Don't do this at home

What's happening to Blue Peter? My children watch this programme and just occasionally I wander in to the room and catch the odd snippet of Matt and Konnie and Liz and funny Welsh name Gethyn, is it? and new girl Zoe's goings-on.

Firstly there are five presenters. Well that's not right. Traditionally there have only ever been three. Secondly, the show seems to have got very glamorous, fashionable, trendy, etc etc, - all descriptives that should have nothing to do with this institution. I was a viewer throughout my childhood and still use my signed photo of Simon Groom, Lesley Judd and (my favourite) Christopher Wenner, as a bookmark. There was never any danger of the programme being "hip" - that was left to ITV's "Magpie".

The unavoidable fact is, Blue Peter has decided to become sexy - with the on-screen flirtation between Zoe and Gethyn. Zoe is a very beautiful and charming blond girl (but with a horrible growly voice like a female Ian Paisley) who we have seen enjoying a sauna and relaxing massage while wearing a tiny bikini. She has also taken up the challenge to take a bath in green jelly, though she kept her clothes on for that - this ended up like a cross between mud wrestling and a wet T-shirt competition. In another feature Zoe, surprisingly, was spared the job of waxing Gethyn's chest hair - a stunt which would probably have terrified younger viewers (I watched, transfixed, setting the table ready for our tea). Konnie and Liz, wearing rubber gloves, held the half-naked Welshman down on a leather couch and daubed him with hot wax which they used to render his upper body bald.

I ask you - what are things coming to? I am a very infrequent viewer of Blue Peter, yet I have witnessed all the above. John and Valerie were never like this.