing but anyway I did
a Shakespearean piece and a piece of Bernard
Shaw and They said, that's fine. We've got a
couple of parts for you this summer. So when
it came to the plays, they cast me in a couple
of plays and they paid me five pounds a week
for the two weeks that I worked on the shows.
And that was my very first acting. And it's when
I eventually decided I was going to be permanently
on stage, as it were, going to be an actor. They
contacted me and said, would I like to join the
company permanently? And I went back to Barrow
from London, where I'd been living for a year.
And I went back to Barrow and joined the company
and spent two years doing somewhere in the region
of 96 plays in two years. In Barrow? Yeah, in
Barrow in person. Renaissance Theatre Company.
It was a very nice, small company and a very
old... I mean, about three years after I left,
in 1963, it was pulled down. It was over 100
years old, but it was just pulled down and became
a parking lot for about five years. So, great
shame. It was a lovely place and I owe my career
to the Repertory Company in Barrow. No, fantastic
fantastic, but it obviously there's some point
here now that we're talking I'll be talking about
early 60s late 50s something like that this pitless
period of Barrow Okay, well 63 takes us on to
obviously the start of Doctor Who but was there
anything in between? virtually starved for quite
a while now. I've got a couple of parts, leading
parts, but they were in touring productions of
plays and eventually that Christmas in 1963 I
got a job in the singing chorus at the Palladium.
I did three months in that. It was an awful show
actually. It was called The Man in the Moon and
it starred Charlie Drake. It was absolutely dreadful.
But anyway, I was only in the chorus so it was
no big deal for me and I did three months in
that and then starved for a bit and struggled
for a bit and eventually got a few minor parts
in television. The first one was in a series
called Z Cars which I remember. Yes, I remember
that, yeah. I don't know. I was in Gideon's Way,
I was in Red Cap, I was in Court Marshall, I
was in The World of Wooster, all little parts,
little cameos for a young actor. And then out
of the blue I got the lead in a television play
in 1964, about November 1964 we shot it. It was
directed by Alvin Rakoff. It was called The Girl
in the Picture, and it was about Blackpool as
it happened. And my part, it was the leading
part with Nicola Padgett, who sadly has very
recently died. And for both of us, it was our
first leading parts on television. And it was
our debut leading performances. We got very good
reviews for it. It was a great play. I was playing
a beach photographer in Blackpool, which was
second nature to me because it was my hometown.
We went back there and filmed there, so I think
it's great. Wonderful. And because of that, I
did a couple of other things afterwards, but
I was pretty broke. Mostly, you know, your jobs
didn't come roaring at you. People weren't sending
scripts through the post for me. And I did a
leading role in a series that Granada did called
The Villains. And I did all sorts of things.
I drove trucks. I did all kinds of things. Worked
in the laundry. And eventually, I got asked to
audition uh... don't see your richard martin
for a part in doctor who and uh... it was uh...
giant insect or something i think that's the
point before i went to see him on sunday night
the play that i've been in blackpool called a
girl in the picture was shown on itv uh... main
main time nine o 'clock sunday night on i t t
so i'm going to be sure the previous night i
walked in for my interview with richardson peter
so it looks absolutely terrific look well i'm
not going to be one of these boxes nothing for
you to play if i'm if i'm ever casting anything
worthwhile i'll think of it well i i thought
that was a pinch of salt kind of thing that directors
do say to you know i could go to go to the top
of the walk out the door uh... i was broke so
i really needed the job I didn't get it. And
then he was as good as his word because he cast
me in an episode of The Chase. It was probably
about five months later, I think. And I was playing
a character called Morton Bill, who was an American
hillbilly on holiday in New York. We had a six
-minute comedy scene with the Doctor and his
companions and the Tardis, followed by... but
i don't think they have a time machine as well
and i don't know the only person i think to have
insulted Daleks on screen and not been insulted
not been exterminated anyway at the end of the
recording of that i hadn't really known that
uh... William Russell and Jackie Hill who of
course were the first doctors' companions they
were leaving in three weeks' time i didn't know
that and they hadn't got a replacement and Bill
Like my performance so much in rehearsal The
producer very to Lambert to take a good look
at me in the producers run through after the
recording and they did and They offered me the
part of Stephen Taylor in Doctor Who and three
weeks after playing this crazy hillbilly I was
playing a totally different character in the
sixth episode of the same serial And I did 46
episodes of Doctor Who. That's quite something.
Doctor? He says the TARDIS isn't a time machine.
Oh, does he now? Tell him. I don't see why I
shoot my child. He'll be done soon enough. Look,
Doctor, I've seen some spaceships in my time.
Admittedly, nothing like this. But what does
this do? That is the dematerialising control,
and that over yonder is the horizontal hold.
Up there is the scanner, those are the doors,
that is the chair with the panda on it. Sheer
poetry, dear boy. Now please stop bothering me.
