'It's the demise of television': Yvette Fielding slams BBC decision to scrap live eps of Blue Peter
Yvette Fielding - who was the youngest presenter of 'Blue Peter' - thinks it is a "big mistake" that the BBC is scrapping the live element of the world's longest-running children's show.
Yvette Fielding has blasted the BBC's decision to scrap live 'Blue Peter' episodes - and branded it "the demise of television".
The world's longest-running children's programme - which first aired in October 1958 - will now be fully pre-recorded, in a controversial move by the corporation to adapt to the viewing habits of modern viewers.
The 'Most Haunted' star - who was the youngest presenter of the magazine show when she co-hosted it from 1987, aged 18, until 1992 - told the Daily Express newspaper: "This is the demise of television for me ...
"Those wonderful unscripted moments were some of the best bits of the show, including my failed attempts to flip pancakes.
"There are so many iconic moments that all 'Blue Peter' presenters had on live TV that people remember, and it is such a shame to take all that away."
'Blue Peter' will now be available to watch in its new format on the CBBC and BBC Two channels, Sign Zone and BBC iPlayer - and Yvette thinks Biddy Baxter MBE, who edited the show from 1962 until 1988, will agree with her that the move is a "big mistake".
The 56-year-old star continued: "I think Biddy would be very gracious about it, but inside, she would be saying, 'This is a big mistake' - to remove all the live elements entirely."
Simon Thomas, who co-fronted the programme from 1999 until 2005, and who is now a Sky Sports presenter, also doesn't think there will be anything like it again.
He said: "We probably didn't realise it at the time, but we were working in the last years of the golden age of children's TV, a time when children's programmes filled the afternoons and Saturday mornings on BBC One and ITV.
"An era when audiences were measured in the millions rather than the thousands.
"Everything has fragmented now, and the way children consume entertainment has changed forever."
