Blue Peter: Your memories

Blue Peter has made its final broadcast from London ahead of its move to Salford.

To mark the occasion 426 people took part in a world record breaking hula hoop dance at BBC Television Centre.

BBC website readers have been sharing their memories of the long-running children's programme.

Anna McNay, 31, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Anna McNay, aged four, won Blue Peter badges

I won my Blue Peter badge for making and sending a card to Janet Ellis after her parachuting accident.

Also, I got a green badge for a report I wrote about making lard cake for the birds in our garden. I later got a silver badge for a magazine I compiled.

When I was 12, I visited the Blue Peter garden for the day as part of a Press Pack competition, as I wrote an article about my experience of India, which got printed in Fast Forward magazine.

When Blue Peter moves location, the garden will no longer be Percy Thrower's, which is sad.

I enjoyed it when I was younger because it was fun but you could also learn from it too.

Simon Ball, 53, Texas, USA

Simon Ball with his Blue Peter badge

I have two Blue Peter badges: one for sending in a letter when I was about eight, and the second for appearing on the show with the 1st Hook Scout Band after Biddy Baxter saw us performing in the Lord Mayor of London parade.

We played so loudly we broke the microphones in the studio! We appeared after a feature about another scout troop who had set a world record for tying knots.

It was fun to meet John Noakes, Peter Purves and Valerie Singleton and I still have the paper cup I got from the BBC canteen.

I moved to the US 15 years ago and my badges have been with me ever since.

Helena Watkins, 43, Leeds

Helena Watkins with her Blue Peter books

I watched the programme as a child and entered many competitions.

I got a Blue Peter badge aged about seven when they had a competition following Chris Bonington's ascent of Everest.

They wanted drawings of the Abominable Snowman. My Mum said that she nearly didn't send my picture in because it had some messy splashes on the edges but Blue Peter liked it.

I remember the picture - it was of a wolf on his back legs.

I got the badge with a letter congratulating me for being a runner-up. I was chuffed at the time.

I have nearly all the Blue Peter books including a rare first edition which I got just last year.

More of your comments

I will be sad to see the show move as I was lucky enough to be a competition winner over 20 years ago when you were still invited on to the show. It is still one of my earliest memories - the train journey to London and the whole experience of being on TV was a thrill although to my mother's dismay I did manage to get my trousers dirty playing in the Blue Peter garden before we started filming. Tom, Bristol

I was a lucky competition winner who came down to TV Centre in the 70s to meet the presenters. At the time it was the classic Val/John/Peter and Lesley had just joined. It was a marvellous experience for a youngster, and we were given a tour of the whole building. We even saw the new Dr Who being filmed with Tom Baker. We were in the studio watching BP going out live and then had a party with the team afterwards. Gordon, Sunderland

The show was a staple part of my childhood with Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves as brilliant presenters. I still have a signed photo of Christopher Trace and Valerie somewhere, and in a competition to name three sea lion pups in the early 1960s the entry from my two sisters and I was shared with the nation. I sent in an idea for something to make and received a lovely letter back from Biddy Baxter with that iconic Blue Peter badge. Ian Dickens, Portsmouth

Lulu the elephant is a piece of classic TV history. It was one of those "you couldn't make it up" moments with all the messy mayhem, and the elephant treading on John Noakes' foot and the look on the Benny Hill lookalike keeper's face. Priceless! David Brown, Gloucester

When I was a child we moved home and I suppose I saw Blue Peter as my friends who had moved with me. Even to this day I have vivid memories of the shows and I have a large collection of BP memorabilia that I continue to build up even today. Phil Schofield, Oxfordshire

Janet Ellis, Simon Groom and Peter Duncan flying in to TV Centre and over the doughnut on broomsticks for a Halloween special of Blue Peter - albeit against a very primitive blue screen. Maybe not defying gravity, but defining my childhood ambition to work in TV. Simon, London

Nothing says it better than "get down Shep" and also the collection of Blue Peter annuals I have in my parents' loft. Steve Kelly-Harding, Chippenham says:

As I was growing up in London in the 1960s there were few TV programmes that I was allowed to watch - but Blue Peter was one of them. It was a regular event in the week. I remember the incident with the baby elephant. I always wanted to have a Blue Peter badge, but despite my efforts at collecting silver milk bottle tops I was not one of the lucky ones. Susan Hunt, Leidschendam, The Netherlands