In a roundabout way, this is daft of course,
but you could be considered perhaps the first
person to have a regeneration in Doctor Who by
becoming someone else. I hadn't thought of that
in there. I've only seen you as Stephen, I'm
afraid. And what a hero I mean, it's 46 episodes
as you say and I've got to ask this because there
was an element of With William Hartnell there
was a an element of seriousness He was the you
couldn't nobody could ever pick a better person
to be the first Doctor Who I don't think I was
cast to be his foil really to offer an alternative
view because Steven was a space pilot so he had
technical ability and he was obviously very intelligent
so he was able to argue with the Doctor which
gave another dimension to Bill Hartnell's character
as well which was good. Shadowbox! 10 ,000 pounds
of room. The Admiral? Nicholas? You had to leave
Anne Sheffield to die. The girl! The girl was
with me! Your brother with the Shinidens have
died. I know you had to leave her there to be
slaughtered. Well, it is possible. Of course
she didn't die, and I'm afraid to leave her.
Possible? Look, how possible? That girl was already
hunted by the Catholic guards. If they killed
10 ,000, how did they spare her? You don't know,
do you? You can't say for certain that you weren't
responsible for that girl's death. I was not
responsible. No! You just sent her back to her
aunt's house where the guards were waiting to
catch her. If I tell you this much, Doctor, wherever
this machine of yours lands next, I'm getting
off. If your research is... Have so little regard
for human life, and I want no part. We've learned
it. Your man has paid up. Goodbye. And yes, Stephen,
history sometimes gives us a terrible shock.
And that is because we don't quite truly understand.
Why should we? After all, we're all too small
to realize its final pattern. Therefore, I don't
try and judge it from where you stand. I was
right to do as I did. Yes, that I found what
it is. Even after all this time, he cannot understand.
I dare not change the course. Well, at least
I taught him to take some precautions. He did
remember to look at the scanner before he opened
the door. Now, we're all gone. All gone. Now
I'm struggling right now, I'm doing a Wikipedia
bit, and never be afraid to put me rights, because
I don't want to... I'm definitely bashing you
in at Wikipedia. It's got my wife's age down.
She's nine years older than she is. But I wasn't
going to go down that route. What I was going
to do though, I'm looking at audio dramas and
between 2007 and 2021, it looks like you've been
doing, I don't know if these are audio books
or what they are, but it's got you down as playing
Steven Taylor even as recently as 2021. Is that,
is that, are you still doing it? Yes, oh yeah.
Wonderful. Yes. a wonderful company called Big
Finnish and Big Finnish do audio dramas and they
started off doing Doctor Who back in the 1990s
and I did my first one for them in 2004 I think
and it was a recreation it was an original script
called Mother Russia and it involved The Doctor
and Vicky Stephen, and I narrated it and played
Stephen. And I also did a sort of hint of an
impression of Bill Hartnell's character as well
in my reading of it. And they liked that so much
that they carried on pursuing that. And I think
I've done 36 original dramas for Big Finish,
all of them playing Stephen and the Doctor, William
Hartnell. Brilliant. Yeah, I play the Doctor
Anne Stephener, which is, you know, that's a
joy. Well, I think it's an absolute feat, Peter,
to have basically played that character over
a span of what's looking like 58 years here.
That is some feat, seriously. It's not bad, is
it? Brilliant! 1963 to, well, 2021, if you look
at it from the time you appeared in Doctor Who
as that character. Yes, that's right. Incredible.
I've always started, yeah. Sue's got a question
for you, Peter. Yeah, 56 years. Peter, you was
in Doctor Who back in the 60s, was it darling?
60s. Now, Doctor Who's out now, can you, what
do you think of the difference from when you
was doing it to what they've done now? Oh, I've
got my own opinions of it now. Oh, I mean, it's
a difficult one for me to say. I mean, I was
in it at a time when I think the show, I mean,
technically it wasn't very clever in those days.
The limitations were in the technology of the
time. So, I mean, we didn't do great sweeping,
magnificent film sequences. They were very short
and they were inserts. We recorded as if it was
live. We didn't stop tape even if a mistake was
made. The only time we stopped was for filmed
inserts. And that's all. And to do special effects.
So the Tar disappearing and disappearing was
about the magnificent sum of the real technical,
clever things that were done at that time. So
it's a very different show. But it was led by
extremely good scripts. They were intelligent
scripts. They worked on all sorts of levels.
And I mean, for me, Doctor Who, that was the
golden age. Following on, when they regenerated
to build to... Patrick compared to John Pertwee.
I mean all things then became possible and of
course they then went into colour and the technology
got better and the ability to shoot on tape rather
than on film and I mean the whole thing has become
so technical and I don't think it's a patch on
what it was. I agree. No, absolutely. I can't
even watch it at the moment, I'm afraid. And
I'm not even trying to be sexist, it just isn't.
You can't change things like that. I'm not asking
you to make a comment there, Peter, it's fine.
