Peter Purves is one of Britains most experienced TV presenters of live magazine programmes, with literally hundreds of credits to his name. He is probably best known for his work on the BBC TV childrens programme, Blue Peter , which he presented for ten and a half years from 1967 to 1978. Together with Valerie Singleton and John Noakes, he appeared in over 800 episodes of what has become the longest continuously running childrens TV programme of all-time.
His career began in the theatre with the Renaissance Theatre Company, at Her Majestys Theatre, Barrow-in-Furness. It was a time he remembers with great affection, as the best training, the worst paid, the hardest work and the happiest two working years he has ever known. From the early 1960s he appeared in many of the then current and popular television series for both the BBC and ITV, and in 1965 he joined the original Doctor Who, William Hartnell for a year as his sidekick in the still popular series. He occasionally attends the conventions held around the world for the shows aficionados.
He auditioned for Blue Peter programme in 1967 and first presented the show on November 11th of that year. After ten and a half years he felt it was time to move on and he left the show in 1978 to go to present three other series for the BBC, Stopwatch (a childrens sports programme), Were Going Places (a forerunner of Holiday) and a series of Blue Peter Special Assignments. Many other guest appearances followed in various shows, and he has remained in great demand ever since. He has regularly presented the BBC coverage of the worlds greatest dog show, Crufts since 1976 and in 1999, 2000 & 2001 the coverage also went to the USA for Animal Planet. Interestingly, the American producers are also the producers of Breed All About It, which Peter voices for the European Discovery Channel market.
Peter was Managing Director of a video production company, Purves Wicks, which produced a hundred or more corporate videos for clients as varied as BT and Boots, and several TV commercials. Peter occasionally presented these programmes, but more often worked as director, writer or producer. He left the company in 1997. He also has spent several years as specialist trainer of presenters, for the BBC, at its training centre at Elstree studios. This has involved elaborate and definitive training in the use of studio talkback, interview techniques, single camera and multi-camera presentation, and general reporting skills.
Peter has written feature articles for several National and local newspapers, and has, on many occasions, been the subject of such articles. He is the author (in collaboration with the celebrated photographer, Fay Godwin) of Tess The Story of a Guide Dog. The book was written in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Guide Dog for the Blind Association, and made the Best Sellers list in 1981.
Peter has directed many of Britains top variety and TV stars in pantomime, including Ross Kemp, Bobby Davro, Linda Robson, Dennis Waterman, Rolf Harris, John Inman, Anita Harris, Cheryl Baker, Cannon and Ball, Colin Baker, John Noakes, Lance Percival, Basil Brush, Harry Worth, Sylvester McCoy, Tom OConnor, Robin Askwith, Rula Lenska, Matthew Kelly, Sarah Kennedy, Paul Daniels and many others. He has devised a number of TV programme formats, two of which are currently under discussion with a view to producing pilots for broadcast. Due to his successful involvement with Crufts dog show, and Superdogs for the BBC, he regularly hosts awards events for a number of the major dog-food manufactures. And he spent 12 months as the editor of Peter Purves Mad About Dogs Magazine monthly.