For nearly 54 years I have been watching Blue Peter.

I’ve seen presenters come and go, Purchased annuals annually.

Watched nearly all 4700 episodes And I’ve seen all the dogs, all the pets… My favourite? Meg, the wonderful Border Collie with the sleek shiny hair and the symmetrically pointed ears that my friend Natasha has always longed for!!

It has been revealed that the BBC has plans to scrap the legendary show that is Blue Peter, possibly leaving the badge holders, like myself who happens to have Green, Blue AND silver a part of an elite body, which is something I’ve never ever considered, as I’m not a privately educated, Caucasian middle-aged aristocratic male, for I, I am the humble ‘Amber Bubble’ as a legendary Democratic Participation Youth Worker, Terry Husher once named me.

I first found out this devastating piece of news before I was due to sit my AS English Literature exam.

It sent shockwaves through my body. I felt like my life was over, I felt worse than the mortifying time when I was exposed to the hideous new ‘Toys R Us’ advert (And we all remember how bad that was ).I desperately tried not to cry into my English revision notes, as it would make my impressive notes run into a river of sadness at the loss of a great television show.

Since 1958, Blue Peter has been broadcasting on the BBC, every decade it seemed as though the time of which the episode lasted was increased, which was brilliant as it meant more time for me to watch it..

Blue Peter has been a part of life as most of us golden oldies (17 going on 18) know it… Coming home from school on a dreary winters’ day to sit down with a mug of cocoa by the fireside, switching the telly box on and watching Blue Peter, those were the good old days.

However, recently, I have witnessed what Blue Peter is competing with on its counterpart CBBC, and I must say, I’m astounded at the drivel being fed into the eyes and ears of the future generations. Goodness knows how they’re going to survive in the real world with shows such as ‘Ministry of Curious stuff’, ‘MI High’ and ‘Sarah J’ which features an episode about manipulation… Is this really what the sweet and innocent children are growing up watching?

Yeah, I give credit to the BBC for being mildly imaginative, yet if they say that Blue Peter ‘isn’t popular’, I cannot justify how ‘Dick and Dom’ can be? In my day it was the humble unknown animal ‘Arthur’ which we now know to be Aardvark, ‘The Basil Brush Show’ and the legendary ‘Dumping Ground’ girl ‘Tracy Beaker’ who was a character in best-selling children’s’ author Jacqueline Wilsons book, ‘The Story of Tracy Beaker’.

Tracy was feisty, strong and smart – everything a girl should grow up to be these days, which is why we need more shows like “Bog Breath” Tracy Beaker, which with great pride, I still watch to this day. Not only was Tracy a television character, she was the character in a novel, which inspired me to read more.

Blue Peter encouraged me to get involved and inspired me to do things I wouldn’t normally do, and Tracy Beaker showed me how to be cool.

This blog brings the end of an era - the end of childhood as we know it.

No more competitions.

No more badges and the thrill of arriving home from school with a letter addressed to you, then going to ‘Lego Land’ and being presented your badge.

Nothing.

This is a plea - BBC, if you take away Blue Peter, please replace it with something that inspires the future generations of children to aspire to anything and everything they desire, enter competitions that could make them happy, fulfil their dreams, and a show that lets them reminisce to memories of the days of no television remote, and not a narrow selection of TV channels.

Because it seems as though there’s nothing traditional left.

Is ‘out with the old and in with the new’ really the best way of doing things?

No, not in this case.

Yes, your viewers may be declining, yet maybe the show could be advertised in a way in which shows the true fun of the ‘Blue Peter Challenges’ and competitions.

Blue Peter - A show that I grew up with, heavily influenced my childhood - an avid fan with badges and autographed pictures and letters that used to hang on the walls of my pink shoebox sized room cannot go.

It’s practically a part of British Heritage.

Life without Blue Peter will be blue.

I wish all of you readers who are sitting exams the best of luck, and to those who do not have exams, I hope you’re having a nice day.