But Peter, 1965, getting into 66 sort of thing.
What year was it when you were... I mean, what
did you do? Was there anything in between Doctor
Who and Blue Peter, or did it just go from one
to another? No, I had a bad time after I came
out of Doctor Who. I couldn't get arrested as
an actor apart from... I did a couple of episodes
of, no, I did four episodes of Z -Cars for directors
I'd worked with on Doctor Who, or who had employed
me before Doctor Who, in fact. And I was in a
part in a serial called The Girl in the Black
Bikini, which was after all that. I got murdered
in episode two. Sort of, yeah. I mean, little
bits. I did Dixon and Doc Green. Yeah. There
were small parts that weren't really, well no,
there were leading parts in those particular
shows, but they weren't, it didn't lead to anything.
Mostly I was out of work. And as I say, I did
all sorts of things. I worked for a company called
the Driver's Bureau, which you phoned up in the
morning and said, have you got any work? And
they'd say, yes, we want you to go to an airfield
in Kent and pick up this car and drive it to
the docks in East London. And you'd go there
and you'd find it was a Rolls Royce. and being
exported and you drove it up to town and parked
it up there and rang them and said right where
now and they said we'd like you to go and pick
up a van from so -and -so so you can take it
home and the following morning I want you to
take it to so -and -so so -and -so and I was
doing that on a jobbing basis so that was how
I drove trucks I did all sorts of things at that
time so it was it wasn't easy and then out of
the blue I was asked to go for an interview I
was told Pisa wanted to see me. And was I interested?
Now as it happens, my agent had just said we
can't do anything more for you, just at the same
time, sent me a letter. And they had phoned me
the following day and said we'd had this inquiry
from Blue Pisa, I don't know if you know the
show, we aren't going to handle it for you, but
if you're interested, this is the number. So
I rang it and it was through to Billy Baxter
and I was invited to go along to see them. And
I went and I did... our television centre. Then
we sent a script and asked to do a studio audition,
which was a 15 -minute program. They sent me
the script on a Wednesday night. I went into
it on a Tuesday night. I went into the studio
on a Wednesday morning and did the performance
without AutoCube because the show didn't use
AutoCube, so I had to learn the script overnight.
That was no fear for me because I was good at
learning lines for my repertory days. But the
rest is history, I've got the job. However, the
reason I got the job, and this is why I said
earlier that the theatre in Barrow was responsible
for my career. After I'd left, I went back to
Barrow in Furness when my son was born to see
my parents. And I went down to the theatre and...
The artistic director had left and a new artistic
director had taken over called Giles Habergl.
And I had a drink with Giles after the show and
he said if I ever wanted to do a play up there
I could, which was very kind of him, thank you
very much. I was in Blue Peter at the time, so
it was very flattering and nice. I never took
up the opera, but when Blue Peter were looking
for a replacement for Christopher Tray, they
had... spoken to a lady from the national theater,
whose job was to reply to actors who'd sent in
requests for an audition or whatever, and send
their photographs back and say, sorry, no, there's
nothing for you. I've never written to her. I've
never been involved there at all. She was having
a dinner party with Edward Barnes, who is the
deputy editor of Blue Peter. Assistant producer,
I think he was at that time. But anyway, deputy
editor. He became head of children's programs
later. And he was having dinner with her and
several others, and he mentioned the fact that
he was looking for a replacement, and suggested
that this lady may have some names. And she said,
unfortunately, I haven't. I can't think of anybody
who'd be suitable. And a few days later, she
was having another dinner party, or was at another
dinner party, where Giles Hamigold was. And she
said, oh, Giles, you know everyone in this business.
Do you know anyone who'd be any good at going
on Blue Peace? At least I know someone who'd
be very good at that and he'd put my name before
me. So that's how I got it. Perfect! This is
Nick and Sue with Cheddar Box giving you all
you need to know about musical entertainment
Cheddar Box Cheddar Box Cheddar Box Cheddar Box
Cheddar Box The other day on the radio we heard
of a remarkable free offer It was of a computer
that was bought in 1964 for £150 ,000. The firm
that owned it had decided to install a new computer,
so this one's going begging, but unbelievably,
they were offered only £25 for it as scrap metal.
This seemed such a shocking waste, the firm decided
they'd give it away to anyone who could put it
to good use. So I thought I'd go and have a look
at what must be just about the best giveaway
ever. Computers don't come small. Every piece
of equipment in this room is part of a fantastic
electronic calculating machine. Although it's
eight years old, this computer is far from useless.
It's still working out the monthly paychecks
for 4 ,500 employees at Chloride Automotive Batteries
Ltd. I asked the computer manager, Bob Jenkinson,
how it worked. We have two methods of input to
the computer. The first one is paper tape. You
read it... It reads the tape on this reading
head here. The other method is punch cards. The
cards are stacked here, read through the cabinet,
and all cards come out here. When they arrive
there, the information is in the computer? Yes,
the reading is complete. If the volumes are very
large, we store the information on our Magnific
tape backing store over there. So this is a sort
of library round the side, is it? This is our
library, yes. This is the operator's console.
