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How woke ruined Blue Peter: BBC made Britain's favourite children's TV show so relentlessly preachy it became unwatchable, says CHRISTOPHER STEVENS
Blue Peter was once the BBC's flagship - the longest-running children's programme in the world, watched by eight million during its heyday every Monday and Thursday.
In recent years, after imposing an agenda of worthiness and virtue-signalling on the show, Broadcasting House executives watched audiences dwindle to less than 40,000 and stripped it back to one live episode a week. Cheap filler has become so desperately needed that the current line-up of presenters Abby Cook, Shini Muthukrishnan and Joel Mawhinney now read out letters from readers each week – a tactic that used to be confined to local radio. That traditional sailor's hornpipe – jaunty, foot-tapping and catchy – was recorded in a dozen different interpretations, including a rock rendition by Tubular Bells maestro Mike Oldfield.
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