Remembering Biddy Baxter after legendary Blue Peter editor dies, aged 92

A devoted fan of Enid Blyton, she wrote the author an effusive fan letter and was thrilled when she received what seemed like a personal reply. She wrote again and received exactly the same response. "I was heartbroken," she recalled. The sense of betrayal never left her. It became one of the guiding principles of Blue Peter, that every child who wrote in would receive an individual reply, signed by hand.

Baxter enjoyed an idyllic childhood. She found growing up during the war exciting rather than frightening. The wartime spirit of ‘waste not want not’ lived on in Blue Peter where everyone on the production team had to use scrap paper (most often the back of old scripts) – the countless ‘makes’ often crafted using household junk chimed brilliantly with Baxter’s ethos.

In 1952, Baxter won a place at the University of Durham to read social sciences, at a time when the student intake was only 6% female. Approaching graduation, she applied for a job as a trainee studio manager in BBC radio. There were a series of unnerving interviews with starchy BBC personnel. "Tell me Miss Baxter," asked one blue-rinsed harridan. "What would you do in a small space with a screwdriver?"

Baxter joined the Corporation on 8th October 1955. Three years later, she became a producer in schools and children’s radio, including the popular Listen with Mother series. But like many of her generation, she set her sights firmly on the exciting new world of television.

In 1962 she put herself forward for the vacancy of producer on Blue Peter. This had been running once a week for 15 minutes since 1958. There was strong internal competition but it was Baxter who emerged victorious. One of the unsuccessful candidates, Edward Barnes, was told he would have to work with her. "I was not best pleased," Barnes remembered. "At first, I gave her a pretty dusty time..."

The awkwardness soon turned into a shared understanding of the potential of the little programme which, without interference from above, they were now left to run as they saw fit.

Years before anyone used the term ‘branding’, Baxter and Barnes seized upon the idea of a logo (a galleon designed by artist Tony Hart) to appear in the set, the stationery and on badges, to be awarded to children who sent in letters and pictures or who took part in competitions. The badges had currency as they gained admission to a wide range of attractions.

To fund these innovations, Baxter barged into the office of much feared BBC executive Donald Baverstock (who, with some irony, was married to one of Enid Blyton’s daughters). She stated her case, he admired her bravado, and gave her the cash. It was a victory which informed all her further (and many) battles with BBC administration. She never gave up and invariably won.

She was always on the lookout to expand the show’s facilities. Spotting a patch of wasteland outside the Television Centre canteen, "Biddy claimed it like Captain Cook," recalled Edward Barnes, "turning it into the Blue Peter garden. Before long, people were asking for her permission to use it!"

Baxter and Barnes initiated the very first Blue Peter appeal, for second hand toys to distribute to less fortunate children. The appeals steadily grew in scope and ambition; the most successful was the 1979 Great Blue Peter Bring and Buy for Cambodia, which raised an extraordinary £3,710,823 for the victims of dictator Pol Pot and his regime.

In 1965, the now hugely successful Blue Peter went twice-weekly and Baxter decided to call herself editor; no-one questioned it. She became one of the most powerful women within the BBC. She claimed to be unaware of sexism but was savvy enough to practise pioneering role reversal in the programme.

When it was decided to feature a baby on the show over the first two years of its life, the items were handled by John Noakes and Peter Purves. If there was cooking to be done, the male presenter donned the oven gloves. Conversely, all the female presenters faced their share of the white-knuckle challenges.

Baxter wrote or rewrote every studio script in her characteristic loping handwriting, ensuring that although presenters and production teams came and went, the series itself spoke with one voice. Each edition was minutely planned, carefully rehearsed and shot like a drama, with the pictures cut on precise word cues. Baxter would sit in the studio gallery, sometimes snapping her stocking tops in indignation when she felt a visual cut should come.

To the crews and presenters who worked for her, it was the sound of Baxter that they remembered most, the machine gun clatter of her stilettos rat-a-tat-tatting down the metal stairs from the gallery and onto the studio floor. After a dress rehearsal, there were last-minute cuts, rewrites and reshuffles, tough for presenters who did not have autocue (Baxter felt the budget could be better spent).

