Blue Peter: 1981-1982
Season 18 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Blue Peter Season 17.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 18 Progress Shield
Episode 1
Sep 14, 1981
Expedition Japan: Who was the 'tall, fair-haired and very red-faced European' pulling the float at Kyoto's famous Gion Festival? None other than Simon, sweltering in 90°F, and that
Episode 2
Sep 17, 1981
Prince's Progress Goldie's puppy, Prince, spent his first night under canvas when he went to camp with the First Glen Hill Guide Company last month. All excellent experience for a
Episode 3
Sep 21, 1981
Expedition Japan Slippery Customers Thirty thousand wriggling eels were Simon's ' catch' when he waded up to his waist at the Hamana Lagoon Eel Farm. But the problems didn't end
Episode 4
Sep 24, 1981
Expedition Japan Sarah discovers you have to take lessons before you can wear a Japanese kimono. Peter learns to fly in a jet cockpit where a flick of a computer switch changes ni
Episode 7
Oct 5, 1981
Christmas Stamps This year's Christmas stamps and official First Day Cover have been designed by "Blue Peter" viewers. A colossal 500 million have been printed and you can see the
Episode 8
Oct 8, 1981
The Battle of the Giants!: Japan is Sumo mad! The 30-stone wrestlers are an awesome sight, and it was a dramatic moment when Peter stepped in the ring with the giant Kotonoryu!
Episode 9
Oct 12, 1981
Expedition Japan Hot Stuff! Peter takes a bath in a pool of volcanic mud, Simon is buried up to his neck in scorching sand (a recognised cure for hysterics!) and Sarah boils an eg
Episode 10
Oct 15, 1981
Straight and Narrow! There's more to ploughing with a team of horses than meets the eye, as Simon discovers when he joins some of Britain's top plough-men in the 1981 Championship
Episode 11
Oct 19, 1981
William Adams was shipwrecked on Black Island off the coast of Japan in 1600. Sarah traces the true story of the Englishman who became samurai to the Shogun.
Episode 14
Oct 29, 1981
Butterfly Safari You don't have to go to the tropics to see orange tips, monarchs and woodnymphs. Keen lepidopterists can spot them only a few miles from London Airport! Join Sara
Episode 19
Nov 16, 1981
If you missed last Thursday's programme, now's your chance to catch up with "Blue Peter"'s most important announcement of the year - the 1981 Appeal. Have a pencil and paper handy
Episode 24
Dec 3, 1981
Save this copy of RADIO TIMES and transform the pages into a reindeer. A cardboard sledge completes the model and you'll end up with a magnificent Christmas decoration that would c
Episode 29
Dec 21, 1981
"Grange Hill" Special Your chance to see behind the scenes as Blue Peter films rehearsals for the "Grange Hill" Christmas Special. Competition winner Paul Manning, who wrote the s
Episode 30
Dec 24, 1981
The latest news of the Operation Pipeline Appeal. Your stamps and coins are still desperately needed to give villages in Java supplies of pure water, and the Depot at [address remo
Episode 31
Dec 31, 1981
Remember Simon as an Elvis look-alike, Sarah wearing corsets and Peter slogging it out in the first ever London Marathon? They are just a few of Blue Peter's 1981 highlights and ot
Episode 32
Jan 4, 1982
RAF Airlift: Operation Pipeline gets a big boost when the RAF comes to the aid of viewers in Scotland, and heavy loads of stamps and coins reach the appeal depot in record time.
Episode 34
Jan 11, 1982
Simon meets the man who doesn't have fairies at the bottom of his garden - he has a giant satellite aerial instead. Steve Birkhill designed and built his own satellite receiving st
Episode 35
Jan 14, 1982
'Aunt Jane was the delight of all her nephews and nieces - but, as Sarah discovers, Aunt Jane had a secret!
Episode 43
Feb 11, 1982
Simon and Tina reveal secrets of the tombs of the Pharaohs to mark the centenary of the Egypt Exploration Society, and the 'Excavating in Egypt' exhibition opening in the British M
Episode 49
Mar 4, 1982
Scruffy or sharp? Tatty or trendy? What's your verdict on Peter's clothes? No one seems to agree on what suits him best, so now's your chance to design the ideal outfit!
Episode 51
Mar 11, 1982
Beat the prices in the florists' shops and make an everlasting bouquet of flowers as a very special present for Mothering Sunday.
Episode 54
Mar 22, 1982
A World War II bomber 15 metres below the freezing, murky depths of Stoney Cove quarry in Leicestershire, is just one of the obstacles Sarah faces during her latest diving test.
Episode 63
Apr 26, 1982
Maggie and Jim Britain's fastest tortoises make their spring debut. Because of regional variations in climate, it's impossible to make any hard and fast rule about when to bring y
Episode 65
May 6, 1982
Marathon Man!: Relive those gruelling 3 hours, 11 minutes and 42 seconds as Peter competes in the first-ever London Marathon and comes 1,868th out of 6,418 runners to finish the co
Episode 66
May 10, 1982
Operation Pipeline Auction: "Blue Peter" viewers created a record with the auction for the Operation Pipeline Appeal held at Phillips last week. The collectors items, from the stam
Episode 67
May 13, 1982
Glasshouse Giant Today HM The Queen opens the pride of Kew Gardens, the renovated Temperate House. Over 3,000 species thrive there, including Kew's second-oldest inhabitant, the g
Episode 68
May 17, 1982
Each year more than 30,000 new recruits join hospitals all over Britain at the start of their nursing careers. Sarah spends the day at one of the most famous of the great teaching
Episode 69
May 20, 1982
Lloyds of London In 1688 Edward Lloyd opened a house near the River Thames for the new popular drink, coffee. Simon reports from the world's centre for Shipping Insurance, where t
Episode 70
May 24, 1982
A Dive through Time Sarah achieves her ambition as a diver and reports direct from the seabed and the wreck of the Mary Rose.
Episode 71
May 27, 1982
It's a Knockout: The first 'knockout' of the new season starts tomorrow, and Simon, Sarah and Peter are there sharing the commentating with Stuart Hall. Find out what goes on behin
Episode 72
Jun 3, 1982
During the last 30 years more natural woodland has been lost in Britain than in the past four centuries. Find out today how you can help, and see the incredible 260-million-year-ol
Episode 73
Jun 7, 1982
HRH The Prince of Wales, President of the Mary Rose Trust, shows some of the newest treasures recovered from the wreck and talks to Simon and Sarah about his experiences as a Mary
Episode 78
Jun 24, 1982
'He flies through the air with the greatest of ease...' Man has only been airborne for less than 200 years, and when it happened it was by balloon. Sarah makes her first ever asce
Episode 79
Jun 28, 1982
Metro Magic How long does it take to change the engine of a car? The men of RAF Strike Command and Support Command claim they can do it in 60 seconds flat! Two teams race to break