Back in the day, when we lived in Harrow, my Dad worked at the BBC at Television Centre

He was a soundman and worked on many programmes that have since become part of British television history: Doctor Who, Hancock’s Half Hour, the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, and the children’s TV institution that is Blue Peter

In those days, nobody really thought about archiving television

Tapes were expensive, storage was limited, and so recordings were often reused or wiped

Entire moments of TV history simply disappeared

Yet one clip has survived and been replayed time and time again: the infamous elephant scene from Blue Peter

If you want to go straight to the youtube video of it, go here

If you didn’t know, Blue Peter is the longest-running children’s television programme in the world, first broadcast in 1958

After its creation, the programme was shaped and developed by a BBC team led by Biddy Baxter, who became editor in 1965 and held the role until 1988

Biddy was known for having a very clear vision of what Blue Peter should be

I think my Dad shared that vision, which is why she would often request that he worked on the programme

The show traditionally had three presenters

During my Dad’s time, those were Valerie Singleton, John Noakes, and Peter Purves, names that defined an era of children’s television

And then came 1969

For one episode, a baby elephant and its trainer were invited into the studio

After all… what could possibly go wrong?

Conclusion

Looking back, moments like this remind us just how different television once was: live, unpredictable, and wonderfully human

No safety nets, no social media fallout, just real people, real moments, and the occasional elephant doing exactly what elephants do

So here’s the question that still lingers all these years later: after all… what could go wrong?

Video here