{"id":4121,"date":"2021-09-08T14:53:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T12:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1346620"},"modified":"2021-09-08T15:16:18","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T13:16:18","slug":"blue-peter-and-newsround-co-creator-edward-barnes-dies-aged-92","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/blue-peter-and-newsround-co-creator-edward-barnes-dies-aged-92\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Peter and Newsround co-creator Edward Barnes dies, aged 92"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\"> Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter confirmed the news of Barnes&#8217; passing. <\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By Lidia Molina-Whyte\n                \t\t<\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Wednesday, 08 September 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p><hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n<p>Edward Barnes, the mind behind iconic children TV shows Blue Peter and Newsround, has died aged 92, producer Richard Marson confirmed on Twitter. A cause of death has yet to be confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Marson said he had taken a call from Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter, who delivered the news of Barnes\u2019 passing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the true greats of children\u2019s TV, founding father of Blue Peter, creator of Newsround, Swap Shop and much more but also a dear and loyal friend,\u201d he Tweeted.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"&quot;twitter-tweet&quot;\" data-dnt=\"&quot;true&quot;\"><p lang=\"&quot;en&quot;\" dir=\"&quot;ltr&quot;\">What sad news. Edward made sure that, after I left Blue Peter, I had plenty of work from the BBC Children&#8217;s department. I remember him best when we filmed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1989, and we worked well together. RIP Ted.<\/p>\u2014 Peter Purves (@purves_peter) <a href=\"\/\/twitter.com\/purves_peter\/status\/1435565652891381761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&quot;\">September 8, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><p>In response to Marson\u2019s Tweet, Peter Purves, who presented Blue Peter from 1967 to 1978, said: \u201cWhat sad news. Edward made sure that, after I left Blue Peter, I had plenty of work from the BBC Children\u2019s department.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Doctor Who actor added: \u201cI remember him best when we filmed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1989, and we worked well together. RIP Ted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As well as producing Blue Peter, Barnes became\u00a0Deputy Head of Children\u2019s Television in the \u201970s. It was during this time that he came up with the idea for Newsround, the classic news bulletin for children.<\/p>\n<p>Despite becoming a staple of British TV, the idea for Newsround was met with resistance at the BBC at the time.<\/p> <p>\u201cEven within my own department there were people who said we shouldn\u2019t be doing this,\u201d Barnes himself explained during an acceptance speech for a\u00a0special Children\u2019s BAFTA award for the show in 2011.\u00a0\u201cWhy should we tell children about disasters and massacres and murders?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cThey thought it was violating children\u2019s innocence. There was a Victorian idea of childhood, that it is something to be protected and guarded \u2013 there was still a lot of that around at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barnes revealed that, if it weren\u2019t for his head of department, Monica Sims, \u201cwas crucial,\u201d as well as Paul Fox, \u201cprobably the best controller the BBC has ever had,\u201d the show wouldn\u2019t have gone ahead.<\/p>\n<p><em>More to follow.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter confirmed the news of Barnes&#8217; passing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":4122,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/blue-peter-and-newsround-co-creator-edward-barnes-dies-aged-92.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/blue-peter-and-newsround-co-creator-edward-barnes-dies-aged-92-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/blue-peter-and-newsround-co-creator-edward-barnes-dies-aged-92-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/blue-peter-and-newsround-co-creator-edward-barnes-dies-aged-92.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/blue-peter-and-newsround-co-creator-edward-barnes-dies-aged-92.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/blue-peter-and-newsround-co-creator-edward-barnes-dies-aged-92.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/blue-peter-and-newsround-co-creator-edward-barnes-dies-aged-92.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter confirmed the news of Barnes' passing.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/4121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}