All the information is entered from this control
panel here. You can vary your different programmes
from here? Yes. All our computer output comes
out here on our line printer. It's a very fast
printer, a thousand lines a minute, which is
equivalent in speed to about 250 type lists.
Bob, apart from doing the payroll, which it's
working on at the moment, what other sort of
things can the computer do? Well, we have set
two or three problems just to test its capabilities.
The first one is the age -old chessboard problem.
where we have sugar lumps and the chessboard.
On square one we place one cube, on the second
square two cubes, then four cubes, eight cubes,
sixteen cubes, thirty two cubes and so on. Well
this is a problem I recognise from the Blue Peter
studio where we have actually tried it using
matches but we gave up when we reached the twelfth
square because we've got something like two thousandth
already on there. Well, the problem here is to
find out how many sugar cubes will end up on
square 64. Punched on these cards was all the
information the computer needed to calculate
the answer to our question, which in mathematical
terms was, what is 2 to the power of 63? It took
10 seconds to reply. The answer should be here
now. And it was all neatly typed out on the white
paper coming from the printer. Unbelievable total,
9 ,223 ,372 ,36 ,854 ,775 ,808 sugar cubes on
the last square. That really is an incredible
number. And the ranges they were in force. It
must stretch quite a way if it was piled up.
How far do you think that would go? We have,
in fact, programmed the computer to tell us the
answer. Oh, that's ridiculous. 18 ,198 ,129 ,807
,557 miles. Well, that's about, what, several
million times to the moon, in fact. Yes. Bob
explained it wasn't only mathematical problems
the computer could solve Some more information
was fed into the card reader and the machine
immediately set to work This time it was going
to do something rather unusual because we'd asked
it to draw a picture In each ship there were
2 ,000 tiny letters to have drawn them by hand
will have taken hours instead of just That's
absolutely fascinating. I think it's splendid
the way that does that. Look, the machine is
obviously old, because you've said it was old,
but there's plenty of life in it. Are you serious
about giving it away? Yes. Providing we can find
someone who can make good use of it, we shall
give it away. I'm sure you'll be able to find
someone for it. Thank you. And I've got the computerized
ship back here in the studio, and I think both
this and the chess problem do go to show that
although the computer's old, it's far from useless.
But as you saw, it does take up an awful lot
of space, and couple that with the... special
ventilation it needs, air conditioning, special
supply, power supply, together with all its maintenance
costs, it isn't the sort of thing that anyone
could just have at home. But so far, they haven't
decided exactly who is going to have this. It'll
probably end up with a school or a college, but
if you have any good suggestions about where
you think it should go, if you put them down
on a postcard and let us have them, we'll make
sure that they get to Mr. Jenkinson, because
I really do think it's a great thing that they're
giving away a computer that can still do so much
work instead of just turning it into scrap. And
you were there for a great number of years, I
mean 60, well, what was it, 67 to 78? 10 and
a half years. Perfect, that is one of the longer
innings on Blue Peter, isn't it? It's the longest
apart from my mate John Oakes. Bless him, yes.
John Oakes did 12 years, I did 10 and a half.
Well, of course, I remember in the time I was
watching Bluebeetle, it was you, John, and Valerie
Singleton, and then, obviously, Leslie Judd,
and you and John. That was the year I was watching
it. And what a program it was, you know, and
my mother who's a somewhat... It was a program
that was right for its time. It was, you're right.
I mean, I wouldn't say it's lost its way now,
but it's sort of hidden away on the CBVs or whatever
it's called. It's not in the mainstream anymore,
but it still has a profile. It's not watched
in great numbers when the show goes out, but
it is watched online and kids know how to catch
up on it. Back in your day, you couldn't catch
up on it. No, not at all. And there were seven
or eight million of us watching it at the same
time. I do remember, John wasn't just the...
Looking back, I've looked at some clips on YouTube
and that, and John, I was always led to believe
was the action man, but you did some pretty,
you know, pretty nail -biting things yourself.
I mean, what is the most exciting Blue Peter
moment for you of something you got, you know,
you actually got into doing? Oh gosh, there are
so many, really. I mean, it depends on what you
term as excitement. I mean, I've been on the
helm of the QE2. I've been doing a film on air
traffic control. I was up in the jets that were
doing the approaching circuits and bumps and
all that. I've had my hands on the joystick and
one of those. Those are wonderful things. But
I think probably the thing that was scariest,
one was doing a stunt car film where I had to
crash the car through the side of a furniture
van. Which was pretty stupid. I won't go into
the details. There was no health and safety,
let's put it that way. I didn't get hurt, so
I was lucky I survived. But I'm fairly accident
prone, so I was quite lucky I didn't get hurt.
I enjoyed doing the walk of the cable on the
fourth suspension road bridge, which was wonderful.
