Blue Peter Fake Dog Scandal Revealed

OK, OK. It’s not really a scandal. But I like the word scandal, especially in a headline. It’s scandalous how much I like scandals. But this, really, isn’t one.

It turns out that Blue Peter’s ‘original’ Blue Peter dog, Petra, was actually a ringer.

Former editor of the popular children’s show Biddy Baxter reveals in her book that the first Petra died just two days after making her screen debut.

Miss Baxter, editor from 1962 to 1988, said: ‘It was the dog’s first and last TV appearance. Two days later she died of distemper.

‘It was unthinkable to traumatise our youngest viewers by giving them the sad news, so the producer Edward Barnes and I set off in his Mini to trawl London for the dead pup’s lookalike.

‘It wasn’t until we reached Lewisham that we struck lucky.

‘In a dingy shop window there was one small browny-black puppy, shivering in the corner of a pen. Not a single viewer spotted the swap.’

Well, times were different back then. At least now we all know that Blue Peter is clean and wouldn’t stoop to duping its viewers on issues of trust and clarity and at least we know that the notion of rushing out to buy a convenient dog from a questionable supplier is long since dead. Oh. Wait.

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