Scooters and Spiders Blue Peter

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Coming up on today's live Blue Peter,

as the new Spider-Man film hits the cinema screens,

we've some dangerous and deadly spiders here in our studio.

CBBC's Dick and Dom give us a marvellous treat

as they reveal their all-time favourite story book.

And prepare to be wowed by their amazing stunts -

the UK's freestyle scooter champions are here to perform for you.

APPLAUSE

-Hello.

-Hi. Hello, welcome to the show.

It's live, it's interactive and, as you can see,

Team Razor are warming up to give you a display

you're not going to want to miss. Don't go anywhere.

Cool, aren't they? Hands up who's been to the cinema lately.

If you've been, you'll know the Amazing Spider-Man movie

has just been released. That's not my opinion -

it's called that, isn't it?

That is its actual title. It follows the story of Peter Parker,

who's bitten by a radioactive spider

and that's how he got his super powers.

Actually, it's true because these super powers exist in real life.

Yes, we are about to introduce you to three big furry, scary spiders.

You might want to hide behind your cushions now.

I might stay here for this one.

No need to worry because we have an expert handler with us.

It is Crocodile Joe. Now, Crocodile Joe,

your nickname has crocodile in the title,

-but you know about spiders, too, don't you?

-I certainly do.

I certainly do. I spent a lot of years in Australia

researching and studying tarantulas of the Australian rainforest.

So you are well positioned to handle the ladies we have in these boxes?

I certainly am. I certainly am.

OK. Who are you going to introduce us to first?

-This is a Chile rose tarantula.

-Wow.

-She's actually called Tilly.

We mentioned there that spiders have super powers, a bit like Spider-man.

How is Tilly similar to the superhero?

Well, she's very similar to Spider-Man

because this girl actually spins silk, just like Spider-Man.

Now, this one doesn't actually spin a web like Spider-man.

-He actually spins silk to catch his prey.

-OK.

This one will actually eat all kinds of little insects

to little mice, all kinds of little animals.

It must be a strong web to catch those sorts of animals.

-It's actually stronger than steel.

-What?!

It's stronger than steel.

If you can get a piece of steel as wide as a web,

then the steel would break before the web.

-Is she poisonous?

-She's mildly venomous,

but it's almost like a bee sting.

But she does have two centimetre-long fangs

which she'll pump into her prey.

My heart is beating so fast!

You've done really well.

-Nice to meet you, Tilly.

-OK. Moving on to the next one,

so we're talking about superpowers, things related to the super hero.

How about our second tarantula in here?

Well, this one, have a look at him. He's a red knee tarantula.

Ah, red knee, so red being the same colour

as the costume that Spider-Man wears?

Absolutely, and red's for danger. As we know, red's for danger.

-Look at him.

-He's cool.

He's absolutely cool. You can't really hold this one

because it flicks its hairs and as it's flicking its hairs,

those hairs are going to the back of your throat,

into your eyes and on your skin, makes you really itchy,

and the fascination with tarantulas is they can hang upside down

and they can hold 170 times their own body weight,

that's an equivalent of Spider-Man holding 170 people

-while hanging off a building with one arm.

-That's incredible.

So when you see Spider-Man has super strength,

that is because spiders do have super strength?

Super strength, absolutely.

Spider-man doesn't flick hairs from his bottom, though, does he?

-Not in this movie.

-Not in this one.

-There's bound to be a sequel.

Right, do you want to put him back? Let's meet the next guy,

cos that's a big one. Now, is it worth just leaving

this guy in the cage, cos he's a monster, isn't he?

Well, this one is a Goliath bird-eating tarantula

and out the three tarantulas

that I've brought today, this is the most aggressive

and that's why I'm going to leave him in the terrarium.

We're fine with that. You keep him exactly where he is, dude.

I hate to break it to you, but I can't get the lid back on the box.

I'm going to get you My First Jigsaw for your birthday.

He actually has super senses, just like Spider-man,

because this animal can actually sense a threat

and if he senses a threat, then he'll rub his hairs

and it makes a hissing noise.

