ON the surface Blue Peter was a happy ship, where cheerful presenters demonstrated the power of sticky-backed plastic and inspired Britain’s youth.
But behind the scenes of the world’s longest-running children’s TV show, its stars experienced a culture of fear and intimidation.
7
Yvette Fielding joined Blue Peter at the age of 18, hoping to inspire Britain’s youth Credit: Rex Features
7
But Yvette is now speaking out about the culture of fear and intimidation behind the play Credit: Olivia West – commissioned by The Sun
And no one suffered more than the programme’s youngest ever host, Yvette Fielding, who joined in 1987.
At the age of 18, she was left in tears after allegedly being severely grilled by legendary Blue Peter boss, Biddy Baxter.
But it got worse when she ran into two of the most notorious names in children’s programming on the BBC — Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris.
As well as Yvette, other Blue Peter presenters, including the late John Noakes, also complained about the intimidating attitude of the show’s editor, Biddy.
READ MORE ABOUT THE SAVILA SCANDAL
For Yvette, who created the hit cable TV show Most Haunted and appeared on I’m A Celebrity. . . Get me out of here! in 2015, “abuse” made her life miserable.
Now 55, he recalls, “They always told you, ‘Biddy wants to see you in the rhythm room,’ which was like a closet in a store.
“She would sit at this table and basically tell me that I’m fat, that I’m useless, and at one point she said, ‘The only thing you’re good at is being with a dog.’
“Today they call it workplace anxiety, but it was actually bullying.
“I think I was too young to join then.
“I’ve never done presentation before, I’ve only acted.
Netflix released the harrowing first trailer for the Jimmy Savile documentary that exposes the ‘evil within’ the pedophile monster
“I was freezing, I was shaking, I wanted to be sick, I was in the bathroom an awful lot.”
Apologized
Biddy, now 90, who was in charge of Blue Peter from 1962 to 1988, chose Yvette as the show’s new presenter.
But the pressure of performing in the live show, which at its peak was watched by eight million, was too much for the teenager.
7
Yvette was feeling pressure from legendary Blue Peter boss, Biddy Baxter, Image Credit: Getty
7
Yvette felt her troubles starting to ease thanks to co-presenters Mark Curry and Caron Keating supporting her Credit: Rex Features
There was no autocue or headphones, and just before Yvette went on the air, Biddy would change the script she’d spent the night before studying.
Biddy even wanted to say where Yvette lived and what her bedtime was.
Yvette recalls: “They put me up with a family and they would call the home to make sure I was in bed by nine o’clock, and if I wasn’t, they would turn me off the next day.”
Yvette found an apartment to share with other young people, but was ordered to move out.
Describing herself as a “home bird”, she says being away from her family in Cheshire has been difficult.
Her co-hosts, Mark Curry and Caron Keating, were supportive and the problems began to subside.
But it was about to get worse.
When Yvette, whose autobiography is out at the end of this month, was alone in a TV studio with Rolf Harris, he took the opportunity to sexually assault her.
She told The Sun: “It was very confusing and shocking – it’s just bizarre to think that Rolf Harris is squeezing me and patting my bum and I’m standing there thinking ‘I don’t know what to do’.
“Other people in the industry must have known what he was like, and you left me alone in the studio with him.”
“It shouldn’t have happened.
“I must have been 18 or 19.
“I think a lot of them knew.”
The incident would have taken place around 1988, when Harris was still presenting the children’s program Rolf Harris Cartoon Time and was one of the BBC’s longest-running stars.
His serial abuse of young women only came to light in 2013 after he was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree, a police investigation into allegations of sexual abuse against Savile and other celebrities.
7
Yvette says Rolf Harris sexually assaulted her when they were together at the TV studio Credit: Rex Features
7
She also felt uncomfortable in the presence of Jimmy Savile. Credit: Getty
Harris, who died last year aged 93, was convicted of sexually abusing four girls – one of whom was just seven or eight years old.
Many of his victims felt that he was able to carry out so many attacks because complaints were swept under the rug.
Yvette, a former child actress whose first major role was in the BBC children’s drama Seaview at the age of 15, says there was a culture of cover-up in the TV industry back then.
She adds, “In my day, it didn’t matter what was going on — ‘Is the show doing well, are we getting good ratings?’
“‘Yes we are, go on. Let’s cover everything and get on with it’.”
She continues: “It was a different time when I was 18.
“The things that people used to do in my day, pat on the bum and ‘Wahey’, all that.
“Then it was just everyday life, we kind of grew up with it.
“From what I’ve heard, certain things have been swept under the rug – and that should never, ever have happened.”
Yvette says she also felt uncomfortable in the presence of Savile, who died in 2011 before his sexual depravity became known.
She recalls: “He took my hand and started caressing it. ‘Look me in the eyes’, he said, ‘And tell me what you think’.
“He was grotesque.
“I just don’t understand why the BBC let him get away with it for so long.”
After Biddy Baxter retired in 1988, Yvette began to enjoy her time on the show.
But in 2012, Blue Peter was transferred from BBC1 and demoted to the CBBC channel, currently streaming on iPlayer.
Biddy would sit at this table and basically tell me I was fat, useless and ‘the only thing you’re good at is being with a dog’
Yvette Fielding
Yvette insists it needs to be brought back to mainstream TV and says: “I remember meeting Princess Diana and she said, ‘William, Harry and I love nothing more than snuggling up on the sofa and watching Blue Peter’ .
“And that’s gone, and that makes me very sad.”
After five years on Blue Peter Yvette switched to ITV children’s show What’s Up Doc? before returning to the BBC to present The Heaven And Earth Show, followed by the film hospital programs The General and City Hospital.
During her stay at the City Hospital, she met her second husband, Karl Beattie, who was a cameraman.
He proposed to her live on air while she was in the operating room with host Gaby Roslin, and Yvette recalls, “I said yes right away because I knew I loved him.”
When their daughter Mary was born in 1999, Yvette was asked if she would give birth in front of the cameras, but she says: “I said no because I preferred it to be a private matter.
“I didn’t want to expose my private things to the nation – I’m sure the nation wasn’t ready for that.”
But she was not asked to present another series of City Hospital after Maria’s birth.
She says: “I always wondered if part of the reason was that I said no to showing my vagina on air.”
After the turn of the century, Yvette became more of a stay-at-home mom, looking after Mary and her son William, from her first marriage to police officer Barry Sweeney.
Her second husband Karl suggested the idea for Most Haunted, filming Yvette spending the night in a haunted house.
They spent all their savings on filming a pilot series, but it was rejected by all the major channels before Living TV picked it up, and it turned out to be a huge hit.
Since then, US comedy show Saturday Night Live has done a sketch about the creepy series, with Girls Aloud, Boyzone and Happy Mondays among the celebrity guests spending time in the haunted locations.
Karl and Yvette are now touring theaters with their live show and producing a digital version of Most Haunted.
She believes paranormal activity is on the rise and says, “Nobody wants to deal with it, and I think science should.”
- The Scream Queen, Yvette Fielding, is published by Ebury Spotlight on May 30, priced £22.
7
Yvette’s book The Scream Queen is coming out soon – which also brings a look at her Most Haunted series
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education