TV Presenter My Story

This story belongs to Kit and Grandma Janet.

It's a tiny tale about Grandma Janet's life

and the things she used to do.

Kit and his Grandma Janet are playing pirates in the garden.

Ah, harrr!

Hah!

I can catch up!

THEY LAUGH

Oh, no! You got me, little pirate! Shake hands on it!

Pirates don't shake hands. They shake hooks!

Now, it's time for Grandma Janet to share her memories

and take Kit on a journey of discovery.

MUSIC: "Theme to Blue Peter"

Grandma Janet has been making television programmes

for children for a very long time.

When she was a little girl, her family didn't even have a

television set, because there were very few around.

People sometimes went to a neighbour's house to

watch their TV because they didn't have their own.

When Janet was little, there were hardly any programmes for children,

but one of the most popular was Andy Pandy.

Look at Andy, dancing with Teddy!

When Janet got older, there were many more

television programmes for children and she was very lucky to become

a presenter on one of them and the show's name was Blue Peter.

She had to do loads of different things

when she was on Blue Peter and had lots of fun too.

Grandma Janet is talking to Kit about when she was on Blue Peter.

When I was on Blue Peter, we did all sorts of different things

so that we could show children what it was like to

do things and make things. These are pictures of me

when I was in the studio. Look at that!

Why do you think I'm wearing that orange suit?

-I wonder if the answer is...?

-From a parachute!

You're right! This book shows my parachute jump.

This is me practising because you only get one chance,

so I had lots of practice.

This is practising falling over.

This is practising jumping out.

This is the practice jump out of this tower.

This is one of the practice jumps Grandma Janet did with

the help of lots of safety experts.

Wow! Isn't she brave?

Oh!

Why did you jump out of that?

Because I thought it would be fun. Do you think it was?

No!

It didn't look much fun to me either, Kit!

Before Grandma Janet became a television presenter,

she had lots of fun working as an actress pretending to be

different characters.

Look! That's her there.

'I had to pretend to be a princess in a programme called Jackanory

'Then I was in a famous television programme called Doctor Who.

'I got to wear lots of funny costumes in that.

'Afterwards, I became a presenter on a programme called Jigsaw.

'It was thanks to this show I was asked to become

'one of the presenters on Blue Peter, which was a really big deal.

'It was really exciting, but nerve-racking at the same time.'

SOUND DIPPED

Grandma Janet had to do lots of nerve-racking things on Blue Peter.

I wonder if they're going to have any adventures today?

Kit, can I tell you a story about when I was on Blue Peter

and I had to hold a really big spider.

What's the biggest spider you've seen?

-I've never seen a big spider!

-This spider was...

Hold out your hand.

It was...this big!

Look at Grandma Janet holding a spider on Blue Peter.

She was really scared, but she had to act brave to show

the children at home that they could be brave about things too.

-Do you think you would be afraid of it?

-No.

You are the bravest person I know!

Let's go to the jungle. Come on! Drive me.

Oh! What's that? A scary crocodile!

Kit and Grandma Janet are certainly going to have to act brave now.

What's that? What's that?

A crocodile!

OK, let's make brave faces and pretend that we are not scared.

Ready? Show me your brave face.

Woo! You look brave. Let's creep up on him.

Mind his scaly tail! Mind his foot!

Mind his scaly body!

Ooh! Mind his huge mouth!

Let's see if we can actually...

..touch him! We are so brave!

I think we should leave Mr Crocodile sleeping

and I think we should creep away. Oh! Careful! Mind his scaly foot!

-Bye-bye, Mr Crocodile! Say goodbye.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye! Bye-bye!

Bye-bye!

Acting is lots of fun

and Grandma Janet sometimes has to act with just her voice.

Sometimes, I go into a recording studio

-and do a voiceover.

-A voiceover?

-A voiceover!

That's when it's just my voice.

I don't use anything else, so we use a microphone

and headphones like you're wearing.

One of the voices I do is a Mexican gerbil.

What do you think it sounds like?

Let's hear Grandma Janet's Mexican gerbil now!

-MEXICAN ACCENT:

-Pizza! One extra special pizza

with olives, tomatoes and extra flies!

ALL CHEER

Doesn't she sound funny?

You can do all sorts of things into the microphone.

-Bear, do you want to have a go?

-SLOW:

-Shall I have a go, Kit?

-SLOW VOICE:

-Hello, I'm Mr Bear.

Do you think that's a bear's voice?

-Yeah.

-Do you want to say something now?

-Monkey?

-Hello.

OK, Kit, Monkey, Bear listen carefully,

because, you know that voice I made for Mr Bear, I think

it's going to come back sounding a bit more bear-like. Listen!

-HIGH VOICE:

-Hello, I'm Mr Bear.

-HIGHER VOICE:

-Hello, I'm Mr Bear.

A special machine is changing Grandma Janet's voice to make

it sound even funnier.

Which do you think sounds more like a bear?

-SLOW:

-Hello, I'm Mr Bear.