But I equally enjoyed just doing the very basic
on the fourth rail bridge, the iconic rail bridge,
which is, I went on that with the bridge manager,
and we talked about how it was constructed and
all the rest of it. I mean, going up to the top
of that was pretty impressive as well. And I
did all the rock climbing films, so I climbed
amazing things with the wonderful Chris Bonnington,
who led the first successful expedition to the
top of Everest after the first. So, I mean, I
did a tremendous number of really enjoyable,
exciting things, as well as the basic things.
I was there as the counterbalance to John Oakes,
because John was not great at doing factual pieces.
I did all the factual stuff. Johnny did the heroic
stuff, and I ended up doing the... the parachute
jumping and stuff like that. We used to do military
films together. We trained with the Marines,
we trained with the signals, all sorts of things.
It was a wonderful time. Without a doubt, the
best job in television. One of the things that
we actually enjoy best of all on Blue Peter is
being able to show brand new inventions. Earlier
today we recorded an experiment here in the studio
that should be of interest to anyone who ever
has to use the telephone. We started off with
two telephones and this one was perfectly normal.
It's the sodaphone you've probably got at home.
It's got a... handset, a curly bit of wire that
goes down to here and then a cable that goes
all the way to the telephone exchange. I've got
the other telephone here and it looks more like
a shoulder bag really than a proper telephone.
It's got its own portable handset here which
has its own dial built into it and the thing
that makes it so unusual is if I get up and walk
around you'll see that there are absolutely no
trailing cables of any kind. It's not connected
to anything at all because it's got its own built
-in transmitter and receiver. Well, there's nothing
really extraordinary, I suppose, in having a
sort of walkie -talkie radio, but this is the
first one that you can actually use with an ordinary
telephone. And the other good thing about it
is that when you use it, you don't have to dial
through the operator, as you would with an ordinary
mobile car phone. Well, we're going to give you
a demonstration of how this new invention works.
Now, on my phone here, I'm extension 84. You
are indeed, and I'm extension 85. Remember it,
John? Yes, in my memory bank. You're 84, OK?
I'll tell you what. Tessa and I will stay here
in a nice warm studio. You can take Shep for
a walk. I knew you were going to say that. Well,
I will. Come on, Shep, you come with me, because
I'm going to go right out of the studio, out
to the Blue Peter Garden. Now, this portable
telephone is the invention of an American scientist,
Mr. Lou Schneur. And he's a teacher at the Chelmer
Institute in Chelmsford, Essex. And he says he
doesn't see any reason why in the future it wouldn't
be possible for just about everybody to be walking
around carrying one of these, their own... portable
communication set. Anyway, last time I was out
of doors, it was pouring down with rain, so I'm
taking no chances today, get my coat on, and
off I go. I'll get a hood out just in case as
well. We're in Studio 8 at the Television Centre
today. I'm just walking through the huge ScenDoc
doors. This is where we get things like stuffed
elephants and double -decker buses into the studio.
Outside here there's a ring road. This is used
for moving scenery around, and if you watch Top
of the Pops, you probably recognise that bit
of scenery there. Anyway, I'm going out through
the doors now. And once outside here, on my right
over there is the BBC Canteen Block. And if you
watch Blue Peter regularly, then you'll know
that our garden is very close, in fact, right
next door to the Canteen Block. In fact, it's
over the road here. As you can see, it's pretty
horrible out here. Really wet and nasty. I feel
a right twerp in this hood, but I'd rather wear
it than get soaked to the skin. Whoops, it's
slippery as well. Aye, Sheppy, you like it, don't
you? And down at the end there... is our actual
Blue Peter garden. Anyway, I'm not going to do
some gardening this minute. I'm out here to test
this. So the first thing I've got to do is make
sure it's switched on, which it is. Put up my
aerial. Now, two things I must do. First of all,
by the magic of television, you'll be able to
see Johnny waiting for my call at the same time
as I'm speaking to you. So first of all, to make
sure I've got a line, dial zero. That's the same
as picking up a handset. That's it. I've got
the line. Now, here's number 8 -4. And it's ringing
in the studio. Hello, John Nooks here. Hello,
John. Fancy seeing you. Or rather hearing you.
I can't see you at all, actually. What's it like
out there? It's soaking wet as well, you know.
But it's lovely in the studio, isn't it? Oh,
he's lovely and dry. I'm going to send Shep back
in to jump all over you. He's getting soaked
rushing around out here at the moment. Anyway,
we've shown that it works this way, me dialling
you. So don't put the phone down for a minute,
because I've got to cancel the circuits first.
So I'm going to press the button now, and you'll
hear the dots, the little clicking sound. That's
it. It's gone now. So the circuit's now clear
for Johnny to try to ring me. Well, the clicking
sounds have stopped, so if I put it back down,
pick it up. His number was 80... Oh, 85, yes.
All right, it should be ringing. There we go.
