Best of Helen and Barney 1 Blue Peter

Coming up on today's special edition of Blue Peter...

We're counting down our best Blue Peter moments.

From the time I animated my own scene in a pirate movie,

to a nerve-racking performance as I perform as part of a ballet.

And from the day I picked a special member of our team,

to a dramatic arrival at our new studios.

Right now, right here in the UK,

people have travelled from all over the world

to take part in the Olympics,

which is about trying to do your best. So, today,

we're going to celebrate by showing you our best bits on Blue Peter.

We've been lucky to bring you some pretty amazing things,

and it's been kind of tough, hasn't it, to select our 10 best bits.

But, at number ten, we've chosen a day that we'll never forget,

and we hope you won't, either.

For over 50 years,

Blue Peter was made at Television Centre in West London.

On the 26th of September 2011,

we made a dramatic arrival

at our new home in Salford, Greater Manchester.

Helen arrived by a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter,

and I arrived on a super-fast jet ski.

Which they wouldn't let me keep.

This is a massive day for us.

I'm en route to the brand-new home of Blue Peter

in Salford, Greater Manchester,

and, in true Blue Peter style,

I am on board a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter.

They're our neighbours!

That's Old Trafford, they're just across the water from us.

There's no time for a kick about now, though, cos I've got to get to the studio.

Thanks to these guys, I'm making pretty good progress.

I'm keeping an eye out for Harwood. I cannot see him.

He's meant to be on a jet ski somewhere. Slowcoach.

We're definitely going to be there before him.

I wouldn't worry about me, Helen. I'm on the way there, too.

Except I'm turning up on this 260 horsepower jet ski.

This thing is as fast as a Ferrari. It is awesome.

In fact, I might even be there before you are.

Not that it's a race or anything.

This piece of kit is so impressive,

and it's a real honour to be on board.

Doesn't everyone arrive at work like this?

There you go, Barney.

So, welcome to your new home.

That was so fun! Right, we'd better get changed.

Good idea.

There are so many ways to arrive at the studio,

but those had to be the coolest.

I think next time we should try arriving by a bungee.

Everybody else was so jealous. All the people who work in the offices

were like, "Who is that? Who is that?" Just us!

And later on in the countdown, I join that crew on board

a Royal Navy Sea King once again, and attempt a rescue mission at sea.

They dropped me out of the helicopter onto a boat.

I've seen it. It's very funny. Now, whilst we are talking about legends,

let's not leave out the biggest here on Blue Peter.

Barney the dog. His arrival was quite spectacular too, wasn't it?

Now, we got Barney from a rescue home for abandoned animals, and do you know what?

Choosing the new Blue Peter dog wasn't easy.

But, in the end, I think he chose me.

That's cos you got biscuits.

-How cool is Jazmine?

-She has great hair, doesn't she?

-Hello!

-Richard, do you have to be quite strict?

-We do.

We want the dog to go to the right home.

If it doesn't work out, the dog ends up back with us,

which isn't good for the owner, it's not good for the dog.

-Yeah.

-So we want to get it right at the start.

So this isn't about picking the cutest dog.

-I've really got to think about this, haven't I?

-Definitely, yeah.

Having had dogs before, I knew it was just as important

to match the owner to the dog, rather than the other way round.

Richard asked me to fill in a questionnaire.

This is nerve-wracking, it's like taking a test to see

if I'm good enough to have a dog.

What if I'm not good enough? That would be embarrassing. Right, be realistic, Helen.

Scribble out "large dog," and tick "small," I think.

Over the next few weeks, Richard kept an eye out for a suitable dog.

Luckily, two dogs came up trumps, and the day couldn't come soon enough for me to meet them.

-DOGS BARK

-Oh, he is... They're BOTH so cute. Hello!

Oh, yeah, I'll take them both, please. Hello!

That was very mean, bringing them both out at the same time.

So, the large one is a little bit older,

and he is a crossbreed, probably a cross dachshund, we think.

