15 Facts About Biddy Baxter

Biddy Baxter was born on 25 May 1933 at Regent Hospital, Leicester, Leicestershire, to Bryan Reginald Biddy Baxter and Dorothy Vera,.

Biddy Baxter's father was a teacher, who later became the director of a sportswear company, and her mother was a pianist.

Biddy Baxter was educated at Wyggeston Girls' Grammar School, Leicester and St Mary's, a women's college at Durham University, where she studied between 1952 and 1955.

At a meeting with the careers officer at her university, Biddy Baxter noticed information about working for the BBC.

Biddy Baxter devised and introduced the Blue Peter badge in 1963 to encourage children to send in programme ideas, pictures, letters and stories and she introduced the now famous annual appeals.

Biddy Baxter was awarded a gold badge herself when she retired as editor from the programme.

Biddy Baxter became programme editor in April 1965 following a reorganisation, while Barnes and Rosemary Gill became producers when the programme began to be broadcast twice a week in 1964.

Valerie Singleton has said Biddy Baxter treated the presenters like children.

Biddy Baxter absolutely ruled it; I didn't always agree with her views, but she was right.

Biddy Baxter's husband, John Hosier, who had been a BBC Schools music producer and was a music educator, had accepted a job offer in Hong Kong.

Biddy Baxter is a fellow of the Royal Television Society, and has received honorary D Litts from the University of Newcastle in 1988 and the University of Durham in 2012.

In September 2008, Biddy Baxter expressed dissatisfaction with the way Blue Peter was being run and said that she believed that the BBC was trying to close the programme down.

In November 2013, Biddy Baxter was announced as the recipient of the Special Award at the BAFTA Children's Awards in 2013.

Biddy Baxter was praised by Anna Home, former head of BBC Children's Television, on receiving the award.

In June 2014, Biddy Baxter was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.