Queen of Blue Peter Valerie Singleton is back for special Edinburgh Fringe show

SHE has mixed with pop royalty and real royalty, but millions of Britons know Val Singleton as the Queen of Blue Peter.

Now 81, and about to make a very special appearance in a show all about the classic kids’ TV hit, Val reckons Blue Peter gave her the sort of incredible experiences you simply can’t buy.

And, as she looks back at an amazing career, she reckons it just about made up for the fact she never became the famous dancer she wanted to be.

“There was a moment, when we buried the time capsule box in 1970, that I thought ‘Well, at least I have a job to do in the year 2000!’” she laughs.

“We are now burying another box for the show’s 80th birthday, in another 20 years, though I have a feeling I may not make that one, sadly. You never know.

“But originally I had trained as a dancer. I did everything, I did ballet and tap, Greek dancing, and missed an awful lot of schooling.

“After I got a job dancing in Edinburgh, and a friend got into Rada I thought I’d like to try that, too, and was lucky enough to get a one-term scholarship.

“I did well, got a job at Bromley Rep, and did all sorts of things until I joined Blue Peter at the age of 25. If you put into YouTube Val Springcleaning With Flash, you’ll see one of the many things I did back then.”

Once Blue Peter plucked her away, there was no doubt what the next decade was going to centre around, and she became an integral part of the show immediately.

“When I moved from being a television presenter and continuity announcer to Blue Peter, my parents thought I was leaving a secure job for a programme nobody had heard of.

“The first time I realised Blue Peter was actually quite popular was when we did the veteran car run. All along the roads there were cars lined up and people saying ‘Good luck, Blue Peter!’.

“I think that was when my parents suddenly thought the show might be quite popular. But then, if you think about it, there were a lot of shows on then that are still going. Panorama was on, and others that have changed names but are still being shown.”

If it was a time when British TV shows were universally popular, it was the same for music, fashion, cars and everything else. Val was thrilled to come face-to-face with the best of them all.

“A producer asked if I’d like tickets for The Beatles while I was in Paris,” Val recalls. “They were second on the bill after Johnny Halliday.

“I said yes, please, and then he asked if I would like to meet them. So I met them at the George V Hotel. I liked George the best, and always have done.

“Ringo told me not to move the ashtray, Paul had a girl on his knee and John was a bit sort of . . . my big regret is that I didn’t get their autographs. What would they be worth now?

“On a Blue Peter special assignment in Paris, I met Givenchy, who was absolutely delightful. When I did Tonight, I met Deborah Kerr, who was lovely.

“I liked meeting Tina Turner, too. Most people are nice, even Sophia Loren — she got a bit annoyed because I asked her about her tax problems. She still signed my book, Yours Tenderly, Sophia.”

Having also been a serious news reporter and interviewer on other shows, there weren’t many famous folk who could leave Val overawed.

Princess Anne, for instance, really took to her and the show itself.

Val accompanied the Princess Royal on her first solo trip overseas, a Kenyan safari in ’71. They also met in 1998 to reminisce, during the show’s 40th anniversary celebrations.

“I went to meet her at the palace, and the next minute I was heading up the aircraft steps with her,” says Val.

“She was very interested in what we did, and this was when she had become president of the Save The Children Fund.

“She ended up asking me the same kind of questions everyone else does, such as ‘Do you look after the pets?’ I think she really enjoyed it and I liked her.

“For the first time, it was about her, not the other members of the royal family, and she also enjoyed taking pictures of all the animals. She is a very good photographer.

“The royals change through the years, and I think Prince William has done rather well in the Middle East recently. He has a lot of stature now, and I can see the future King there.”

Val’s fame has seen her baffled at times by the locations where she seems to be loved — and she was utterly gobsmacked when her fame saw her go into the famous This Is Your Life red book.

She says: “I used to get a huge amount of fan letters from Eastern Europe, from Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, China, Germany. I don’t know if Blue Peter was shown there, so it’s strange!

“This Is Your Life was fun. That morning, my boyfriend said something like ‘Well, have a nice day’ and I thought that sounded a bit strange, different from his normal.

“I went off to do a programme with Gloria Hunniford, and Donny Osmond was there. He pretended to be a quizmaster, and I was blindfolded.

“Suddenly, I got this book and I said it actually felt like the This Is Your Life book. Of course, the next minute, there’s Michael Aspel, and I think I said something rather rude which they had to cut out.

“Next thing you think is ‘What will I wear?’ — but they don’t let you out of their sight. The other odd thing is once you get to the This Is Your Life studio, there’s nobody else there, because all the people in your life have still to be introduced.”

There will be no shortage of people showing up to enjoy this latest show, featuring one of British TV’s most famous ladies and based around surely its all-time greatest kids’ show.

Part of the Edinburgh Fringe, you can see Once Seen on Blue Peter — Makes, Bakes and Outtakes at the Assembly Ballroom, August 4-26, daily at 2.50pm.