So he has spider senses like the superhero himself as well?

This hissing noise you're talking about, he won't do it now

because there's no danger here, he's quite content,

but we have a recording of what this spider sounds like

when he feels threatened. Have a listen.

It's more like a leak, really, isn't it?

-Sounds like a snake.

-Like a rattlesnake. When they're scared,

they shake their tail to let you know.

To let you know danger, yes.

This is the largest tarantula in the world.

They can actually grow 12 inches, like a dinner plate,

just like a dinner plate, and its fangs

-are the same length as a cheetah's claws.

-What?!

-A cheetah's claws?

-A cheetah's claws.

You don't think that's possible from something so small, do you?

Well, there you have it. It's definitely true, isn't it?

You think about Spider-man, he's got the strongest web in the world

he can climb walls and... and he's as scary as...

Are you nervous?

No. It's reminding me about a frog a little bit and I don't know why.

I'm not nervous, but I'm a little bit itchy.

Joe, thank you so much

for introducing us to these fabulous creatures.

Now, this is your show, so let us know what you think.

We're live, get in touch.

The e-mail address is [email protected]

Maybe you have a pet spider, maybe you hate spiders,

and while you're in touch, let us know what your favourite book is,

because later on in the show,

Dick and Dom are going to be

sharing with us their favourite tale.

So please get in touch,

we'll try and read out your e-mails later in the show.

Now though, a few months ago, we moved our garden

from West London to our new home here in Greater Manchester.

Her Royal Highness Princess Anne came to help us open it in style,

but at the time our gardener, Chris Collins,

had a job that wasn't quite finished.

I've got one big job left to complete our garden -

the pond.

'I want to get some new fish and plants,

'but before I can do that, I need to put in some groundwork

'by cutting off the ugly old metal grill...' Job one done.

'..and replacing it with a specially designed pond cover.'

Look at that!

'All the mess from the drilling has gone straight into the water

'which doesn't matter as the next job is to drain the pond,

'and I'm doing that the good old-fashioned way.'

Staying remarkably dry, considering!

Oh, look. Money.

There's gold in that there water.

As you can see, it's also become a bit of a wishing well.

So if you like muddy money, this is the place to come.

'Now the pond's cleaned out, I'm off to the garden centre.

'First up, I need to choose our plants.'

Now, this is what you call an oxygenator.

It'll keep the water full of oxygen,

and that'll help keep our Blue Peter pond nice and healthy.

Now, I really do want something special and beautiful

for the Blue Peter pond.

So I've chosen the royalty of water plants, the water lily or nymphaea.

You could say this is going to be the princess of our pond.

Now they're chosen, it's time for some fish.

This fella here is called an arowana.

It's a pretty special fish, it can live for up to 20 years

and it's quite expensive. It costs at £2,000 to £3,000.

He's so special that sometimes

they fit them with a microchip at the back of the head

so if they go missing, the owner can still find them.

But I don't think we had enough change in the bottom of our pond

to afford one of these.

These fellas are stingrays. Very beautiful.

Look at the markings on that. They're actually related to sharks.

Now, their bodies are made entirely of cartilage, no bone at all,

and cartilage is the same stuff we have in the end of our noses,

but I'm not going to stick my hand in,

just in case they're in a bad mood.

But tropical fish wouldn't survive in our pond,

so I need to look at some that prefer cold water.

Now, everybody knows and loves a goldfish

and they can get really big.

According to the Guinness World Records,

the biggest one ever measured from tail to snout was 47.4 centimetres.

Now, I think goldfish are the goal for us.

I think they'll go in our pond perfectly,

but maybe this one is a little too big,

so I'm going to put him back and let him rejoin his friends.

There you go, fella.

This is perfect.

Just what I wanted for the Blue Peter pond.

Well, I'm back in the garden. I've got my fish and plants.

Just got to wait a while for that to fill up now, and we can get going.

Right, time to start planting.

You might have frogs and toads or newts that want to go

in and out the pond from time to time.

