# Blue Peter and P & O Canberra



## 6639 (Apr 20, 2006)

Does anyone remember way back in the infancy of the TV prog. Blue Peter when they began building a model kit in solid timber of the "new" ocean liner Canberra, to coincide with the launching of the Canberra in ( I think ) 1961. 

I was a young boy at the time and couldn't afford ( nor could my parents) to buy one of these kits, but ( my memory now gives out for I can't remember which one of the team "built" the model bit by bit each week) it was completed on the set of Blue Peter. 

More to the question did anyone else buy one of these model kits of Canberra, and where are they "all" now. 

If anyone did make one along side the Blue Peter team have they any photos of her. I'd love to see some. It has puzzled me for years. 

(Hippy) cheers,neil.(POP)


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## lurline (Jan 8, 2007)

hello neil
i began with kit at 14 years old!
the last was the canberra from airfix.but before i can buy this modell,was airfix close!
on the list from new airfix is she not now!
it was,i think for 3-4 ago to buy again.today the only way is ebay:-((


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## 6639 (Apr 20, 2006)

hi, lurline, thanks for the reply. the boat kit that was built on the tv programme was made from solid timber and was over 4 feet long. it was, in those days ( 1960/61), quite intriguing. thanks again.neil.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Sorry, Neil, can't help with the Canberra model, but I do remember what a great show "Blue Peter" was. Is it still going?

Remember those "buttons and badges" collections they had? The kids sent in their buttons and badges and somehow the pile was converted into money to buy a landrover for some underpriveleged place.

I used to know a bloke who worked for United Towing and he saw a Landrover in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, the famous Blue Peter galleons on its doors were faded but still easily identifiable. Someone was using it as a taxicab! Can't beat the facts of life.

Another old pal was working as a contract draughtsman in Rio de Janeiro when the Blue Peter team were there to do some filming (early '70s). The B.P. gang gravitated to drinking in the same bars as him and his mates. One of the presenters was there with his boyfriend and their entry was always greeted with a chorus of "What do we have to do to get a Blue Peter badge from you, Peter?"

Hey, I'm, only repeating what I was told, OK?

John T.


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## 6639 (Apr 20, 2006)

yes it is, john. in fact my young daughter has just won a Blue Peter badge for the model boat she is building at the moment , and she's only 10. start em young, I say. and I can imagine those guys on a run ashore.cheers, neil


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Thanks, Neil, and congratulations to your daughter.

John T.


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## 6639 (Apr 20, 2006)

cheers, John. she walked around on saturday with chest out in pride, and then promptly lost it. took us the next two hours to retrace our steps and find it again. all now well in camp.neil.


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## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

trotterdot aussie always had the hots for valerie singleton.........or was it peter purves? 

he never really got over it............... hence the defection to the colonies.

john noakes was just a bit too butch............

ggggeettttttttt downnnnnn shep....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

sparkie2182 said:


> trotterdot aussie always had the hots for valerie singleton.........or was it peter purves?
> 
> he never really got over it............... hence the defection to the colonies.
> 
> ...


Sparkie, that was supposed to be our little secret! What 12 year old didn't have a photo of Val under their pillow? The ones who had a snap of Peter, I suppose!

Maxine McKew, a sort of Australian thinking man's crumpet, ex broadcaster and now standing as a Labor candidate against Prime Minister, John Howard always reminds me of Valerie - naturally she'd get my vote if I lived in the elctorate.

John T.

PS that "Labor" isn't a spelling mistake, that's how they spell it here.

PPS Phew, Neil, I went into a panic then - so glad you found the badge.


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## am35 (Sep 5, 2009)

Hi, 
The part of the blue peter programe on the canberra was called slipway 14, as the ship had not yet been named.
Yes, I built the solid wood model as described, it was not very good, but set me on the path of model boats of all sorts & I still build them today.


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## 6639 (Apr 20, 2006)

blimey, am35......i thought for a while that i was dreaming it.
do you have any photos of it, or recollect where you bought it from.
i'd love to hear your story about the model.
cheers, neil.


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## am35 (Sep 5, 2009)

*Canberra*

Yes, it was a long time ago.
I didn't have the kit & made the model from scratch, it was a carved wooden hull bread & butter style, & I got as far as fitting the decks & the sides, but no further. Then it sat in my mums loft for many years & was eventually dumped when I got married.
It has come to light recently as I am moving house (after 35 yrs) & I found some of the childrens newspaper articles I kept about the ship & the model.
I don't remember if there was a kit at the time, as I'm sure I would have pestered my parents for it.
I have also found the airfix kit (Unfinished as well!) of the Canberra, and I have kept it.
If you think it would be any use I can send a copy of the paper, please pm me if required.

John


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## john g (Feb 22, 2005)

Wow this shakes the memory cells...I do remember the program and if I'm not mistaken they launched the model in the studio and of course Canberra was state of the art at the time. Incidently John T (trotterdot pom) Did you go to either Birkenhead or Riversdale colleges in the mid 60's ? I seem to remember yours or a similar name on the marine engineering section, I was an app with T&J Brocklebank at the time..............John G


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## Scousegit (Aug 18, 2005)

Neil,
I can’t remember which model they built on Blue Peter, perhaps it was the Airfix example however, there was a special edition of the ME at this time which featured the ship and a building project. There was a plan supplied or perhaps you had to send away for it, don’t remember. 

I still have this ME and perhaps the plan, somewhere. It was quite basic probably no more than a foot long and built using the bread and butter system. I don’t know of any that were actually built but it was a pretty interesting series which set me on the road to marine modelling.
It was Chris Trace who built the model.

Blue Peter was the best programme of its type for many years and certainly has not been bettered in my view. Even when I was working I would race home to see the programme followed by the Magic Roundabout of course.

Scouse.


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## 6639 (Apr 20, 2006)

Hi Jon,

Yes it was a Bread and butter construction one, and was said to have been a "kit" at the time but from recollection I thought it was much longer than that.

But we all know what "kits" were like in those days, 1960/61'ish.
I always remember that one of the presenters saying( and showing very cack handedly as he had never used one in his life before from what I saw) "now children , don't carve this yourself...get a grown up to do it for you".

And then promptly started to hack away with a bloody big chisel, lol

Some hope of any grown up in my family using a chisel??? (Jester) (Hippy) (Smoke)


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