And then this little chap here, he is about 14 weeks old now,

and he is a cocker spaniel.

-He is gorgeous.

-Yeah, oh, definitely.

-Such a great colour.

Not that interested in me.

I really, really don't know how

I'm going to pick between these dogs.

-HE CHUCKLES

-You've given me an impossible task, Richard.

You are so lovely! Hello!

But then, so are you! Awww!

I thought I'd meet them and know.

But they are both so cute,

and they've both got different things going for them.

'It was, indeed, really a difficult decision.

'I didn't have time to decide immediately,

'but then something happened. I had a really strong gut feeling.'

He looks chilled out,

and Blue Peter can be quite hectic,

so I think this might be our new dog.

Oh, no! How do you say no to him!

I cannot imagine life without Barney now,

but cast my mind back, and I felt awful.

The weekend after Barney came to live with me, I was so worried

about that other spaniel, and I thought, "What happened to him? Is he still in the Dogs Trust?"

But there's no need to worry, because he ended up being adopted by a lady called Diana.

-They named him Daniel. Daniel the spaniel.

-Brilliant.

And he works at the Dogs Trust with them. Apparently he's often in the Wag! magazine.

Yeah, we had a message from Diana to say he's very boisterous,

but he's got a lovely personality, and we've got some photos

This is Daniel the spaniel on holiday in Cornwall.

We've got a shot of him here in the office, as well, doing some work, as all dogs should do.

And, finally, this is him with his new family.

Now, Daniel looks like he has plenty of fun,

but I can't imagine many dogs can say they've done what you've done.

We've taken you to the theatre, you've met movie stars, you've delivered gold badges.

We've been on all kinds of adventures.

I even tasted dog food for you, once. Yes, I did!

That's what I did for the love of this dog.

But he certainly gets stuck into the action.

You know what you're doing, you're a showbiz dog. I have faith. High-five!

-High-five! Yeah!

-Good boy! Good boy!

Oh!

No, you're not at the pet shop. They're having a fight!

I've got to say, he absolutely loves being on telly.

People often ask me, "Does he mind being in the studio?"

He loves the attention, doesn't he?

Yeah, look at the energy he's putting out here. Look! So excited!

-Look at him go!

-Don't pick on him!

-I'm only kidding. You know I love you, Barney.

We get loads of post sent in from you guys all about Barney the dog.

This is just the tip of the iceberg,

but we wanted to show you some of the ones that really caught our eye.

I love this one which was sent in by Georgia from Manchester.

It's got Barney the dog,

and she's painted a little wife. This is Bonnie.

As far as I know he hasn't got a wife,

unless there something you haven't told me.

But if there's any Bonnies out there watching, Barney is available.

-Not until she's met me, all right?

-All right.

This was sent in by Julie in Bristol.

We're both on there, Barney.

You're waving enthusiastically, we've got the other pets...

I always do, watch.

..Shelley, Suggs and Cookie.

Underneath, we've got a very colourful picture

which was sent in by Molly,

and that is Barney enjoying the Blue Peter garden.

By a house, which I think we should get in the Blue Peter garden.

Great idea.

This is Barney in pencil. It's been drawn by Laura.

Spent a long time putting detail into the fur.

Even got his tongue out, which Barney does a lot, cos he's cheeky.

Up here, Maxine's picture. Look at that.

We've got Barney the dog, the Blue Peter ship,

it's got "Blue Peter" around the borders.

And we have a blue border round the whole thing. Very cool.

Have a look at Farah's picture here, as well.

Farah's is Helen and Barney.

Helen is doing that lovely showbiz presenter pose,

and Barney is kind of doing the same, isn't he?

-What a lovely picture.

-He's got loads of showbiz presenter poses.

-He has.

You taught him everything he knows, didn't you?

Right then, keep your e-mails, letters and pictures coming in, we read everything you send us,

so please keep it coming, and we'll try and get some on the telly.