Every time a winner. Hello, Johnny. Yeah, me.
Wonderful. It works. Look, I'm getting soaked
out here, so you mind if we don't have a long
conversation? All right, if you insist. Smashing.
I'm going to cancel the circuits again. Don't
put it down too soon, otherwise you upset everything.
OK. And that's it. Cancelled again. So, that's
it. I think we've proved that Mr. Schneer's invention
actually works. But I dare say you're a little
confused about how it works when there aren't
any cables and all the rest of it. Well, the
answer is it does have to have a separate transmitter
somewhere. Well, the one that we're using is
way up there with Leslie on the television centre
roof. It's approximately 30 metres above ground
level, and as you can see from here, I've got
a very good view of Pete and a rather soggy,
damp -looking Blue Peter garden. The aerial and
the transmitter... which have been relaying the
conversations to and from Peter's roving phone
are ordinary pieces of radio equipment. The interesting
piece is fitted in underneath the transmitter
behind this plate here. There's lots of special
circuits and it's the circuits which have been
dealing not only with the simple conversational
side of the exercise but also with the actual
dialing mechanism part and that is the tricubic.
Well, if you use your mobile phone anywhere within
a seven mile radius of this equipment, you should
actually be able to speak to a friend from all
sorts of places, up a mountain, in a boat, in
the middle of a lake, or in the middle of a field.
And I do think that this development is going
to be a great boon to people who are very busy,
but who need to communicate with people who are
at a bit of a distance and who haven't got a...
proper telephone handy. People like businessmen
and particularly farmers and doctors. Very good
development indeed. Well, from here on the BBC
Television Centre roof, it's back to down there
in the Blue Peter Garden with Pete. Whilst we've
got our cameras out of doors today, it did seem
the perfect opportunity to do a bit of gardening.
I was actually going down there to do some digging
and composting over in the plot, but it's ridiculous.
It's like a major disaster area down here at
the moment. It's very muddy, pointless doing
anything, so we'll have to leave that till another
day. Something I will point out, though, just
whilst I'm out here, is the grass. If you remember,
when we were out here during the summer, it was
really very parched and brown. Well, now it's
lush and green, so the rain's doing us a lot
of good. Myself, I don't actually like it. The
cameraman's nodding in agreement too, so... from
a very wet outside back to a nice warm indoor
studio. This is Nick and Sue with Cheddar Box,
giving you all you need to know about musical
entertainment. Cheddar Box! Cheddar Box! Cheddar
Box! Cheddar Box! Cheddar Box! Have you got a
Blue Peter badge? Have I? Yes. Oh yes, I have
a gold one. Brilliant. Well deserved as well.
Well deserved. What's the funniest moment from
the years on Blue Peter? There's one that stands
out about all of those, and I'm sure you know
what it is. We were going to Sri Lanka, it was
then called Ceylon. I don't know if you remember,
it was 1969. No, no. Because we were going to
Sri Lanka, we thought, well, we're about to meet
some elephants there. So let's have an elephant
in the studio and talk about elephants. So we
had a baby elephant in the studio called Lulu.
And well, the rest is... I doubt there are many
people who have not seen it. Well, yes. It's
shown over and over and over again. It comes
out top of all the polls for the funniest television
moment of all time on regular occasions. John,
thou and I were trying to stick to a script whilst
the baby elephant basically did what it wanted.
and the reason it did that was the element of
control that its handler had was a slightly bulbous
-ended stick which he would gently, and I mean
gently, tap the elephant on the forehead and
the elephant would do exactly what he wanted.
But it was really gentle, it was just a reminder,
the elephant had a chain around its neck and
he would do this. And Billy Baxter, in her great
wisdom, said to him, Alex, do you think you could
not use that stick? because it looks rather cool.
He didn't use the stick and the elephant didn't
do anything it wanted. It didn't do anything
he wanted. It just did what it wanted, which
was lovely. And it was extremely funny. You couldn't
have written it. It's one of those things that
just happened. Brilliant at the moment she has
12 pints of milk a day and two buckets of water
But when she's fully grown she'll have 50 gallons
a day And I wouldn't like to be the one who has
to give her all that and you'll notice that she
hasn't got any tusks But actually, in Salon,
even the male elephants don't have tusks. We're
having a slight penny down here, a slight problem.
You're supposed to be drinking it, Lulu. It happens
to all elephants, don't it? Thank you very much
indeed. Can you stand back a little bit? Well,
I think we're going to see all sorts of very
exciting new and different things when we're
in Salon. He doesn't want to leave us. Hello.
I was saying we'll see all sorts of very exciting
things But one thing we must do one very important
thing before we leave and that is to make sure
that our animals are going to be as happy as
we're obviously going to when we're on holiday
Well our animals aren't gonna be happy in fact
because they're going away on holiday too. They're
gonna spend it out in the country But Lulu won't
be there! Oh, dear! How are you doing? Marky!
