Hacker T Dog is having a bad hair day when Big Issue arrives on a video call with the new Blue Peter presenter and his soon-to-be co-host, Abby Cook. So it’s strictly sound only for children’s television’s iconic canine. But Hacker makes his presence felt. As he always does.
Hacker is set to smash through TV’s glass kennel ceiling on 5 September when he joins Cook, Joel Mawhinney and Shini Muthukrishnan as a regular presenter on the longest-running children’s television show in the world.
“Funnily enough, the Blue Peter studio has got a glass ceiling,” says Hacker. “I’ve not broken it yet, but give me a chance.”
Dogs are nothing new for the show, of course. From Petra to Henry via Shep, Goldie and the rest, pets have been central on Blue Peter. They serve as sidekicks to the human presenters, seen but rarely heard beyond the occasional unscripted bark. That changes now.
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Hacker is different. He is joining team Blue Peter as an equal, the first ‘animal’ presenter in its 67-year history. His paws will be following the footprints of giants of the small screen Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves, Simon Groom, Sarah Greene, Peter Duncan and Janet Ellis, Diane-Louise Jordan, Richard Bacon, Konnie Huq, Matt Baker, Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones. And he’s thrilled.
“I’ve been on a lot of episodes of Blue Peter since 2009,” says Hacker, whose human assistant Phil Fletcher prefers to stay under the radar/table. “But never as presenter. So I’ve got more Blue Peter badges than I’ve had hot dinners. Then again, I never eat hot dinners.
“But I’m delighted they finally realised that I’m fantastic and have given me the opportunity to helm the good ship Blue Peter.”
First screened in 1958, Blue Peter was the wholesome, squeaky-clean TV that your parents approved of, surviving through the era of anarchic kids’ shows like Tiswas. It has outlived all its rivals to become the longest running children’s television show in the world, moving with the times but never straying far from its original format.
In its heyday – while Biddy Baxter, who died in August, was at the helm, serving as editor for over two decades – Blue Peter could draw eight million viewers per episode. But these days, the competition is not whatever is on ITV. It is the might of Netflix and the Gabby’s Dollhouse franchise in the young crafters and creators market. And Blue Peter is also competing for young eyes and ears against YouTube and TikTok, viral content and those short, snappy clips that grab hold of attention, with algorithms that don’t let go.
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“But that’s the beauty of the magazine show, cocker!” Hacker says. “It’s a perfect format.”
So is Hacker T Dog the saviour traditional kids’ TV needs? He’s the latest in a long line of TV puppets, from Basil Brush to Roland Rat, who have been recruited to attract viewers to children’s TV. Crucially, he also has form at going viral.
Even if you haven’t watched children’s television in decades, you will likely have still seen Hacker T Dog. The clip of him with co-presenter Lauren Layfield, laughing, snorting, unscripted, talking about “normal men, innocent men” while filling time between shows on CBBC is 18 seconds of comedy gold. An interview with Layfield about the incident is among the most visited pages on bigssue.com.
“I’m proud to have been part of a thing that has become part of the global lexicon,” says Hacker, reflecting on the clip from 2016 that went viral six years later after it was, randomly, shared on the social network site formerly known as Twitter by The Beautiful South’s Jacqui Abbott.
“I do a lot of meet and greets with people, because I’m getting down to earth, really, cocker, and the thing people ask me most about is that clip. The number of times I’ve had to recreate it with people so they can have a little video of it.
“It has had over two billion views that clip, globally. It’s a number you can’t fathom. I was only talking nonsense. There’s no backstory to it. No context. I was just being daft. I thought, well, I’ll make her laugh for a laugh. And I did. And then she made me laugh by laughing. Then the gallery was shouting at us in our ears, telling us to stop being daft. And that made us laugh even more. It was an absolute shambles.”
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Hacker is no one-viral-video wonder. He’s a veteran. Cook, who has presented Blue Peter since March 2023, has been a long-time fan.
“Hacker was a staple part of my childhood,” she says. “Sorry Hacker, but it’s true. I’m 22 and you started on CBBC when I was about six. So throughout my CBBC-watching childhood, I watched Hacker. It’s odd now to be presenting beside such a legend.”
“Actually, we’re friends, aren’t we? In real life,” Hacker chips in. “So that adds to it. We’ve filmed some of it already – a lot of episodes in dog years – and we’ve had such a laugh, haven’t we, cocker?”
Hacker T Dog with co-presenter Abby Cook. Image: BBC/James Stack
Cook nods before plucking a Blue Peter annual from the bookshelf behind her. She is, she says, “a big nerd” for Blue Peter. “I recently made – it’s literally on my on my kitchen table – a Tracy Island like the one Anthea Turner made in the 1990s. I just love all things Blue Peter.”
Her passion for the show is clear to anyone who’s seen her racing hovercrafts, abseiling from a viaduct or crafting mini masterpieces from cardboard and tin foil. After listing more Blue Peter dogs from history, she mentions that Basil Brush was a regular on the show during her childhood. Big mistake…
“But never as a presenter,” Hacker barks. “That’s the headline. I’m better than Basil Brush! But I do share a dressing room with [current Blue Peter dog] Henry. He’s only little is Henry – so he has the low shelves and I have the higher ones because I walk on my back feet.”
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Blue Peter no longer airs live. But the studio sections still retain an air of chaos – all the happy accidents kept in the edit. Hacker’s presence will only add more of this essential ingredient of kids’ telly.
“I think an element of chaos and nonsense is essential to any television, not just kids’ television,” he says. “It avoids it becoming dull, cocker. And I am the dog embodiment of chaos.”
Cook agrees. “We keep the stuff in that goes wrong – and that’s what makes it fun. Recently Joel had to try and make ice cream in space and it didn’t work.
“But it was great to keep that in, because even if it shows a ‘failure’, it’s actually something to learn from.
“There was a moment last year where we ended up with cockroaches all over the studio floor by accident. You have to think on your feet in those moments.”
The format has not survived this long by accident. Like Doctor Who or Coronation Street, Blue Peter has evolution built into its DNA. “I love the random gear shifts that happen on the show,” says Cook.
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“I remember presenting a thing about making sounds out of household objects – and I was trying to make sounds with my wheelchair spokes by whacking them in the studio. Then I had to turn to the next camera and go, ‘now for something really cute – we’re going to talk about pandas.’
“I think that’s what makes it interesting for kids. Even if they don’t like the thing that you are doing one minute, they’ll keep watching to see what’s next. And we are led by the postbag as well. Actually listening to the kids and what they want is so important.”
“I think the magazine show format can thrive in the YouTube age,” Hacker says. “You can clip out specific segments, so you might put it all on the telly, but you can cut out a segment to watch on YouTube or TikTok. Blue Peter works on all formats. The magazine show is perfect for social media.
“Blue Peter more or less invented social media! Because it’s always done those segments. So social media has only now caught up with Blue Peter.”
While Blue Peter bosses will be hoping for more viral content from Hacker and co, another essential ingredient remains daredevil stunts. Cook still looks amazed that she ever ventured over the side of a viaduct in one of her earliest appearances.
“I’m not kidding, I was crying most of the way,” she says. “But I faced my fears, thanks to the lovely team.”
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Has she any tips for Hacker? “If you ever mention to the producers or anyone on the show that you are scared of something, it ends up in the next week’s show,” Cook cautions.
Hacker, of course, knows exactly what to do.
“Well. That’s easy, cocker,” he laughs. “I just told them I am scared of cream cakes and loads of money!”
Blue Peter returns on 5 September on CBBC and iPlayer