The best thing about Blue Peter for me,

not just your pictures, but it's going behind the scenes

so that we can give you the inside story on everything.

And when I got the chance to animate my own character in the latest Aardman movie,

I jumped at the chance. This is number eight in our countdown,

when I went behind the scenes on a movie set.

I'm about to watch the director, Peter Lord, act out the scene

that he would like me to animate on our pirate captain over here.

So this is what I have to do.

Argh!

'It's so quick, I have to watch it again.'

-That's not even a second, is it?

-62 frames, so it's just over two seconds.

-OK.

'One second of a movie is made up of 24 frames.

'This clip is just two seconds and 14 frames long.'

-That normally would take you how long to animate?

-Erm, a day?

-How long have I got?

-Two hours.

I better get started then, hadn't I?

'Stop-frame animation works by taking frame by frame shots on a camera.'

Head turns a little bit.

'Between each shot, the characters are repositioned just a tiny amount.'

I'm happy with how he's posed.

'So when the shots are played continuously, it looks like the characters are moving.'

That's it done, first frame. Yay!

'The key to this process is patience, and intense attention to detail.'

At the moment, all I'm doing is making him crouch to turn round and chuck his sword out.

But when you crouch, your shoulders move, your head moves, your neck turns. It's incredibly hard.

I mean, I'm hardly moving it at all, and it's making quite a big impact on the screen.

'But creating a character is about more than just moving their body.

'When I finally get the pirate captain facing the camera,

'I have to think about his facial movements, too.'

What I'm trying to do here is keep his eyes down the lens

of the camera, so it looks like he's looking straight at you.

It's the most intricate thing I think I've ever done.

'In Aardman's previous films, it was up to the animator to remould

'the character's mouth into the correct shape to give the illusion of speech.

'But for this movie, the animators have

'the luxury of a range of mouths created on a 3-D printer.'

Just to change the mouth takes some doing.

You have to take his beard off first, then slide the mouth off. So fiddly.

'7,000 mouths were printed in total,

'with 1,400 for the pirate captain alone.'

I've got 30 minutes left, and I can already sense

I don't have enough time to get all the mouths in and take the pictures.

Slightly over to the left.

'With my two hours running out fast...'

There, there! That's it!

'..And director Peter Lord waiting in another room to watch my efforts, I start to panic just a little.'

Put the wrong mouth on. Good.

I'm going to improvise now, because I completely messed this up.

'Peter's impressive movie credentials include animated favourites

'like Chicken Run, and Wallace and Gromit,

'so the pressure is really on to do well.'

As long as it has the right feel, good performance and delivers

exactly what Pete is requesting, then it's going to be a good shot.

I've completely just disregarded Peter Lord's video.

I'm not even looking at it any more. I'm so sorry, director, Sir.

I've just gone with what feels right and what looks, I think, half decent.

'Time's up.

'What will this Oscar-winning animator think of my humble efforts?'

-How are you?

-Hiya. Good to see you.

-You too.

-Welcome.

-Thanks very much. It's the moment of truth.

Aargh!

I'm not sure that I'm going to offer you a job, like, today.

What you've done with the turn of the body, I'm liking that.

If you were doing it for real, I'd say bigger,

I'd say a bigger gesture, a bigger arc.

I would have gone back and done a few things differently,

but I just knew I had to get him face-on at the end.

-Did you move the eyes? Put the pins in?

-I did, yeah.

-Scary, isn't it?

By the end, I think his left eye's slightly wrong.

-Gives him a slightly dazed look, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

But I've really enjoyed it. Thank you very much.

-Good, thank you. And you've done a good job.

-Yes!

-Done a good job, there.

Peter Lord is such a nice guy, and the people at Aardman are legends.

-I had such a good day.

-How excited were you? You just went...

I know, I actually punched the air, I was that excited.

Actually, after the conversation we had just there on camera,

afterwards, Peter Lord was saying he's a massive Blue Peter fan.

