Fans will be able to share favourite moments from Lulu the elephant to Tracy Island

The BBC is marking the 60th anniversary of Blue Peter next month by digitising all its old episodes so viewers can find their favourite moments to share online.

The move is part of a celebration of the diamond jubilee of the world’s longest-running children’s programme, which will feature an hour-long live special starring many of Blue Peter’s past presenters including Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves – who will take part in a big “here’s one I made earlier” crafting extravaganza.

During the birthday episode on 16 October, singer Ed Sheeran will be given a gold Blue Peter badge, current presenter Radzi Chinyanganya will be winched above the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to see the crew lined up to spell out the show’s name at sea, while co-host Lindsey Russell will attempt a solo hot air balloon flight in the Arctic Circle.

In addition, a Blue Peter diamond jubilee time capsule will be sealed in the National Archives and BBC One’s The One Show – which is hosted by former Blue Peter star Matt Baker – will take a look back at some of the programme’s highlights.

The special will be shown on children’s channel CBBC and repeated on BBC Two, meaning Blue Peter will briefly return to the main channels – it was moved from BBC One to CBBC in 2012.

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Famous for its badges, pets and references to sticky-backed plastic, Blue Peter began in 1958. With its format of “makes”, bakes, competitions and presenter challenges, it became a staple of British children’s lives. More than 5,000 episodes have been aired, fronted by 37 presenters.

Favourite moments include Lulu the elephant running amok in the studio with John Noakes, Singleton and Purves in 1969 and Anthea Turner demonstrating how to make a version of a Thunderbirds Tracy Island toy.

Despite rising competition from the likes of YouTube, the show continues to bring in young audiences. It received more than 106,000 messages or letters from viewers in 2017 compared with 40,000 in 2011, helped partly by the decision to move the programme from London to Salford seven years ago.

Blue Peter’s editor, Ewan Vinnicombe, said all the former presenters were keen to be involved in the 60th birthday celebrations and explained how viewers would be able to share the vintage footage on social media: “BBC Archive [has been] going through digitising every episode of Blue Peter there’s ever been into the digital archive so we can then please all the different audiences for all the different clips they want.”

Russellsaid she thought the secret to the show’s success was that it had “moved with the times” and harnessed technology. “It’s still got that same structure and definitely the same values; it’s about the badge, about being brave, going outside your comfort zone, going for it and believing in yourself and taking on an adventure – all of that’s still there,” she said.

However, it had also evolved, Russell said: “We play a game during the show which, is ‘spot Shelley the tortoise’, so if you can spot Shelley you jump on to the fan club online … and say where she is hiding; then the winner gets a shoutout.

“It’s about mixing those new things. So as long as you mix that in with the old – we’re still doing makes, still doing bakes, got some live music … it is the show it always was but with those 2018 elements woven in.”

Chinyanganya added: “To change unrecognisably would be a massive mistake.”

Russell said the presenters’ challenges were now bigger than ever and the show attracted a more diverse audience: “I think it has broader appeal – we have cool music on the show. If you said what a Blue Peter fan is like, it’s anyone and everyone from six- to 18-year-olds. It’s not the ‘safe’ show it used to be [but] it’s the still the same kind of framework.”

Both presenters predicted it would continue for another six decades.

Chinyanganya said: “Blue Peter, over the last 60 years, has been about core values and ambition and as long as those key things are there – we’re trying to be the best versions of ourselves – then I don’t see why that will not continue, in spite of the other distractions that are there.”

* The Blue Peter special will air on CBBC at 5pm on 16 October and be repeated on BBC Two

Here’s one I made (badly) earlier: Tara Conlan tries a ‘make’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tracy Island, as made by former Blue Peter presenter Anthea Turner, not Tara Conlan. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

As a child, I marvelled at how Blue Peter presenters were able to transform a pile of rubbish into Tracy Island or a festive garland.

My resulting efforts at home could be summed up as “Here’s one I couldn’t make earlier”. And when the BBC gave me the chance to try doing a Blue Peter “make” in the studio, I learned that not much had changed.

The challenge was deceptively simple: to make a ping-pong ball rocket launcher, first demonstrated by my childhood hero John Noakes.

Filmed under the same conditions as the presenters – live, in three minutes and with no autocue – I was armed with regulation Blue Peter props including toilet rolls, a plastic bottle and, obviously, some sticky-backed plastic.

It quickly descended into chaos. With the clock counting down, I resorted to grabbing the pre-made parts hidden below the table and jabbering repeatedly: “Here’s one I made earlier.”

At one point I totally forgot the target audience and, after breathing into the rocket’s paper bag to inflate it, speculated how much it was like taking a breathalyser test.

My final launcher was so badly constructed that the ping-pong ball backfired and hit me in the face. I left covered in glue, with an even greater admiration for Blue Peter presenters and zero prospect of a Blue Peter badge.