London 2012 blog

Forget Maria, Joseph or Oliver – the biggest talent hunt ever is underway courtesy of Blue Peter…

On Tuesday 18th March my career went retro as I was back on the studio floor at BBC TV Centre. But this time I wasn’t donning a Dalek costume or Feung-shui-ing the pets, I was there to monitor the launch of Blue Peter’s biggest ever competition in my capacity as Content Producer for The Handover Ceremonies.

Well into my fourth week with London 2012, amongst the variety of my roles, I have been working with Head of Ceremonies Martin Green and Press Officer Adrian Bassett to launch a nationwide hunt to find two Blue Peter viewers who will each win a key role within the Handover Ceremony for the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer.

It’s an amazing prize and the whole Blue Peter (or BP as they now call themselves) team was very excited indeed – especially as this marks their first competition in a while, and what a way to make a comeback!

Dame Kelly Holmes was on hand to help them launch the competition – which actually took up most the show. They had a fantastic film explaining in true BP style what the Olympic and Paralympic Games and how exciting it is that London is next in line to be the host. With their key audience being 8-10 years old you have to remember that they probably have no idea what the Olympic and Paralympic Games are at all – but when you say it’s the world’s sports day, and you could be there, in China – it sounds pretty spectacular.

It was truly thrilling to be there as we went live to the nation, and it feels so exciting to know that thousands of kids across the country are currently creating their ‘Postcard to Beijing’ in the hope that they’ll be there this summer. They have to write a postcard to a child in Beijing telling them about their hobby and why they are excited about The Games – all in 100 words!

Going ‘live’ is always so exciting, and as the floor manager counted is on air I had my own little private surge of adrenalin as I flashed forward to our big moment on August 24th as we wait to go live to the world…

Anyway – plenty of time for thinking about that. In the meantime, the Handover is alive and the countdown begins by firing up the imaginations of millions of children all over the country.

You can find out more about the competition on the Blue Peter website