Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
TV producer who ran Blue Peter for 23 years, engaging children through badges, charity appeals, and sticky-backed plastic.
On the island
Eight records
Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge
From Ceremony of Carols. We sang that at school. I was in the first the junior choir and then the senior choir, and we had the harpist Maria Kuchynska … who was very, very talented and well known in those days, who accompanied us. And it was just magical.
Final chorus from St Matthew Passion
King’s College Choir, Cambridge
I've chosen that because when I was a child, when I was growing up in Leicester, they had a marvellous bach choir and every year they put on the Passion in a church that has now become Leicester's Cathedral. And I always used to go, and it was just a magic moment of growing up.
(The transcript is unintelligible here; unable to identify real track. Kept verbatim.)
Beat out that rhythm on a drum
Original Broadway cast of Carmen Jones
Carmen, a film was made called Carmen Jones. And I thought it was one of the most thrilling things I'd ever seen on a screen. It was dynamic, it was exciting. I think it would be very good for me on that island because it might even make me get up out of the sand and do a bit of dancing myself.
Andante quasi lento e cantabile
From Hely-Hutchinson's Carol Symphony. Used in 1943 Radio Children's Hour … and we also used it in 1969 when a Blue Peter presenter … was asked to switch on the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree lights.
Allegro from String Quintet in C major, D. 956Favourite
We use this as music for an absolutely idyllic film we made on Narrowboats on the Canal … it was also used for the obituary of one of Petra's puppies, Patch … I think of the dog when I hear this music.
Allegro from Concierto de Aranjuez
My husband, John Hosier … asked me, before he died, if I could form some sort of trust to provide scholarships … one of these was the classical guitar player, Milosz Karadaglic [sic], who was a winner of the John Hosey Music Trust Scholarship … his Albert Hall concert in 2012 was a sell out.
This is from the Magic Flute, and it's the Papageno duet. And this would make me laugh, it would cheer me up, it would remind me of John, and it would make me happy.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:26What was your strategy [for making children feel they belonged]?
Oh. The beginning of the strategy was a symbol. I got in touch with Tony Hart, young up and coming designer, and he designed the galleon. I mean it's now everybody has logos, but it didn't happen then. And we said that this ship has got to be on absolutely everything, the writing paper, the fan photographs, in the studio. So the programme is synonymous with the ship. And I suppose you could make the analogy if you wanted to, that the programme was going off on a voyage of adventure, but it was just a very good symbol.
Presenter asks
4:14Did you know [the Lulu the elephant incident] was television gold, or were you worried?
I wasn't worried at all. I thought, well, you know, that's life.
Presenter asks
10:10How did you see the world when you were little? What sort of little girl was Biddy Baxter?
passionate about nature and the countryside and animals. We always had a dog … And that's one of the reasons why I was very keen to have animals on Blue Peter.
The keepsakes
Presenter asks
11:51Being the child of somebody who has a disability [your mother's deafness] can make children very resilient and also quite empathetic. Do you think it had an impact on your character?
[It must] have done. It was useful thinking of the Blue Peter appeals, and we did do a very successful appeal for deaf children, and I did think of my mother a lot then.
Presenter asks
19:54Under what circumstances were you told 'no one from Durham has ever got into the BBC'?
Well, that was the appointments officer, Mr BEQ Smith, at Durham University … I was mooching around his office one day and I saw this incredible advert for the BBC … I said, Oh, Mr Smith, I'd this is really what I'd want to love to apply for this and he looked absolutely shocked 'Oh, Miss Baxter, nobody from Durham has ever joined the BBC' And I went immediately and applied.
Presenter asks
25:37Tell me about John Noakes … How did you get on with him? Because he has described you as a very, very difficult woman.
I take that as a compliment. No, he was superb. John was one of the very best presenters that we've ever had on the programme.
“I just felt very, very, very lucky, and doubly lucky, well, trebly lucky, really, I mean, the viewers who made it. No point in not using their ideas. It had to be their programme.”
“I had a reply absolutely wonderful and best day of my life and so, of course, typical small child. About three weeks later I wrote again … [and] had the identical reply. And I remember bursting into tears and going and going to see my mother and saying she doesn't remember me.”
“The war was absolutely wonderful. I was too young to be frightened. … We did bring-and-buy sales for the Spitfire Fund and for the Red Cross. And it was just very exciting.”
“I hate creepy crawlies. I'm just praying that the only wildlife I come across are seagulls and crabs, and not ghastly insects.”