Blue Peter Special Assignment was a factual BBC TV series broadcast in the 1970s and early 1980s, the first spin-off from the long running BBC series Blue Peter

Blue Peter

Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...

. It ran regularly from 1973 until 1981, usually at weekends on BBC1, and was heavily promoted on Blue Peter itself. The concept for the series was developed after Valerie Singleton had made a successful documentary 'special' with HRH Princess Anne when she had visited Kenya in 1971. The Special Assignment series was mainly produced by Edward Barnes and presented initially by Valerie Singleton and later by Peter Purves

Peter Purves

Peter Purves is an English television presenter and actor.Purves was born in New Longton, near Preston, Lancashire, and was educated at the independent Arnold School in Blackpool, he had originally planned to go into teaching, training at Alsager College of Education, but began to act with the...

, Lesley Judd

Lesley Judd

Lesley Judd is an English dancer and TV presenter, best known as a long-serving host of the BBC children's programme Blue Peter. She was educated at the independent Royal Ballet School...

 and reportedly Simon Groom

Simon Groom

Simon Groom is a British Producer & Director, best known as a former presenter of Blue Peter.Groom was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, and was brought up on a farm in Dethick, which he often visited for Blue Peter reports...

, all of whom had been presenters on Blue Peter itself.

Series One featured Valerie Singleton looking at six European Capital Cities. These included Rome, Paris, London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Brussels. The first programme to be recorded was the one featuring Rome and included a personal address to the children of Britain from Pope Paul VI in The Vatican.

Series Two continued to feature Singleton looking at European Cities and included Dublin, York and Madrid. Later series looked at Islands and included The Isle of Wight, The Isle of Man, Hong Kong, Malta and Gibraltar. Later the show began to look at famous houses or famous individuals and included biographies of Vivaldi, The Bronte Sisters, The Duke of Wellington, Saint Therese of Lisieux, Marie Antoinette and Rudyard Kipling and both Lesley Judd and Peter Purves began presenting the series in place of Singleton.

The final series was co-presented by Singleton and Peter Purves, being broadcast in 1981. The series theme was Rivers, with Singleton examining The Yukon and Niagara, while Purves reported on The Tamar, The Tweed and The Singapore Rivers.

Spin off books were published covering the first two series.

Blue Peter Special Assignment - 1973 Season:

Presenter: Valerie Singleton

Producer: Edward Barnes

Directors: Dorothea Brooking

• Rome
• London
• Amsterdam
• Vienna
• Edinburgh
• Paris

Blue Peter Special Assignment - 1974 Season:

Presenter: Valerie Singleton

Producer: Edward Barnes

Directors: Dorothea Brooking

• Dublin
• York
• Madrid
• Brussels
• Venice

Blue Peter Special Assignment - Islands - 1975 Season:

Presenter: Valerie Singleton

Producer: Edward Barnes

Directors: Dorothea Brooking

• Isle of Skye
• Isle of Man
• Hong Kong
• Gibraltar
• Isle of Wight
• Malta

Blue Peter Special Assignment - Historic Homes - 1976 Season:

Presenters: Valerie Singleton (~) & Lesley Judd (#)

Producer: Edward Barnes

Directors: Dorothea Brooking

• Benjamin Disraeli (~)
• John Keats (~)
• Charles Darwin (~)
• Jane Austen (~)
• ?
• Anna Pavlova (#)

Blue Peter Special Assignment - 1979 Season:

Presenter: Peter Purves

Producer: Edward Barnes

Directors: Sarah Hellings, Hugh David, Dorothea Brooking

• Marie Antoinette at Versailles (7 January 1979)
• Rudyard Kipling at Bateman's (14 January 1979)
• Saint Therese of Liseux (21 January 1979)
• The Duke of Wellington at Stratfield Saye (28 January 1979)
• The Brontes at Haworth (4 February 1979)
• Antonio Vivaldi in Venice (11 February 1979)

Blue Peter Special Assignment - Rivers - 1981 Season:

Presenters: Valerie Singleton (~) and Peter Purves (+)

Producer: Edward Barnes

Directors: David Turnbull, Sarah Hellings, David Hargreaves, Alex Leger

• The Niagara River (~) (10 May 1981)
• The River Tweed (+) (17 May 1981)
• The Yukon River (~) (24 May 1981)
• The Singapore River (+) (31 May 1981)
• The River Tamar (+) (7 June 1981)