Biddy Baxter, the legendary long-time editor of BBC children’s hit Blue Peter, has died aged 92.
Her death was announced on the Facebook page of her publisher Ten Acre Films, which didn’t give a cause of death.
“We are sad to report that longtime Blue Peter Editor Biddy Baxter has died at the age of 92,” wrote Ten Acre. “We salute a true pioneer, who navigated changing times in the television industry with instinct, tenacity and style.”
Baxter was credited by BBC News for turning Blue Peter “into a television institution.”
The show has been watched by millions of British children for decades and has made its way firmly into the zeitgeist, even in this age of saturated viewing.
Born in 1933 in Leicester, Baxter joined the BBC as a studio manager in 1955, was a producer on Blue Peter by the early 1960s and had become editor by 1965, working with a budget reported to be only £180 ($242) per ep.
For the next quarter century she was responsible for the delivery of the show during a time that ratings soared. She devised much of the format that is still in use today for the show that is filmed in Manchester and is about to switch from a live to pre-recorded format.
Working alongside legendary Blue Peter presenters like Peter Purves, Valerie Singleton and John Noakes, she introduced the iconic Blue Peter badge, pets and audience letters.
She left in 1988 and was given a special award at the BAFTA Children’s Awards in 2013, where she was pictured alongside David Attenborough in the image below.
Baxter’s husband, the musical educator John Hosier, died in 2000.
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