She wasn’t against things going wrong, so long as they did so in a way the viewers would enjoy. The most famous example was Lulu the Elephant, who ran amok in the studio, urinating and defecating as the presenters struggled to stick to their script. As it was a pre-recorded edition, Baxter could have demanded a retake – recognising television gold, she let it go out. It became the most popular and requested Blue Peter clip.

Baxter was always prepared to take risks with talent. In an era of wall-to-wall received pronunciation, she gave breaks to the likes of proud Yorkshireman John Noakes and Lancashire lad Peter Purves. For the first 18 months, Noakes was a disaster but she persisted with him, as she later did with Simon Groom, who shared an equally inauspicious start. Both turned a corner and became highly popular presenters.

Those found wanting were rapidly dispensed with but she was intensely irritated by the persistent urban myth that she had sacked presenter Janet Ellis for the ‘crime’ of getting pregnant after separating from her husband. In fact, Ellis remained on the show throughout her pregnancy.

Unsurprisingly, most presenters feared Baxter, but many also admired her. The only lasting fall out was with John Noakes. The row ignited in 1978 when Noakes announced his intention to leave the show. Noakes’s dog, Shep, belonged, like all the Blue Peter pets, to the BBC.

Baxter agreed to let him keep Shep on condition that he sign an agreement not to use the dog in advertising. Noakes reacted with fury, refused the offer and made a series of commercials with a lookalike dog, Skip. He never forgave Baxter. She reserved her regrets for the viewers. "It’s sad for them, to have grown up with this hero, probably the best ever presenter, who turned out to be so bitter."

To Baxter, it was always the audience who mattered most. If she felt that their faith in the programme might be damaged, she was ruthless. When Lesley Judd’s marriage to actor Derek Fowlds came unstuck in 1974, Fowlds threatened to go to the press. Baxter told him that if he did so, she would use her influence to ensure that Fowlds never worked for the BBC again. "Total bluff," she admitted later. "But it worked."

Baxter herself remained tight-lipped about her own private life. There were two defining relationships. The first was with a close friend from Schools radio, the eminent musicologist John Hosier, who became her constant companion; the other her affectionate partnership with Edward Barnes, who became the head of the children’s department. This bestowed considerable favour both on Blue Peter and Baxter herself.

She was fearless in pursuit of the best for the show. She wanted the biggest, the best and the ‘exclusive’. Blue Peter was her everything but the departure of her beloved Barnes as boss and protector led to the appointment of Anna Home, with whom Baxter had never seen eye to eye.

Within months, Baxter was made redundant. Her last show was transmitted at the end of June 1988, in which she was awarded the show’s highest award, a gold badge. It was a showier send-off than that received by many departing presenters.

In 2000, just weeks before his death, Baxter finally married John Hosier. She devoted the next two decades to running The John Hosier Music Trust, dedicated to giving opportunities to young musical talent. In 2013 Sir David Attenborough presented her with a special lifetime award from BAFTA. This joined a string of other honours, including honorary degrees from both Newcastle and Durham Universities, an MBE and the Pye Award for Distinguished Services to Television.

In her final years, she faced the trials of cancer with customary courage and brio. The once de rigueur high heels had to be abandoned but Baxter’s sense of style was undiminished; she favoured vivid colours, with expensive silk scarves, and statement jewellery, with her hair still swept up in a slightly untidy bun. Eventually, Baxter’s diminishing mobility meant that she was confined to her flat, where she was looked after by friends and, most of all, her devoted long-term PA, Pat Spencer.

Biddy Baxter’s unremitting focus on the needs and interests of her audience, coupled with her natural leadership, powerful personality and extraordinary work ethic, established Blue Peter as the most significant and influential of all British children’s programmes. Her legacy is woven into the formative experiences and memories of millions of British people.

• Biddy Baxter: The Woman Who Made Blue Peter by Richard Marson is available now