NINETEENTH BOOK
Published 1982
BP Team: Sarah Greene. Simon Groom. Sarah Greene. Peter Duncan and Sarah Greene.
Cover: Lurid yellow, with green writing on the spine, is a far cry from the sober, classic blue and white of only a few years previous. On the front the team are in civvies, on the back they are dressed up for the Christmas panto Cinderella. The boys are the ugly sisters and for some bizarre reason Sarah looks like Partridge/Day Today regular Rebecca Front. More photos from the show appear on the endpapers - Tina Heath is the principal boy.

Features: Sarah goes abseiling, this time without the gimmick of the BBC Tower... Simon and the restoration of a Ming vase dug up in a garden, in an article entitled 'Pot Luck' without any sign of innuendo... Duncan trains young Prince in the ways of guide doggery... One of the most celebrated items ever shown on Blue Peter - Sarah, her little sister, Tina Heath, Isla St Clair and Maggie Philbini (cf Filthy, Rich and Catflap) dress up in historical underwear. Someone, somewhere at some point thought this a good idea. I'm sure plenty of male viewers enjoyed it... Old stager Pete rejoins his family's travelling show; "What did the chicken say when its mother laid an orange? Look what mama-lade." And so Vaudeville died with this act... The team go to Japan on their hols and among other things meet rock'n'roll revivalists in the park, while Pete stars in a Samurai movie and tries Sumo amid cries of 'Blue' Peter in his loincloth. Sarah looks so cute we have to show you the picture. Oddly there is no mention of the lemonade-fuelled antics of Groom who one night stole an inflatable waiter (!) from outside a restaurant to be collared by the cops!... Sarah meets Tony Hart's plasticene pal Morph... a hundred creepy ventriloquists dummies visit the studio. Amazingly they don't come to life and KILL EVERYONE!!!... Pete tries the marines endurance course... Another classic item: Simon visits Tippi Hedren and her pet big cats, stars of the movie 'Roar'; "One member of the film crew had even had an ear chewed off - 'Only in fun,' said Tippi!... Sarah dives to the wreck of the Mary Rose... Simon dresses up as Elvis and, like all Elvis impersonators, looks nothing like him...

Makes: Paper reindeer and sleighs. Why, if this book is traditionally a Christmas present, do they bother with this stuff year in year out???
Three clown puppets at a cost of only about 50p each.
A table football game in a make entitled 'Ee-aye-addio-we won the cup!' Now known, thanks to Friends, as 'fussball', oddly.

Historical Figure's Life Story in Very Bad Pictures: Will Adams, of 'Shogun' fame. Not by regular artist Robert Broomfield and really bad. Broomfield draws the tale of the extinction of the Dodo.
Stories: Incredibly, none.
Rubbish Mystery Story: Still going 'strong', this time with The Case of The Secret Elephants.

Notes: Funny how a good on-screen team generally translates well to the page - lots of good features in this one. From our experience, from hereon in the print runs begin to drop dramatically, meaning that despite its relatively recent vintage it's quite a hard one to find. Expect to have to fight with Sarah Greene fans for it. Dealers will still be hard pushed to charge you more than £3 for it though.