Black Day For Blue Peter

After previous scandals involving cocaine-snorting presenters and fiddling the results of phone-in compos, the tired old kids’ TV stalwart Blue Peter is in a bit of trub again, this time for ignoring the pleas of a thousand schoolkids when naming the latest feline mascot. The kids’ moniker of choice was “Cookie”, though the producers trampled on their dreams by sneakily claiming the popular vote was for “Socks”. Ho hum.

It reminded me of a similar Blue Peter competition I entered when I was about five years old involving the naming of a baby owl. Viewers were asked to send in ideas for names and the most popular would be chosen. The prize, as I remember, was a flight in a Spitfire or Lancaster or some military plane or another (the theme of flight – both owls and aeroplanes fly – being an extremely tenuous one).

After careful consideration in my half-decade-old mind, I decided an excellent name for the little fella would be Flaps, and I wrote to Blue Peter to tell them so (though obviously Mum and Dad stuck the stamp on the envelope and popped it in the post). My slightly older/wiser sister opted for the more sophisticated, and indeed topical, Bright Eyes, which I remember made it into the shortlist of the final five.

The disappointment that Flaps wasn’t even considered as an option when the show was broadcast is something I remember to this day. Though considering the sneaky underhand methods recently revealed, I (along with a thousand like-minded peers with the same request) could well have been diddled.

So sadly, Flaps the owl never came to be, I didn’t get my ride in a Spitfire, and the show’s producers no doubt rubbed their hands in glee at the mass swindling of its viewership.

For the record, Bright Eyes didn’t win either (I can’t remember what did). All I know is that it wasn’t’ f*cking Flaps. Bastards…