So what we need to is build a little corridor from land to water.

It's very, very simple. Well, I've got a lot of fish to put in the pond

-and I think I need some help, but luckily I've got...

-Chloe.

-Keelagh.

-Megan.

-Noah.

I think you should go first, Chloe,

and just gently put him on top of the water in the bag.

That's it, and you can let him go

and hold the back of the bag like this.

And let go of the front, brilliant.

Do you want to go next? Gently lower him in. He looks good, doesn't he?

Go on, then. That's it. So there you go. The first four fish in.

Brilliant. OK, well, thanks very much.

Did a brilliant job, released the fish

and that is our Blue Peter garden pond officially completed.

THEY CHEER

And here it is, the new look Blue Peter pond. Isn't it lovely?

And if you are wondering how much money was found, it's £39.96,

it's all in this jar and it's all going to Children In Need.

If you are going to visit the Blue Peter garden, by the way,

please don't throw any more coins in the pond

cos that's where the fish live now. Helen, what's still to come?

Well, Barney, while you make your way back into the studio,

I can tell you what's happening on today's show.

Still to come, CBBC's Dick and Dom

will be revealing their all-time favourite book,

and the UK's freestyle scooter champions

will be here to wow you with their slick tricks.

Now, if you've been watching Blue Peter's big Olympic tour

on Saturday mornings, you will know that Barney and I

have been taking on four celebrity friends

in a different Olympic sport each week.

This week we headed to the tennis courts

and Barney is desperate for you to see what happened.

Here is your host, Football Focus' Dan Walker, to give you the low-down.

Here are our competitors.

She's going from strength to strength, classical singer Laura.

Determined to hold on to his lead, Strictly dancer Brendan.

Formerly of Emmerdale, pleased there's no more cycling, it's Adele.

He's still super-relaxed and stylish, MC Romeo.

Helen's got a spring in her step after winning BMX

and he needs the points to stay in contention, it's Barney.

Athletes, hello. We've had some fun so far but it's all about to change.

You've been competing as men and women but the remaining events

are about technique rather than power

so you are all against each other.

This is how this challenge works - it's human against machine.

Ball machine.

Each player will get 20 balls fired at them

alternating between a forehand and backhand.

The aim is to return as many as they can into the court

where they'll score one point if it bounces in the service boxes,

three points for the back of the court and, if they want to go crazy,

five points if they get them between the tram lines.

And we will not let our athletes see each other,

so they won't know what score to beat.

So it's Romeo to go first and he initially found it hard

wasting a number of scoring opportunities.

Soon he found his range with some consistent forehand

and backhand strokes.

He had good length via the baseline to score a lot of three point shots

but no tram line five-pointers could cost him dear.

Brendan tried to play it safe early on but was put off his stride

by confusing his forehand and backhand.

I'm sorry. Backhand.

He also found the net, which made him very angry.

Argh!

He really wasn't making it easy for himself.

He decided to aim for the tram lines

to try and claw back some vital points.

Will it be enough to beat Romeo?

That was the worst performance I could have possibly done.

I don't believe you. I think you have nailed it.

Adele's turn now and she was caught out early

by the speed of the ball machine.

Some of her mishits actually ended up scoring.

In trying to hit the ball harder, she certainly enjoyed herself

but it didn't necessarily help with the points.

Oh, five!

She did find the tram lines once.

Will it be enough to beat the others?

-I cannot tell you how excited I am!

-APPLAUSE

Argh! That was so good!

-Look how excited you are!

-I can't believe it. Can't believe it.

Laura was up next and had an excellent start

scoring with her first six shots.

Some were also in the five points area.

She began to lose her rhythm halfway, through,

trying a bit too hard and hitting the ball too long.

So will her great early form be enough?

If you tell them you've not done well, they will think you are lying.

-Did I do that badly?

-No, you didn't do...

No, not at all, you did really well.

So, Barney up next

and a perfect start for him as he went straight for the tram lines.

But after hitting a few out, he decided to play it safe.

Some consistent scoring and good technique from Barney

and he certainly left no margin for error with some shots.

-This gives Barney a real chance.

-Is that it?

Look at that smile! He's got a wry smile.

-Yeah, he's got a little smug smile.

-Finally Barney's back on top!

And finally it was Helen.

She played it safe from the start, aiming for the middle of the court.

There were very few mistakes and one five point shot,

But a lot of her balls did drop short, losing her some vital points.

So will it be enough?

Athletes, I know you are desperate for the point revelation.

With one point, having scored 13,

it's Adele! She did enjoy it, though.

Two points with 28...

goes to Romeo.

33 points was enough to get Brendan three points.

40 points and four points...

go to Laura.

OK, so, 45 score,

five points go to...

Helen Skelton...

-ALL CHEER

-..which means...

Barney, 53, six points!

Celebratory dance! Can I just say? The reason I'm so excited -

the only thing I've ever won is a darts competition.

That's cos I was playing against my five-year-old sister

who couldn't reach the board.

I get cross with him because he gets too harsh on himself.

You are back in the game, we're back in the competition Barney.

Thank you very much. How's that affected the leaderboard?

Well, Brendan's still out in front. He's in gold position,

Helen and Laura are in silver position, Romeo is in bronze,

I've moved up a little bit. It's all to play for -

three more challenges to go. ..Ow.

-It's not over till it's over.

-True dat.

So make sure you check out Blue Peter's big Olympic tour,

it continues on Saturday at nine o'clock.

-I'm really too competitive, aren't I?

-A little bit.

From 10am on Saturday morning, we open our gates

and invite you to a free event. You don't need a ticket,

so come along and see us if you are in Essex.

We'll be in Saffron Walden.

Can we talk about the torch a little bit?

You carried it last week, it's very exciting.

Yes, we can show you exactly what happened

when I carried the torch in Wolverhampton.

Wolverhampton, thank you for your support. They adopted me.

Everybody would, it's your smiley face.

Let's talk about the summer. Let's talk about what you'll be doing.

I have a picture in my head that you will be relaxing,

sitting in your garden on a deckchair like this,

reading your favourite book and earlier,

we asked you to get in touch and talk about your favourite book.

You have been doing that, thank you very much.

Megan got in touch.

That's the first time

Barney's ever done that,

climbed all the way up himself.

See, we're all achieving something today, everybody.

Megan, who is seven, loves Matilda, that's her favourite book.

"The best bit is when Miss Honey

"tells Matilda that Mrs Trunchbull is her auntie."

I love Matilda. Good one.

Meg's favourite book is the Hunger Games

because you never know what is going to happen.

It's a bit scary, though, isn't it? Harriet, who's ten, says,

"My favourite book is the Jane Blonde series

"because I love all the spying in it."

Will says, "My favourite book is How To Train Your Dragon

"cos it's really funny." Wouldn't it be great if you had a dragon?

Now, some great recommendations there.

If you're going on holiday,

you might want to pick up a few of those.

The reason we're talking about books is because last year,

780,000 of you got involved in a reading project

that saw three million books be read.

This year, the project is called Story Lab

and we're hoping that you are going to get involved with it.

You might have heard about it in your school or your local library.

This is the Story Lab. It's a big flat piece of card

that's got stories all over it that you can turn into a 3D laboratory.

And if you look on the outside of it,

it's got various stories and cartoons and animations

but there are certain squares that are missing.

You need to fill them in and make those colourful

by adding stickers to them and you can do that by reading books.

The challenge is to read six over the summer.

If you read two, you'll get a bronze sticker. ..Don't you dare do

-what I think you are about to do!

-I know!

Silver is if you read four books and gold is if you read six or more.

And once you've completed all those, stick your stickers on here

take them into your library and they'll exchange these for these.

A medal or a certificate.

So if you read all the books, you will get your hands on one of those.

We're really hoping you'll get involved.

It doesn't matter if you don't like the books, just pass it to a friend

and pick up another. It's all about reading.

Go to the website...

..or just pop down to your local library for your Story Lab kit.

Now, though, it's time for Dick and Dom.

-You love this bit, don't you?

-Because it's my favourite story.

Basically, we're going to try and smash

how many people got involved last year, it was 750,000.

-We want more involved. Here, Dick and Dom...

-The dog's going to wee!

..talk about their favourite story, George's Marvellous Medicine -

-with a very strange grandma. What's he doing?

-Not here!

I mean, normally grandmas are lovely and sweet and kind

-and smell of pretty flowers, don't they?

-Here.

Yeah. Well, not in this book.

I mean, this gran is 100% the opposite.

She shouts, she bullies, she eats slugs.

She's got one of those puckered-up mouths that never smiles.

Who'd want a grandma like that?

Well, this lad George, yeah? He's got no choice.

That horrible crinkly old bag is so horrible to him!

-Until George comes up with a secret plan.

-Exactly.

And that's what this book is all about.

Every day George's grandma has to take a special medicine

so George decides to make her a brand-new medicine,

so he runs around the farm where he lives,

finding all sorts of weird ingredients.

Yeah. Rotten banana skins, shoe polish.

Shampoo. Extra hot chilli sauce - oh!

Them!

MIXTURE POPS

And he makes a brand-new mixture that he hopes will give his grandma

a big whopper of a surprise.

Can you smell something funny?

-Oh!

-Urgh.

You can really tell that the writer, Roald Dahl, is on George's side.

This is one of my favourite parts of the book.

"What mischief are you up to in there now?" Granny screeched.

"I hear noises!"

George thought it best not to answer this one,

he found a long wooden spoon in a kitchen drawer

and began stirring hard.

The stuff in the pot got hotter and hotter.

Soon, George started to get really excited about his wonderful mixture.

And suddenly, George found himself dancing around the steaming pot

chanting strange words that came into his head out of nowhere.

"Fiery broth and witch's brew, foamy froth and riches blue,

"fume and spume and spoondrift spray, fizzle, swizzle, shout hurray!

"Watch it sloshing, squashing, sploshing,

"hear it hissing, squishing and spitting,

"Grandma better start to pray."

Of course, if you want to know more, you'll have to read the book.

Hang on. Where is the book?

DICK CHOKES AND SPLUTTERS

Oh, no.

-It's amazing!

-I know the book's amazing.

-It's mind-blowing!

-I know the book is mind-blowing.

But now it's covered in goop.

A bit more salt.

Yeah, salt.

Thank you very much to Dick and Dom.

Next week, Kieron Richardson from Hollyoaks

is going to be sharing his favourite book.

Now Barney - where's he gone now? He's gone again.

As you can see, I've come back outside the studio

on this glorious sunny day to see something very cool happening.

This is freestyle scooter-riding.

This is Josh who's showing us what he can do at the moment.

Josh, when you get a chance, pop over here. Hello, mate.

-You all right?

-I'm very good, this is exciting to watch.

-You are a freestyle scooter rider?

-Yeah.

How does the freestyle part work?

The freestyle part is basically getting on the scooter

and doing different tricks and stunts.

The thing about a scooter is, you've got handlebars and the deck

so that means you can take tricks from a BMX, like bar spins,

and from skate-boarding you can take board slides too,

if you have stunt pegs and stuff,

so you can do different grinds and stalls.

And also a lot of the tricks and stuff we've invented ourselves,

such as being able to flip the scooter and do bar twists and stuff.

And once you have gone from being a solo rider who learns those tricks,

-you then put it together as part of a team?

-Yeah.

How did Team Razor come about?

Well, Team Razor kind of started in America at first

and it was a small little group of riders.

And as soon as they started making more scooters

and getting their name out there,

they decided to make a team in the UK

and we were all picked to be part of the UK team,

and do jams, demos and that sort of thing.

Nice one. Josh, thank you very much for now.

Off you go back to your stuff. Here comes Lewis down the ramp.

Lewis is very experienced, been doing it for a long time.

