Hello, I'm Kirstie Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.

For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.uk.

Radio 4. My castaway this week is the TV producer Biddy Baxter, a broadcasting legend.

She was in charge of Blue Peter for 23 highly successful years.

Responsible for the coveted Blue Peter badges, multi-million pound charity fundraising appeals,

and a nationwide lust for something called sticky-backed plastic.

Her master stroke was getting the young audience involved,

although the program's weekly postback of around 7,000 letters

must have given her a few headaches, In spite of some early careers advice that no one from Durham has ever got into the BBC,

her determination to make a career in broadcasting one out, and across the decades her steely reputation kept the show at the top of the ratings and steered it through quite a few mishaps and the odd spot of scandal. She says simply it was an exercise in trying to make children feel as if they belonged.

So, Viddy Baxter, you make that idea sound very simple indeed, but as we know, there are entire corporations

dedicated to that ideal these days.

What was your strategy?

Well, the beginning of the strategy was a symbol.

I got in touch with Tony Hart, young up-and-coming designer, and he designed the galleon. I mean it's now everybody has

logos but it didn't happen then and we said that this ship has got to be on

absolutely everything, the writing paper, the

fan photographs in the studio, so the program is synonymous with the ship.

And I suppose you could make the analogy if you wanted to that the

program was going off on a voyage of venture but it was just a very good symbol.

Your name is synonymous with Blue Peter so much so that when I told people I was coming to speak to you today,

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