Edward Barnes (television executive)

Barnes was a co-creator of Blue Peter in 1958, and the programme's assistant director. Later, he was a producer of the series. It was Barnes, with colleague Biddy Baxter, who in late 1962 toured London pet shops after the show's mongrel puppy died and a clandestine substitute (soon known as Petra) was needed so as not to needlessly upset young viewers.[2] Barnes was the originator of the longstanding children's television news programme Newsround, in April 1972; originally, it was known as John Craven's Newsround. At the time, he was Deputy Head of Children's Television at the BBC.[3] Newsround was created to explain stories to children that would not be comprehended equally well on the main news. It was met with resistance when he formulated it, and was a controversial idea for some of his colleagues.[3] Newsround was the first to bring the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster to British television on 28 January 1986. Barnes' wife was the writer Dorothy Smith, who was a contributor to Blue Peter. The couple, who had three children, were married from 1950 until Smith's death in 1992.[4]

Barnes died on 7 September 2021, at the age of 92, from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in England.[5][6]

• Interview in January 2015
• BBC Archive
• Edward Barnes at IMDb