Blue Peter has unveiled a special Gold Badge Walk to mark the show’s 60th anniversary. The children’s television programme reached the milestone in October 2018 with the first programme being broadcast on 16th October 1958. A host of events have been planned to celebrate this milestone over the next 12 months.

Starting things off was the ‘Gold Badge Walk’, a path to honour some of the well-known names who have received the special accolade.

Design and production agency, The Creative Place, based in Watford, developed a series of visuals illustrating how the shields would look once set into paving stones in situ. Line drawings of the shields were designed to scale for each distinguished person to then be produced by Hardscape at its Artscape facility at Stratford upon Avon.

Hardscape supplied the Royal White granite slabs with Artscape Brass ‘Celebrity’ Plaques inlaid randomly throughout the walk with the famous Blue Peter ship and names of famous, public figures including JK Rowling, Usain Bolt, Sir Elton John, David Beckham, Tim Peake, David Attenborough and Her Majesty The Queen.

Also honoured are former Blue Peter presenters Valerie Singleton, Peter Purves and John Noakes. Biddy Baxter, editor of the programme for 23 years, and Percy Thrower, the first Blue Peter gardener, also featured.

Blue Peter editor Ewan Vinnicombe said: “We’re thrilled to launch our 60th year with our special Gold Badge Walk just a few steps away from the iconic Blue Peter garden. “We’ve got such an exciting year ahead with many treats in store for our audience, across all generations, to celebrate the special place that Blue Peter holds within the UK.