Biddy Baxter, the pioneering television producer who transformed Blue Peter into a national institution, has died at 92, according to the BBC.

As editor of the children’s programme between 1965 and 1988, she introduced viewer engagement segments including the national appeals and the famous Blue Peter badge, encouraging children to send letters, pictures and programme ideas.
The show’s former presenter Peter Duncan remembered her as “a true force of nature”.

He told BBC Breakfast: “For me, she was a wonderful, inspiring person, and not just for her presenters, but for what she got on to BBC television and the kind of things she projected about young people. She was a true enthusiast and a supporter of young people.”

He added: “She was truly a one-off within the BBC. I think that if something upset her, she would trail off to see the DG (director general) and tell him what she thought, really. So we need people like that now more than ever.”

Born Joan Maureen Baxter in Leicester, she studied at St Mary’s College, Durham University, where she saw recruitment flyers for the BBC.

She joined the public broadcaster as a radio studio manager in 1955, and was promoted to producing Schools Junior English programmes and Listen With Mother before making the transition to television.

Baxter took over as editor of Blue Peter in 1965, several years after the programme’s launch. She served as editor for more than two decades, winning two Bafta awards and receiving 12 nominations. On her departure in 1988, she was awarded the programme’s highest honour, a gold Blue Peter badge.

“I didn’t want to do anything other than Blue Peter,” she told the Guardian in 2013. “I certainly never wanted to be an administrator or in charge of anything. It was an absolute dream and I never wanted to do anything else. It was a terrific time to be in television.”

Baxter continued to act as a consultant to the BBC directors general John Birt and Michael Checkland after her departure, and received the special award at the Bafta children’s awards in 2013.

She was made an MBE in 1981 and founded a trust to enable gifted music scholars to pursue postgraduate studies in 2003.