7 funny moments from vintage Blue Peter

Originally published 1 February 2018; updated 15 October 2018

Blue Peter, the long-running children's magazine programme, is celebrating its 60th anniversary.

To mark the occasion, Radio 2 are broadcasting a special new documentary, Happy Birthday Blue Peter, hosted by Barney Harwood. In the programme, other former Blue Peter presenters, including Valerie Singleton, Peter Purves, Mark Curry, Yvette Fielding, Matt Baker and Anthea Turner, talk about the secrets of its success.

• Listen to Happy Birthday Blue Peter (available from Tues 16 Oct, 9pm)

In the meantime, we've raided the archive to re-live some of the most hilarious moments in Blue Peter history. How many do you remember?

This unintentionally slapstick moment is one of the most famous segments in TV history - exemplifying the perils and pleasures of live broadcast.

A small but strong-willed elephant came into the Blue Peter studio and ran rings around presenters John Noakes, Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves. They gamely tried to continue presenting as Lulu ran amok, before she spent a penny on the studio floor.

Finally, Lulu's hapless keeper is pulled to the ground by his charge, landing in the "special" puddle.

From John Noakes scaling Nelson's Column (without any safety equipment) to Helen Skelton biking to the South Pole, Blue Peter has always been a show that fosters derring-do and a sense of adventure.

Sometimes, however, the action levels fell a little lower than expected.

In this classic 1970s segment on piranhas, presenter Peter Purves does his best to scare the audience. "If I was to put my finger inside the tank they'd bite it off, they're three of the most ferocious fish in the world," he says. "If a cow were to fall into the river where they are, they could strip it to a skeleton in a matter of minutes."

Nevertheless, when Peter and Val drop some meat into the tank for these flesh-eating fish, they just aren't interested. "That is what you might term a failure, isn't it?" says Peter, with brilliant bathos, as the creatures swim meekly around.

In 1982 Blue Peter featured robot dog R4, crafted from old tin cans and saucepans, a soda siphon and a motorbike battery.

R4 was introduced to Blue Peter's then resident canine Goldie. After some initial confusion, Goldie seemed to accept that R4 was a real dog friend - and circled round to his rear to greet him as only dogs know how...

In 1971 "the largest furry animal to ever visit the Blue Peter studio" made an appearance in the form of a ginormous teddy bear.

As the trio of presenters grappled with the unwieldy (and clearly very heavy) bear, it fell right on top of poor Peter. But the calamity wasn't to stop there. "He's losing his trousers!" said Peter - thankfully referring to the furry ted, rather than colleague John.

This anarchic segment about the glories of blue screen technology can't fail to warm the cockles of your heart.

Seemingly slightly out of his depth, an increasingly confused John dons blue clothes to make himself gradually disappear, ultimately appearing as a floating head under Peter's armpit. As the man himself says, "television is a very complicated business."

The mid 1980s were a great time for pop music. We had Wham!, Duran Duran... oh, and Jack the Blue Peter cat got his own theme song. An ode to Jack's infamous disappearing antics, the song was (perhaps unintentionally) rather hilarious. In fact, we think it's ready for a reboot in popularity.

Britain was a different world in the 1970s. This brilliant clip sees two Blue Peter presenters playing around with some brand new technology: portable telephones with "absolutely no trailing cables of any kind." That the phones need to be carried around in what look like handbags makes the whole thing even better.

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