And to show his homage to the show, he's given one of his characters,

Pirate With Gout, a Blue Peter badge on his hat.

Have you seen the movie? Did you spot it? It's brilliant!

When we saw that, we were all like, "Yes! We're in the film!"

And it's not that subtle, you can spot it, so keep an eye out for it.

-And you know what?

-He's given him a nose like our producer, as well.

-You're going to never work again after that comment.

-Sorry, sorry.

Aardman aren't the only ones who are good at animation,

Ella has sent us a Blue Peter animation. Have a look at this.

If you're thinking of having a go at stop-motion animation,

it really is a brilliant thing to do.

All you need is a camera and your own imagination,

and as you can see, that's being used to its full potential here.

This is brilliant. You've got a guy with a staff,

and he's laser-beaming letters.

Now, it's starting to spell something that I'm recognising, but, erm...

Ella is a genius. Look, chickens in the letters as well.

Oh, the ship's coming past. Brilliant.

Now, stop-motion animation is 24 shots per second

which is obviously quite a lot of work.

Nice wheelie on the bike. I'm loving it. What a touch of genius that is.

You've got to give this a go. Look at what you can do.

That was such a clever piece of animation.

If you've got some stop-motion you'd like to share with Blue Peter,

send it in. We love it.

You've got to be so patient. Well done, Ella.

We were really, really impressed.

Now, sometimes on Blue Peter,

Barney and I are really asked to push ourselves to the limit.

That's exactly what happened when I was challenged

to walk a high-wire between the two chimneys at Battersea power station.

It was 150 metres long and 66 metres in the air.

If you're trying to work out how tall that is,

it's eight double-decker buses stacked on top of each other.

That's high.

It was high and it was very, very windy.

I was nervous, to say the least.

And that's why it's made it to number seven on our countdown.

Oh, it's so windy.

Aah!

Now, I just want to get this over with.

Just get across to the other side. Let's put this to bed.

Move your fingers.

One step in front of the other. That's how we get to the other side.

I've got you in my ear now, so I can hear you.

Relax your shoulders. There you go.

Pull your arms in.

Come on, Helen.

'The wire is wobbling and I know I'm doing it. I need to take control.'

She's a bit nervous

but she's using all the techniques that I've taught her.

I don't think there's an easier or harder part in the whole walk

but she's looking good.

She was a little nervous. Kind of, "Where am I?

"What am I doing up here?" Now she knows where she is.

Slow down on the pulley.

'The wind is really starting to pick up and I feel totally exposed.'

Ugh, wind.

Please go away.

'I'm out on a limb but I've only got one place to go.'

'As the uphill gets steeper, my arms are burning.'

She's about, what, three metres away from the end.

-Oh, mate.

-Come on, Helen.

'I know I'm almost there but I daren't look up.

'I need to focus more than ever.'

SHE SCREAMS

Yes!

APPLAUSE

Thank you!

MUSIC DROWNS OUT SPEECH

APPLAUSE

That is what Blue Peter is all about.

Facing your fears and we're here to encourage you to do the same.

Overcome your fears. It feels amazing when you do.

It's not bad to be scared.

Having said that, amazing isn't exactly how I'd describe

how I felt on the first show that I did for Blue Peter

cos they found out I don't like frogs.

Like, really don't like frogs. So, they made me do this.

That was a rookie mistake. Never tell Blue Peter what you're scared of.

I'll explain why I don't like holding frogs,

When I was younger, I went on holiday to Florida

and they have a pool in the villas.

-Ooh!

-And in the pool was a frog. A dead frog.

My sister was scared so I went in to take it out

and as I pulled it out, it had decomposed

and my finger went through its tummy but it was still alive.

So it gripped my finger and I threw it

and it just exploded against the fence.

It was all very horrible and very graphic.

Sorry if you're having your tea.

Sorry about that but that's why I don't hold frogs.