-HIGH:

-Hello, I'm Mr Bear.

SLOW: Hello, I'm Mr Bear!

Brilliant! You sound just like a bear.

-Who's this?

-Hello, I'm Mr Monkey.

HIGH-PITCHED: Hello, I'm Mr Monkey.

Hello, I'm Mr...

This special machine is changing Kit's voice now.

-Who was that?

-Well, that was you!

Hello, I'm Mr Monkey.

ECHOING: Hello, I'm Mr Monkey.

(Hello, I'm Mr Monkey.)

ECHOING: Hello, I'm Mr Monkey.

There's more than one of you!

Hello, I'm Mr Monkey.

SQUEAKY: Hello, I'm Mr Monkey.

Blue Peter has been on the BBC for a very long time,

longer than any other children's programme...and, look!

Here is Petra, the very first Blue Peter pet.

And Kit and Grandma Janet have come to visit the new studio where

Blue Peter is now made.

MUSIC: "Theme From Blue Peter"

Television studios have lots of special lights in the ceiling

and big cameras like this to record the show.

Kit wants to know more about what Grandma Janet did

when she was a presenter.

What did you do in here, Grandma?

I did all sorts of things when I was in the Blue Peter studio.

'Things like roller-skating. Can you imagine Grandma roller-skating?

'Can you imagine if Grandma was a witch on a broomstick?

'I dressed as a witch to fly into the studio.

'Here I am walking Bonnie the dog.

'We had pets on Blue Peter for children to share with us.

'She's a puppy and I'm trying to teach her some

'basic commands for dogs like how to sit, stay and "Lie down, Bonnie."

'Look, here in this one, she's celebrating her first birthday

'with a lovely big cake, but it's the sort made especially for dogs.'

When Mummy was a little girl and I was on Blue Peter,

she came into the studio.

-'She wore a snood.

-What is a snood?

'A snood is a special sort of hat to keep you warm outside,

'but the one your mummy wore was made out of a dishcloth!'

And look, here is Kit's mummy again in the Blue Peter studio,

not wearing a snood but singing. In fact, she's a pop star!

Grandma Janet made lots of other things on Blue Peter that

children at home could learn to make too.

She's going to show Kit how to a make a pirate's treasure map.

OK, here is how we're going to make our treasure map.

What do we need to make it? What's this?

-Paper.

-And what's that?

-Tea bags.

-And what's that?

-Water.

-Water.

Pens.

Ribbon!

And this is Kit!

That's all I need to make my map.

The first thing we do is make our map look old and,

weirdly enough, that's why I need the tea bag.

I'm just going to get it a bit wet,

and then...

Start painting with it, because, as you can see,

it begins to look a bit browner, a bit darker like paper does

when it's been lying around for a while.

-Do you want to have a go doing that?

-Yeah.

Let me pass it over to you so you can have a go.

Just dab it very lightly on the paper.

Just move it around, that's it.

Yeah! What's your pirate name, Kit?

Pirate...?

-Kit.

-Pirate Kit!

That's as good a name for a pirate as any.

And that's lovely...OK. And because this one's got to dry before

we can do any painting on it, I'm going to put it away,

and give you one...that we made earlier.

Because this one has already had, look, all the tea on it

to make it look old and now we can draw our map for treasure.

-Can I do a map?

-Of course you can.

-Shall we draw an island?

-Yeah.

Draw me a BIG island as big as you can on that paper.

Excellent, with lots of bays, places where we could park our boat

when we're looking. That's super. Now, I think we need...

..some trees on here. Don't you?

Brown for the base of the tree, for the trunk.

Shall I do some green on the trees?

For the top. Give me another one.

Do me another tree.

Yay! Good team effort.

Oh, that's very good.

That is super.

Grandma Janet made lots of funny things on Blue Peter,

like these alien masks and gloves.

And this big, furry spider!

And look, here's another one we made earlier. Amazing!

-Kit, look.

-Oh, what a brilliant treasure map!

-X marks the spot.

-That's a treasure map, isn't it?

This is the one, I think. It's ready to go.

We can definitely find treasure from this,

so why don't we...roll it up...?

And put it somewhere for someone to find

and then they can start searching for treasure.

Put your finger there.

We can do a bow.

Lift your finger.

Super!

Kit, I've had such a lovely time showing you my job

as a Blue Peter presenter. Have you had fun?

Yes!

We looked at your Blue Peter books.

We played at being brave with the crocodile.

We made funny voices with Teddy and Monkey.

We went to the Blue Peter studio.

We made a treasure map.

What's been your favourite bit?

Making the treasure map.

-Making the treasure map in the Blue Peter studio?

-Look what I've got.

Wow.

Before we go searching for treasure, I'd like one more thing, Kit.

Please can I have a great big hug?

What a fabulous heap of fun.

That was Kit and Grandma Janet's tiny tale about the things

Grandma Janet used to do.

Now, Grandma Janet has shared her story with Kit,

it's time for Kit to start his own story.

Do you know someone who has a story to share?