It was 2008 and I was two years away from retirement from the police but I'd already taken my first steps into my next career as a TV writer. I was contributing content to the QI TV show and BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity and had got to know legendary TV producer John Lloyd and his team. And it was during this period of transition from one career to another that one of my new colleagues contacted Blue Peter and suggested that I'd earned a badge for all of the community work I'd done - especially in inspiring and creating opportunities for young people in the arts.
The first I knew of it was when the badge arrived along with a congratulatory letter explaining that I'd been awarded a different badge to the traditional white one due to the anniversary. I was delighted.
Over the next couple of years I wore it only occasionally (I was scared of losing it) but one particular day stands out. In 2010, just after I'd gone full-time working for QI, we were recording an episode of The Museum of Curiosity with author Neil Gaiman as one of the guests. He was in London to promote the film Coraline - based on one of his stories - and he'd been on the Blue Peter show earlier in the day. As the result, he was proudly displaying his standard white Blue Peter badge ... and then he saw my glitzy golden special edition badge.
'Awww! I want one of those!' he wailed.
So that's what this little treasure represents - the one day in which I made Neil Gaiman envious.
No comments:
Post a Comment