How's it going? All right, Alex? Marky! You all
right? You all right, Alex? Oh, there we are.
You all right? Right. Right. Come here. Here.
Off you go, Lulu! And there she goes, out of
the studio! Farewell! Oh, dear, I've trodden.
And, uh, if I'm allowed to mention, I've heard
you comment a few times over the years. in interviews
that you were asked about Biddy Baxter and you
really weren't too keen, were you, I don't believe?
Well, she was a hard lady to work for, but she
had an iron fist that controlled that show. It
worked in the day, yeah. And the program was
successful because of her, not because of Baxter.
She laid down the law, things were done her way
or they weren't done. So they got done and it
was her way. There was no argument and no discussion.
and where i really fell out with it was because
they were very unreasonable about our rates of
pay very badly i mean when i left blue peter
i won't tell you how much but when i left blue
peter my salary was quite low and the next job
i got was for the bbc's television department
which i went straight to which was a show called
stopwatch which was a sports program which i
did five series of up in manchester but immediately
i was paid three times as much per program. They
kept our rates very low. They were very major.
I mean, they didn't have the budget. I know those
programs didn't have that kind of budget, but
they were very bad lows. So it was the best job
in television but the worst page. I understand
totally, no brilliantly put. Now obviously John
Noakes had Shep. Now am I right in believing
that after the shows you took Petra home? Did
you have Petra? Is that how it works? Oh yes,
Petra was my dog. I mean she was owned by the
BBC but she was my dog. I took over her when
I joined the program. A few months in, Billy
Baxter I said. the dog isn't very happy in the
studio and never has been but maybe if you took
her home and looked after her she would like
to come into the studio with you and that was
true and that's what happened so that's how it
worked and she passed away my dog for eight and
a half years until she died i was gonna say she
passed away just before you left i seem to remember
Right, got a few more minutes. I'd like to get
you obviously through the crufts thing. I mean,
your love of dogs, no one's got any doubt about
that, Peter. So how long did you do the crufts
thing on BBC? 41 years. 41? Well. Amazing. I
knew it had been a long time. One of the greatest
innovations at Crufts over the years has been
the development of the Discover Dogs pavilions.
Every breed of dog recognised by the Kennel Club
can be found here on any day of the show. I'm
standing by a stand of my favourite breed. I
keep these myself, standard wire -haired Dachshunds.
They're getting a bit of attention, which is
nice to see. Lovely animals, but there are six
Dachshunds. This is an interesting thing. More
Dachshund breeds. as a breed than anything else.
They're only determined by size and by their
coat. You have standard wire hairs, standard
long hairs, standard smooths. You also have miniatures
of the same. Six different ones, essentially
it's the same dog in a slightly different guise.
The owners of each breed come along to Discover
Dogs and can talk. You can get all the information
you need to know about a particular breed. Andrew
and Beverly here own the wires. These are lovely
standard wire haired dachshunds. There's one
down there on the floor as well. I love them.
Why do you like the dachshund? I think it's a
breed that is quite gregarious. It's happy to
stay at home in front of the fire. Or it's happy
to do a ten mile walk. What's the hardest thing
about them? For me... it's giving them the right
amount of food and keeping the weight down. Dachshunds
love their food, so it is a question of weighing
the food out and making sure that they only have
the right amount of food, otherwise they will
put weight on. It's a problem I find all the
time. They're absolutely gorgeous. I'm going
to look at some of the other varieties, but I
mustn't just hog it all with our lovely wires,
we'll look at some of the others. We talked about
the standard wires, well these are the Smooth
hair, standard size. Well, they're not all, because
there's a long hair in there. We're getting all
confused. But don't you bark at me. Aren't you
lovely? I've got to say, this is a typical pose.
A Dachshund, not disturbed by anything. I mean,
there are people all around here walking past
nearly standard. Look at this. Hey. Hey. Good
morning. Absolutely gorgeous. Obviously, you're
amazingly kind and come on to shows like this
and chat about your career and how interesting
it really is. But what are the next sort of moves
for Peter Purves because you're still quite...
quite lively, and I'll tell you what, if I hadn't
have seen your age, I wouldn't have believed
it, you know. You look absolutely wonderful.
What's next for Peter Purves? Because you're
not one that's going to retire. The next thing
in the pipeline is a series of podcasts that
I'm going to do, which are going to be about
dogs, and going to be about famous people with
dogs, essentially. So that's just going to be
the hook that we hang it on. Brilliant. But that's
going to be a sponsored podcast. I've got an
association with a company called Limp Bells
who are, they do a, it's a joint supplement for
dogs. Okay. Which is called Youmoo. And I'm the
ambassador for that. And so that will be tied
in with that. I do a regular tweet once a month
or once a fortnight. I'm doing regular tweets,
Facebook postings on their behalf about various
things to do with dogs. It's not keeping me busy,
but it is something that I'm doing. I'm hoping
there'll be more Big Finish work. There's no
reason why not. The writers that work for Big
Finish are always keen to write something for
Stephen. There are several writers that I have
done some really expensive work on Big Finish.
with. One is Simon Garrier, one is Juna McCormack.