Right, well, once he conquered that, we set him another challenge

and this one was really set to keep Barney on his toes.

Well, on point in fact. I was asked to join the BalletBoyz,

a professional troupe of dancers who've performed

to packed-out audiences across the world.

I had 24 hours to learn a dance routine

and perform with them on the opening night of their brand new tour.

I was convinced I'd forgotten the steps.

At number six, here's when I joined the BalletBoyz.

It's funny, we've just come on to the stage

for a bit of a warm-up before the show and I've just heard

the rumble of the audience who are all talking in anticipation.

I was OK till this point and now I've just suddenly got very, very nervous.

'Before I know it, it's time for me to perform.

'Can I hold it together for just a few minutes more?'

APPLAUSE

'My performance is going well.

'Then suddenly my mind is blank and I'm losing track of the routine.'

I came up too early on one of the moves.

The one move I didn't want to come up on, I came up on.

I just went blank. I knew I would.

Gutted.

'And my performance isn't over yet.'

I've got one more bit to do.

Which is the run and the jump and now that I've got one thing wrong,

I'm talking myself out of it.

I'm thinking, "Is it the left foot or the right foot?" I've got to focus.

I've got to focus on the next thing and just get it right.

'I cannot afford to mess this jump up.'

'I do it! I get the jump just right.'

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

What I liked was that he did what we told him to.

He ran off the way we told him to. Everything was in the right place.

-A couple of things not at the right time.

-It could've been a lot worse.

I think it's a huge achievement.

You've got, what, 1,000 people out there watching your every move.

There's no camera to cut or do it again.

You've just got to do it right first time or not. That's tough.

The boy did good. The boy did good.

APPLAUSE

You can feel the nerves and you're still in the wings.

If you've ever been in a school play,

before you go on you get that, "Don't know what I'm doing.

"Don't know why I'm here. Don't know what my name is."

I describe it as the rollercoaster. You don't want to go on it

but once you do, you want to do it again.

-I had a great time but it was nerve-wracking.

-You did very well.

And well done to the BalletBoyz. Now, here on Blue Peter,

we've been lucky enough to be joined by some pretty amazing guests.

Here are just some of the famous faces who've been in to say hello.

APPLAUSE

# Ooh, yeah

-# La-la-la-la, la-ah-ah.

-#

-Just like you like it. Freak.

-True.

# Hey, boy you never had much game

# Thought I needed to upgrade

# So I went and walked Away-way-way. #

Champion!

MUSIC: "Proud" by JLS

# So I rise up

# Make my mind up

# All that I do Is to make you proud. #

Morning.

MUSIC: "Sparks" by Cover Drive

# You ignite all the colours Inside my heart. #

Very excited.

MUSIC: "Everybody Hurts Sometimes" by Pixie Lott

# It's all right to go ahead And let your tears fall down

# When everything Crashes to the ground. #

MUSIC: "Take Control" by Conor Maynard

# Take control, making me sweat Girl, run that show

# It's them girls, girls, girls I just can't say no

# Houston I think we've got a problem. #

Blue Peter!

# We're looping on Blue Peter Ed Sheeran's on the mic

# We're not quite Ant and Dec Cos all they had was Psyche

# You write a track, you loop it back You sing along at home

# Ed Sheeran's just gone platinum. #

Rizzle Kicks. Mama do the hump.

Blue Peter!

-Yo!

-# Mama do the hump Mama do the hump-hump

# Mama won't you please Let me do the hump-hump. #

Yeah!

# Do the hump. #

-APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

-Yes.

That is one dance I can master. I love the Rizzle Kicks.

I think I should host my own special on how to Dad-dance effectively.

-Let's see what happens next week.

-You're being too hard on yourself.

-Iain Stirling topped you on that.

-Thanks very much.

-You left me hanging there.

-Sorry.

Next week we count down our bests moments from five to one.

You'll see what we consider our best moment ever. See you then Bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd