Space, Sport & Sheep Blue Peter

On today's show we've got a very special guest

because Shaun the Sheep is here.

-It's going to be BAAA-rilliant!

-Good. EWE better believe it.

-It's going to be RAM-packed.

-We could go on for days.

Nothing's going to stop us.

Oi!

Hello and welcome to Blue Peter.

Coming up on today's show, find out who's been shortlisted for

Young Sports Personality Of The Year 2015

and which one of you at home helped shortlist the winner.

As well as that, we are SO excited because Shaun the Sheep is

back for a Christmas special, so he's popped into the studio

with his new cheeky llama friends, as well as director Jay Grace. Hello!

-Hello.

-Welcome.

-Hi.

Plus we'll be showing you how to make one of these.

A Christmas tree with a difference.

They ain't baubles. Thems are chocolates!

Yummy, can't wait for that. But first, do you remember this man?

And do you remember this?

It is, of course, Tim Peake and his mission patch

and in just a few days' time he is actually going into space,

and if you're wondering how he's feeling...

Don't eat the chocolate yet!

..Barney, before he went on his holidays, went to find out.

You can eat it now.

Here on Blue Peter we like to think big.

That's why, back in September 2014,

we launched a competition to design the mission patch for Tim Peake,

the very first British European Space Agency astronaut to

journey to the International Space Station.

Thousands of you applied and one lucky winner was picked.

Well done, Troy.

Oh, wow! I love the apple.

That's amazing.

But what happens next? Well...

I've come to catch up with Tim before he blasts off

on his 200-mile journey in THAT direction to begin his mission.

Tim must spend six months on the International Space Station

undertaking loads of scientific experiments.

But how do you prepare for a once-in-a-lifetime trip like this?

Well, you come here to the European Astronaut Centre in Germany,

of course.

This place is amazing. It's like something out of a sci-fi film.

Here you'll find life-size replicas of parts of the Space Station

where the astronauts train and get ready for their missions.

Tim's been here for a few days doing his final preparations and

I can't wait to find out how he's feeling this close to the launch.

Tim, it's genuinely really nice to see you

and the last time I saw you, you didn't have the patch on.

-Look at it go!

-It's fantastic. I love wearing it.

People ask me all the time about the patch

and I just love explaining all the details in it.

It will be nice to explain what it was like wearing it in space

which is only a few weeks away now.

It's getting really close now and the closer I get to launch,

the more excited I get.

-This is only a small part of the Space Station, isn't it?

-It is.

This is the Columbus Laboratory,

where I'll be spending most of my time doing experiments.

It looks great from the outside,

but I imagine it looks even better on the inside, Tim.

-Do you think we could...

-Sounds good to me. Let's go and have a look.

Thought you'd never ask.

-Wow, it's like the ultimate den, isn't it?

-It certainly is.

Welcome to Node II. The Space Station flies that way.

That's forward and that's Earth-facing. That's down.

So the most important thing about Node II is where we sleep.

-That's these bits.

-The crew quarters.

-Amazing.

It's really nice to have a little bit of your own space

that you can personalise, get some family photographs up there.

A huge family event for most people is Christmas.

-You're going to miss Christmas.

-I am going to miss Christmas

and obviously I'm going to really miss family and friends

but it's such a unique experience to be onboard the Space Station.

-In many respects, it's going to be really fun.

-You going to do a party?

-Decorations? Red hats?

-We will. There's a Christmas tree onboard.

There's a few Santa hats so we'll have a celebration

although I'm sure it will be a working day.

What about Christmas dinner? Do you have roast potatoes and turkey?

It all comes in foil packets, doesn't it?

Christmas dinner's a bit of a surprise because we actually

get a crew care package,

so our family and friends can send us some up,

so, hopefully there'll be maybe a fruit pudding or something

comes up for Christmas Day.

'So whilst we're all fast asleep waiting for Santa on Earth,

'Tim will be floating above us in his sleeping bag.

'I've got to give this a go!'

-So you wear it like a jacket, really?

-That's right.

You normally Velcro it to the wall and step in it.

If you don't strap in, you'll float around while you're asleep.

You'll float around and your arms will naturally

float up in front of your face.

Some astronauts have reported being woken up by their own arm

-hitting them in the face because it's just floating around.

-Amazing.

So you get to that natural sleeping position.

You've got some work to do while you're here, haven't you?

Yeah, we have got some work to do.

I'll be spending a lot of my time in the Columbus Module doing

scientific experiments.

-Let me show you the way.

-Can't even get out.

Wow!

-Welcome to Columbus.

-Thank you.

Being in space, one of the great things is the floor and the roof are

just as useful work spaces as the walls

so we pack everything into the whole volume of Columbus.

In the deck we have lots of our life support systems,

so water cooling systems, air ventilation filters,

power supply, all of the things you need to survive.

Let's talk about what you're doing. What's the mission for?

There's about 25 different experiments I've signed

up for, which are all going to be done on myself,

ranging from investigating my gut,

samples of saliva and urine and blood and all sorts.

What about stuff we have physically to keep ourselves alive with?

-The food, where does that come from?

-Food is mostly tinned food.

Fresh food is very hard to come by.

Whenever we get a supply vehicle,

maybe there'll be a small amount of fresh food on there if we're lucky.

I'm going to ask the loo question, Tim. How? Where? What happens?

The loo just uses air.

A vacuum pump that keeps air flow going in the right direction.

-Instead of water?

-Instead of water.

So, whether it's a number one or a number two, just rely on that

vacuum pump, the air flow, to keep everything in the right place.

Amazing. Tim, I'll let you get back to your training.

You've got lots do before you launch. Thanks for talking to us.

-Thanks.

-Can you believe Tim is actually going to be going in space

and one of the more exciting things for me is looking at the shirt.

See that patch? Troy, you're a genius.

Your patch is going to be in space with Tim every step of the way.

It's out of this world.

Space joke to finish. No? OK.

Don't forget to think about Tim and the patch

when you're tucking into your turkey on Christmas Day.

I love that. Now, as you can see,

three of our candles are now shining really brightly on our Advent Crown,

which means there is only one week to go until our Christmas special.

I am so excited so make sure you're watching cos there's going to

be fun, lots of singing and also a few surprises.

Thank you so much to all of you who have been

sending in your brilliant Christmas card crackers.

We've been loving them

and we'll try and display as many as we can on next week's show.

But now, in the meantime,

a little Christmas make from the lovely Radzi.

Yes, indeed, feast your eyes upon these delectable delights.

They are Christmas trees with surprise treats.

Those treats are chocolate. Now you're interested, aren't you?

It's easy to make as well. All you need are these:

So now let's get to the making.

So the very first thing we do is we take our newspaper

and already, from the edge, I've marked out 30 centimetres

and drawn a line just down there which I'll now cut out.

The thing that I love most about this make is that you don't

really need to know many measurements. This is one of them.

Already you can see, you might think that isn't particularly neat,

but that doesn't matter at all.

For the time being, I'll move this bottom page out to one side here

and then I will roll it.

The tighter that you roll the newspapers together,

the thinner the trunk of your tree will be

because that is what this is making, the trunk of our tree.

Then I'll simply secure it with some sticky tape here like so.

I'll do exactly the same at the top here

and I'll cover the entire thing in wrapping paper.

When you've done that you'll have a trunk which looks like this.

If I were to let go of it, it would fall over so we need a base

for our trunk, which is where the yoghurt pot or paper cup comes in.

I'm going to cut it approximately in half, which will look like this.

Already I've put inside the modelling clay

and that will act as the stability for my trunk

and I'm then going to wrap all of that in wrapping paper,

including the actual inside of the modelling clay

which you can see there.

To help keep it that extra bit neat, I've stuck it all at the bottom.

So I bring back my trunk, slot it in there

and I'll forget about that for the time being.

So the next part is I'm going to draw an arc.

This circle is going to be 30 centimetres in radius.

I don't have a compass that big, which is

why I've made my very own with a pencil and a piece of string.

Then I'm going to cut around that line there, leaving me

with a segment of a circle just like this one here.

If you imagine, I'm then going to fold that into a cone,

so that's where my sweets are going to go into.

So, along here, here, here, here, here, I'm going to mark Xs,

and that will be where the sweets go in.

When you've done that,

you'll have a segment that looks exactly like that there.

Then it's just a case of putting holes into all those Xs.

Just to help me slot those sweets in.

So I'll bring back one I've done earlier,

turn it around so you can see it a bit more easily.

Under this X there I'm going to put my modelling clay,

because that's where I'm going to press my pencil in there.

I'll do the same on the other X as well.

Please do ask an adult for help if you need it.

Then I'm going to press my pencil all the way through

and that actually makes the perfect size for the sweets,

which we'll see in just a second.

Now it comes to the folding part.

I'll take this here and then I'll fold.

This is the part which everybody is going to see when they look at it,

so if you're going to take your time on any part,

this would be the time that you want to take

a little bit of care and attention on.

I'll stick one piece at the top.

One piece at the bottom as well.

When you've had a bit more time than myself,

you will have a cone which looks like this,

with the holes pushed through there all looking very sturdy.

Then comes my favourite part of this make. It is the sweets part.

Now you can choose traditional sweets. In fact, here are my sweets.

You can go for some healthy snacks,

or you can make your own truffles like we have done here.

Actually, that sounds complicated. It really is not.

All you need to do is take some cream, take some melted butter,

put it in a bowl together, mix it and pour it over some chocolate.

Let it set in a fridge and then that will leave you with a substance

which looks like that.

So I'll take my truffle and dig a bit out.

I'm going to try and make these about marble-sized,

which is the perfect way.

I want as much chocolate or truffle as possible, but also, I don't

want it to be too heavy when I start sticking them all on to my tree.

So once I've rolled those, they can be in any shape that you want,

I'll then dip those into my cocoa,

which just stops it from sticking to the foil.

Then it comes to the wrapping part. I'll bring this up here.

I take my truffle, pop it into my foil.

You don't need to be neat about this part whatsoever.

Ideally, you'll have cleaner fingers than I've got.

And then you stick your foil on to the wrapping paper.

Fold your four corners up here and then,

this is what's going to create the nib to then push in to my trees.

Then I'll wrap it, wrap it, wrap it.

Then I'll stick all around there, neaten it up,

leaving you with a truffle that looks like that one just there.

So then I'll press this into my cone here.

Once you've done that all the way around the cone,

you will have a cone which looks like this.

You want to talk about taking shape? Look at that there.

I'm definitely going to have a sweet as soon as this make is over.

If we look at the finished products we've got there,

the only thing that's missing is the tinsel.

That is the piece de resistance.

That's what makes this tree no ordinary tree, but a Christmas tree.

So I'll start with my tinsel at the very top

and the beautiful thing about this is actually,

as you go around, just simply going around acts as a glue.

And a particular Blue Peter top tip is that

I'll go round each of the sweets individually,

so when you pull them out, the tinsel still stays nice and tight.

Then, when you put the cone on top of your base, you will have a

finished product which looks like these three magnificent

forests that we have here.

I think that they look rather good.

If you missed a single detail,

all you need to do is jump on to this website right here.

And, if you do make one, take a selfie of you with the tree

and send it in to us. We love it when you do.

All I need to do is stop this lot getting in the hands of Lindsey!

I do LOVE chocolate, Radzi. That's a good point.

Now, while you're online, why don't you have a go at our quiz to see

if you know the 12 days of Christmas.

As well as that, there's loads going on because you may remember that,

a couple of weeks ago,

I showed you how to make your very own 2015 Blue Peter Christmas card.

It's a real cracker, so if you haven't made it yet,

all the instructions you need are right there on the website.

There's loads going on online. Have you joined our fan club yet?

Do you get bored waiting for the next episode of Blue Peter?

Do you wish there was a place online

where you could chat to other BP fans?

Would you like to play loads of quick, fun games for free?

Then you need the Blue Peter Fan Club Hour.

Every Tuesday from 5pm till 6pm.

Solve emoji puzzles. Can you be first?

Add your captions to our photos, the funnier, the better.

LAUGHTER

Play the world-famous Spot Shelley.

She's hidden somewhere on the website, but where?

The Blue Peter Fan Club Hour,

Tuesdays from 5pm on the Blue Peter website.

Keep checking the Fan Club page throughout the week for selfies,

backstage clips and more!

And now, it is big badge wall time.

Take a look, your brilliant posters,

looking sparkly and festive this week as well.

I want to point this out, it's from Rosie, who is 11. Ooh! Here it is.

It's a very lovely bone, there, for Iggy.

It's nice and cushioned. Do you know what, Rosie? She'll love that.

Thank you so much for taking the time to make it!

Now, Molly from Edinburgh, you must have spent all day making this.

It is the most detailed blue Peter badge I have seen for a very,

-very long time.

-Aah!

-Well done, Molly.

Radzi, I'm excited to show you this. It's from Rebecca, who is 11.

-Ready?

-Are we going to pull it?

-Yeah.

-Yes!

-Our very own Blue Peter Christmas cracker.

-Stop talking, let's pull!

-OK, ready, one, two, three...

-Oh.

-Oh, wait, do the snap, do the snap!

-CRACKER SNAPS

-Yes!

-Whoo! There we go!

And inside we've got a crown each, there you go, Radz.

Little crown for us to wear, and...

A little treat in here, it's our very own little Blue Peter cushion there!

-Aah!

-I love it! That's hard to make, as well.

The blue Peter badge is a hard one to do, so thank you so much for that.

-I've got a joke for you.

-Go on.

Why do you keep a slice of bread in your comic?

Because I like crummy jokes!

-You do, actually, Rad!

-There you go.

-Barney'll like that.

He'll be watching at home.

Now, Mia from Devon, I also have to say thank you,

-because your Christmas badge is second only to none.

-Aah!

-Very festive, very colourful, very glittery.

-Sparkly, yeah! Very nice.

Well done, Mia. Thank you to all of you who sent something in.

If you want a badge at home, all you've got to do is send

something in to us at our usual address.

Now, we haven't seen it in a while, but do you remember this little guy?

Have a look at it there.

The Blue Peter Sport Badge 2015,

and that gave one of you at home the chance of a lifetime.

You might have noticed we've mentioned the Blue Peter Sport Badge

just a few times this summer.

What's important is this.

-You could be...

-..the proud owner...

-..of a Blue Peter Sport Badge.

We're going to be inspiring you like we've never inspired you before.

If you've earned your sport badge this summer,

you've also had the chance to be on the judging panel

for Young Sports Personality of the Year.

We've had over 7,500 applications, but only one judge can be selected.

And here she is.

My name's Mina.

I got my Sport Badge by encouraging my friend to start boxing.

I like the fact that it's generally a boys' sport,

but I can prove that girls can box.

I'd like to represent Team GB for boxing in the Olympics.

I felt really excited when I heard that I was going to be on the panel.

I was looking forward to going to Manchester to do the judging.

'It's judging day, and the panel has the difficult job

'of whittling down the top contenders.'

Yeah, for me, she gets the A.

She's got a lot of talent.

She looks very dedicated.

'The sporting standard was staggering.

'All the nominations had achieved so much.'

When I started looking at their background,

I sort of put together people in my head that

I knew could have a chance and couldn't have a chance.

But we had to decide our final top three.

And Blue Peter can exclusively reveal who they are right now.

Top GB gymnast Ellie Downie,

British Paralympic swimmer Tully Kearney,

and up-and-coming jockey Tom Marquand.

Hi, my name's Tom Marquand, and I'm an apprentice jockey.

I won the 2015 Champion Apprentice Award.

COMMENTATOR: Low Key, running away from his rivals,

will win the Cesarewitch Trial in good style.

I first started riding when I was about two years old,

but I didn't set foot on a horse racing circuit until I was

about 12 years old, when I borrowed a friend's pony to do pony racing.

Since then I've been hooked, racing every day of the week.

It makes it a very busy schedule.

I think my best moment so far

was definitely winning the Apprentice Championship.

To be able to say to myself I achieved that much in such

a short space of time, it was a massive thing for me.

COMMENTATORS: Come on, Ellie!

-Oh!

-That'll do nicely!

That is a bronze medal!

Hi, I'm Ellie Downie, Great Britain gymnast.

I won two bronze medals this year, one in the European All-Around,

and one in the World Championships as a team.

CHEERING

-COMMENTATORS: Wow!

-Oh, just look at the emotion there!

I just knew that I had to do one of the best vaults that I could.

I knew I couldn't mess up, and I had to do it for the girls

and for myself.

Big block...two twists.

Dead in the middle. Wow!

It's definitely a good sport to get involved in,

I definitely recommend it, cos it's my life and I love it.

Hi, my name's Tully Kearney.

I'm a para-swimmer, and this year I won four world

titles at the World Championships, a silver and a bronze.

Winning gold at the World Championships was a dream come true,

something I never thought would happen, and standing on the

podium and hearing the national anthem play was just amazing.

I have always swum from a young age for physio with my disability,

But what really inspired me to get into it

was looking up to my brother and watching him train,

and knowing that my mum was a swimmer too.

I would say that if you can believe it, you can achieve it.

Even if people put you down, just listen to yourself,

believe in yourself, and you can do it.

Being nominated for Young SPOTY is definitely amazing.

'It's a massive thing to be considered for such an award

'at such a young age.'

'I was completely shocked.

'I never thought I'd be nominated for an award like this.'

You know, being ranked alongside Wayne Rooney, Tom Daley...

It's incredible.

To be in that mix was...

pretty ridiculous!

It was a dream come true, like,

I just...couldn't believe it.

Remember, you can find out who wins on BBC One on the 20th of December.

Make sure you're watching.

As well as that, we've got a Blue Peter exclusive

behind the scenes in the New Year, so make sure you stay tuned.

But first, what do you get when you cross Shaun the Sheep

and three very cheeky llamas?

This.

That looks so good! Please welcome the director of The Farmer's Llamas,

Jay Grace, and he's brought Shaun the Sheep and friends! Hello, Jay!

-Hi!

-That looks brilliant. Everyone in the studio was bopping along!

Looks like a lot of fun.

That's the Christmas special, you've worked on some brilliant shows,

Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, Pirates, you've done them all,

and now this, The Farmer's Llamas Christmas special.

So tell us a little bit about it.

Well, it's the story of what happens when Shaun meets our three llamas,

Raul, Fernando and Hector, and he takes them back to the farm,

and he has to deal with the chaos that they create there.

Sounds good. Now, The Farmer's Llamas uses stop frame animation.

What exactly is that, how does it work?

Well, with stop frame animation,

what we do is use puppets like the ones we've got here,

and the animator has to pose them into a position,

like the farmer here, and then move it a tiny little bit like that,

then they step away and they take a picture,

then they have to go back in again and move it a little bit more,

and step away and take another picture, and they have to do that...

-Wow!

-..24 times to make a second.

And then when we play it back, that's the finished film

that you'll see on the TV.

Now, we had the absolute legend Peter Lord,

who came on Blue Peter a few months ago,

and he showed us Morph and how Morph works,

but obviously, Shaun's a little different,

cos he's not just one piece of clay, is he?

He isn't, no, Morph is the simplest character you will ever animate.

He is just literally a piece of plasticine,

-whereas Shaun and the other guys here...

-He's fluffy!

He's fluffy, and he has inside him something that we call an armature.

-It's like a metal skeleton.

-Wow!

You see here, this is Shaun.

So he's got bits of wire for his legs and he's actually fluffy,

as you said, so his body's made of wool,

-and his face is actually made of a kind of plastic.

-Can I touch it?

-You can touch that.

-Oh, yeah, that's not at all clay, is it?

-No, it's not.

In fact, the only thing on Shaun that is clay are his eyelids,

-which he doesn't have there.

-Really?

-Yeah, so that's the only little bit that we still have clay.

-OK.

So if these characters aren't modelled from clay,

how on earth do you do the facial expressions?

-Cos they're very expressive, aren't they?

-They are.

But luckily, these characters all come along with their own mouth set.

-Oh, wow!

-So you can see here, this is the farmer's mouth set.

Each of those mouth shapes is a different expression,

so depending on how he's feeling,

and it's a really simple procedure to change them over.

-So, literally, don't scream...

-Uh-oh!

-Pop his head off.

-Aah, poor farmer!

So he can go from being a happy,

-jolly-looking farmer to this one here, maybe...

-Oh, right!

Looking a little bit kind of puzzled,

usual kind of farmer thing,

and what the animator has to do then is just smooth

around the edge a little, make it look and neat and tidy.

So it looks like it's always been there.

Looks like it's always been there, yeah.

And the plasticky stuff is made to look like plasticine as well.

And then we just pop that back on, and there we go.

He's got his head back, and there you go! Not even a second there.

That's right, it means the animator can concentrate more

on the action and less on the sculpting.

-I love it, can I have a go?

-Yeah, sure.

-OK.

So I'm going to take his head off, it's gone.

HE LAUGHS That came off easier than I thought.

And then I'll just put his mouth there. What shall I go for?

-Er...

-Kind of an "Ooh"?

-I think that's a good farmery expression.

-I'll take that one.

-He's cross at Shaun here. Ooh!

-That's right, then get it all smooth.

Then just... Oh, that's harder than you think. Ooh!

It is quite hard, isn't it?

Yeah, that's really tough. So kind of smooth it down...

It's not looking very good, you're better at it than me,

I need some practice.

-You need bigger thumbs, that's what it is.

-Is that the secret?

So there he is, a farmer saying, "Ooh!"

-SHE LAUGHS

-That's brilliant.

Now, I've got to ask you, why llamas? Seems quite random.

Well, they're very exciting-looking creatures for a start,

but actually, they're distantly related to sheep,

which was a great coincidence when we were looking for ideas.

And we thought that Shaun would naturally be drawn to these

-kind of, slightly familiar yet exotic creatures.

-Fluffy, as well.

And so it seemed like a natural choice, really.

And also it makes for a great title, Farmer's Llamas.

-Rhymes.

-Yeah.

-There you have it.

That's not the only reason for making a Christmas special, though!

I know it was!

Now, as well is that, when you animate, you don't necessarily just

guess how they are going to look, you get quite involved, don't you, Jay?

We do like to get involved, yes, any excuse, actually.

So we normally start with a storyboard,

which is the drawn version of the film, and then from that,

we'll go and do what we call a LAV,

which is a live action video recording.

It's when we actually film ourselves acting out what the characters do.

I love this, it looks so funny,

we've got a clip of you doing that here.

So there you are, some cola being stolen.

-You're playing a little sheep?

-I'm playing Timmy, there, yes.

And there's the real thing!

There's your character, cola goes, the llama's got it.

I think his acting is better than mine, though!

I don't know about that, you're a natural!

Now, Radzi and I love getting involved,

it's Blue Peter of course, so we had a go at this.

-We kind of set you your own animation challenge, if you like.

-Oh, dear!

So this is what Radzi and I did.

-You've got Radzi, he's playing the farmer, I think.

-He's the farmer.

He's having a nice little sandwich, and then I'm a naughty llama,

I grab the sandwich and run. HE LAUGHS

So we gave that to you, and this is what you animated - it's brilliant.

-So you've got the farmer there, there I am.

-You are!

-I loved playing a llama.

-Yeah, you make a very good llama.

-Good fun!

And off I go!

That is brilliant, isn't it?

It's great, and you can see from that, I've hopefully captured

the essence of what you were doing.

Jay, it's official, you have the coolest job ever.

-Thank you so much for coming onto Blue Peter today.

-It's a pleasure.

-And thanks for bringing your friends as well.

-Aah!

And if you're excited for the Christmas special,

remember it's on Boxing Day, BBC One, make sure you watch it.

And in the meantime, here is a little sneak peek.

WATER SPLASHES

Huh!

-LLAMAS:

-Aaargh! Wheee!

Whoo!

SHAUN BLEATS AND LAUGHS

LLAMA LAUGHS

Grrrr...

SHAUN BLEATS

Ha-ha-ha!

Ohhh!

Whee!

LLAMAS LAUGH

I'm afraid that's just about it for this week.

Make sure you watch next week, cos it's the Christmas spectacular.

There's loads going on.

Radzi and I are going to go head-to-head

in an ice sculpting challenge. Who's going to win?

Hundreds of viewers will be in the studio

for the traditional Christmas singsong.

And we're going to be taking on a Christmas wrapping challenge.

As well as that, Barney's going to be back. We will see you next week.

-Bye!

-Bye-bye!