They write wonderful things. It's a very nice
medium. I like acting on radio. I think it's
good fun. It has the additional bonus you don't
have to learn the lines. But you do need to do
your homework beforehand if it's going to be
right. I do work very hard to make those as good
as I possibly can. So I'm hoping more of that
will come along. There's no reason why they won't
be going during the lockdown. It's been difficult.
I've done one story since the lockdown where
I was in a studio in Suffolk with a video link
to the director and that's all. There was no
one else so with all my bits and all the rest
we've done in other studios with other people
we know. It hasn't gone out yet but it will have
been quite a difficult editing job. So I think
it'll be very good, it's a true story, so fingers
crossed. Fingers crossed indeed, Peter. Sue's
got one last question for you. Yeah, it's just
a question. You said you've got a gold blue Peter
badge. Was there different colour blue Peter
badges? Oh, where have you been all your life,
Sue? She wasn't allowed to watch it. When I was
in it, there were... with a blue ship on it,
which was the standard one. Then there was a
competition. I'm not counting competition badges.
Then there was a silver -backed one. Actually,
it was a blue one with a silver ship on it. And
then there was the gold one, which is the gold
not in the triangular shape, not in the shield
shape. It's just a ship. It's the Blue Peter
ship in gold. It is, of course, not real gold,
but there we are. Those are the three. And the
standard one would be given to people who...
came up with an interesting idea for the program
or just wrote a nice letter to us or whatever.
They sent us a picture or something. If they
did something exceptional, they'd get a silver
badge. If they did something really extraordinary
and there were only a few, then they would get
the gold badge. And that's what it was. Now,
there are a great number of badges. I mean, badges
for the different anniversaries, because I mean,
the show's been going over 60 years now. 62 years,
I mean, it's incredible. It's still going and
it's a green badge which is for environmental
things, the sports badge, there's all sorts of
different badges. Kids like collecting badges.
I used to be a Cub Scout. You did something,
you got a badge for it. You're a rope climber
or you can light a fire, a campfire, then you
got your camping badge and so on. You wanted
those badges. So kids have always liked that.
And they still do. They still like them. It is
still, it's not just a cult following. It's still
a very successful show. It doesn't get the kind
of audience that we used to get. It couldn't.
Nothing does. Not even EastEnders and places
like that. They don't get our kind of audience.
We used to get eight and a half million during
the winter months and we used to get five million
even during the summer months. without playing.
I think he gets about a quarter of a million
now or something. To go on a summer filming trip
and then have a holiday ourselves and then we
come back and off we go. We did 80 episodes a
year. I think I did something like 850 episodes
of the show. I don't doubt you for one minute.
Peter, it's been absolutely amazing but before
you do go, you brought a book out some time ago.
Tell us the title of that and it's an autobiography
type book I believe, yeah? I believe you brought
out an autobiography if you tell us about that
please. It's out of print now. It's not been
reprinted. It's sold about 8 ,000 copies in hardback.
And it was called, here's one I wrote earlier.
Brilliant, I like it. People still keep on finding
it. They turn up on eBay. It wasn't really an
autobiography. It was as I remembered things.
I wrote it straight off the cuff, straight out
of my head. I didn't do a great deal of research
on it. I just wrote about what I remembered.
People seemed to have liked it. The press didn't.
The Daily Mail hated it. I don't want to do sort
of iffy reviews, but the audience for whom I
wrote it... Well, it was great, so that's fine.
And that's what's important. And one very last
thing, Peter. Websites, Facebook groups, anything
you've got, this is your moment. Just throw it
all out to the listeners now, please. Thank you.
Well, obviously my website is available. It's
not up to date, I have to admit. It needs updating
by at least a year and a half. I haven't done
anything to it since the lockdown. But that's
a nice, simple one. www .peterpervis .net So
that's an easy one. I'm on Facebook and I'm on
Twitter at service underscore Peter. Brilliant.
Thank you very much. Perfect, Peter. Thank you
very much, Peter. It's been an absolute pleasure
for us to chat to you. Pleasure for me as well.
Thanks very much. You have been listening to
the Chatterbox Redux podcast with Sue and Nick
and today our special guest was Blue Peter and
Cruff's TV presenter and Doctor Who actor Peter
Purvis. If you're interested in becoming a future
guest on the Chatterbox Redux podcast or the
radio show Chatterbox UK, you're welcome to submit
songs, books or whatever it is you do and send
us a CV, synopsis or press release. However,
we receive several thousand such press releases
every week and it's impossible to reply to each
one individually. Why not email us or leave a
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Nick and Twinkle the tuxedo cat. Thank you very
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Redux podcast. In the meantime, take care, we
thank you for your company and we catch you then.
Bye bye. This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox
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