You started a while ago,

but it started with a funny circumstance, didn't it?

Yeah, it was a complete accident.

I was in a car accident and broke my leg quite seriously,

so it was broken for a long time, and I was 11 years old, so...

Whoa! That was definitely worth a round of applause.

That was amazing, well done.

So really, it started from an accident

but here you are all these years later performing.

Yeah, I got too bored of crutches. I wanted to do something more active,

-so I got on a scooter to get around.

-What a great idea -

rather than using crutches and being all boring, get yourself a scooter.

Fantastic. Thank you very much.

I'm going to call Nat in now, who's also had an injury on a scooter.

-You're still suffering a little bit, aren't you?

-Yeah.

I am, yeah. On the road to recovery at the moment.

-Doctor said ten weeks?

-Yeah.

-What did you do?

I broke my ankle in three places.

So it wasn't that nice, but surviving.

Well, don't go back to those places.

We wish you all the best on the road to recovery.

Now, show me how to do something cos I'm dying to have a go.

As you can see, I'm sporting this year's latest safety fashion.

-Right, I'll show you how to do a bunny hop.

-Bunny hop, what is that?

It's where you basically just jump in the air.

You've just got to get a bit of speed, pull up on the bars,

jump in the air and land with both feet still on the deck.

So both wheels come off the floor, not like a wheelie, then?

-Yeah.

-All right, well, do you want to show me first?

-Sure.

Just like that. OK. Dead easy.

That was rubbish, I'm doing that again.

Right. Here we go.

Oh, so close!

I could be here all day doing this but the experts are just to my left

so let's hand over now to what is probably the most impressive thing

I think I've seen on the show for a while. Team Razor.

That was absolutely unbelievable.

Congratulations, Razor, and thank you very much for coming along.

Barney and I had to stay inside because somebody barks at scooters.

And it's not me, is it? So we had to miss out on that one.

Now, throughout the show, we have been asking you to get in touch

and let us know what your favourite book is.

Scarlett said that her favourite book

is the Magic Far Away Tree because it's exciting

and the children go to different lands in each chapter.

-Oh, hello, scooter boy.

-Hello. How are you doing?

Katie says, "My favourite is the Chocolate Box Girls set.

"I've read the Cherry Crush and the Marshmallow Skye

"and can't wait for the rest."

How amazing was that? Shame you couldn't be there.

Last time you were barking at the scooters.

Sam thought the spiders were interesting but scary

at the same time, especially because they're poisonous.

Jemima likes Harry Potter as it's action-packed and epic.

Mia likes Diary Of A Wimpy Kid.

Jessica, Amy and Florence - we love you - it says,

"Hi, all. What a fantastic show."

Thanks very much. You can let us know whatever you're thinking.

I'm not sure there are many spider fans out there.

Katie's been in touch to say,

"Those spiders made me shiver - I hate them,"

and Eve says that those spiders were terrifying,

"I don't mind bath spiders but those ones made me jump off my seat."

-Sorry about that, Eve.

-Right, let's talk about perspective photography.

We spoke about this last week.

It's an amazing technique and many people have got involved.

Jack, Luke and Oliver have created this in their back garden.

How amazing is that? Love it. We've got to fly through these.

Ursula and Toby, fantastic shot.

A look at the consequences of explosive beans there.

Ellie and Anna. Love it.

This is such clever stuff and this one happens to be my favourite.

This is Lucy and Milly from Guildford,

this is a girl on the plank, look at that.

So many more photos on the website if you want to have a look at them

-and please send us some more.

-We do love seeing your efforts.

Thank you very much. That's almost it for today's show.

There's just time to tell you what is coming up next week.

We're going to be revealing the winner

of our Blue Peter plane competition. Is it your name and design?

Well, you'll have to watch next week to find out.

And we teach you how to get crafty with a glove.

I do love that, that was such fun make.

You're going to love trying that at home.

We're back in Saffron Walden on Saturday at nine for the live show.

-Come and see us and have a good week. Bye.

-Bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd