When I was about 11 I loved Blue Peter. I wrote down all the presenter’s birthday’s down in my diary and promised myself that I would send them birthday cards. I never did. However, I did write to the BBC asking if I could interview the presenters for my newspaper ‘The Mercury’. I got a lovely letter back from Biddy Baxter and a press pack, but unfortunately a refusal to my interview. It only made my love for Blue Peter grow stronger.
I marked my year by it, the summer expedition, George going into his box near October time and best of all – the advent candle glittery thing. I never thought I would stop watching it. But then one day, around the age of 15 (still late) I stopped. I’d occasionally call in and see how the Blue Peter garden was doing, or how the new pets were. But never again would I sit down with Blue Peter with my plate of oven chips. The new theme tune was the final moment when our relationship ended. Indeed if our relationship could be compared to a romantic film, it would be as if I saw an ex-lover pass me on the street and I would turn to my friend and whisper ‘I used to know him once’. My friend would look quizzically at me, and I would sigh before rushing into Habitat.
But it’s happening again. I think now is the time I leave nightclubbing alone. I cannot quite believe it yet but I think my clubbing days are gone. Clubs have been great. I remember my first gay club in Liverpool (Garlands) seeing cute twinky boys, my first night down in London and pulling at Poptastic in Manchester.
But now the hard core music does not fill my heart anymore. I want to talk, have a nice meal, and have a relaxing drink. I’m sure I’ll still visit clubs but I want more. Just as I left Blue Peter to get interested in my first girlfriend, now it is time to leave the clubs to find my real man. And me.
5 comments:
Not having grown up in the UK, I’m a relative new-comer to BBC (I first saw TV when 17), so I didn’t grow up with Blue Peter. I’ve long realised that Blue Peter amongst several other TV shows are a distinguishing ‘cultural marker’ when comparing Brits to other nationalities. Dr Who is probably another, as is Coronation Street. TV presenters and DJs also ‘define’ Brits to some extent (Terry Wogan, John Peel) but they don’t cross generations as much as do long-running programmes like Blue Peter.
But, having said that, I understand what you mean when you talk about Blue Peter without having had the experience.
As for clubbing, I came to it relatively late in life, probably at an age older than you are now when you’re contemplating giving it up. I still enjoy it as I enjoy pulling men in clubs but, in recent months, I’ve also noticed myself going off it. Well, not going off it as much as not wanting to go as often in favour of going somewhere to drink and chat where I’m able to chat properly without having to shout over the music. Pulling still holds its attractions but there is a bit of hollowness that accompanies it which isn’t always that great.
Perhaps I’m also looking for a boyfriend of sorts? :-)
A recent new Will Young pop video, Who Am I, parodies Blue Peter by super-imposing his image into a series of key clips from the show over the years.
I grew up with Blue Peter in the 1980s, Simon Groome, Peter Duncan, Janet Ellis and Sarah Greene. It was also a very middle-class programme (and I always got the impression a bit southern/London). I used to hate those bits where they told you how to make a space station out of stuff lying around your house, because we never had anything like double sided sticky tape or pipe cleaners.
I caught the show recently, incidentally, and it was like watching gay porn.
PS,the clip is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqM5MaA6LKA&search=will%20young
Too quiet!!
Still alive?
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