Peter Purves: Where Is the Blue Peter Presenter Now

Few children’s TV presenters leave a mark quite like Peter Purves, yet most under-40s wouldn’t place the name. He spent more than a decade on Blue Peter with John Noakes and Valerie Singleton — ‘Val, John and Pete’ — and he’s around today, hosting his own podcast, with documented basics from his Wikipedia biography.

Born: 10 February 1939 ·
Blue Peter years: 1967–1978 ·
Doctor Who role: Steven Taylor (1965–1966) ·
Current project: The Peter Purves Podcast ·
John Noakes: died 28 May 2017

Six facts, one pattern: the BBC’s own archive is the load-bearing wall of this story, and the further a claim sits from it, the faster it falls apart.

Where is Peter Purves now?

Purves is alive, well and working. At 87, he is the most visible surviving name from Blue Peter’s 1960s-70s golden era, and his main platform is The Peter Purves Podcast — an unhurried conversation with his own past. He also still turns up at dog shows, an echo of the years when Noakes and his dog Shep were one of television’s best-known double acts (BBC News (UK broadcaster)).

The basic biography doesn’t need decoding: born in New Longton, Lancashire (Wikipedia biography), he taught before acting took over, and by 1965 was playing Steven Taylor opposite the First Doctor.

Who is the actor named Peter?

• Peter Purves is the actor who played Steven Taylor, a companion of the First Doctor, from 1965 to 1966.
• He is not Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor) or Peter Capaldi (the Twelfth Doctor) — the two later ‘Peters’ most often mixed into the same search results.
• In Blue Peter discussions, ‘the actor named Peter’ is unambiguously Purves: he was the trained actor in the ‘Val, John and Pete’ line-up.

The confusion is understandable: Doctor Who has a long habit of hiring actors named Peter. The profiles of Davison and Capaldi are covered in the related reading at the end of this article.

The implication: ‘Where is Peter Purves now?’ has a surprisingly active answer — he is still making media, still showing up, and still connected to the audience that grew up with him. For a 1960s children’s TV star, that is the outlier outcome.

Did Peter Purves get on with John Noakes?

The honest answer is that the public record shows professional respect rather than intimacy. Purves joined in 1967, which gave the two men eleven overlapping years on the show — through outside broadcasts, stunts and the daily rhythm of live television — and the record contains no public falling-out.

The clearest evidence of warmth comes from Purves’s reaction to Noakes’s death, quoted later in this piece: he described it as “very sad”, and pointed to the Alzheimer’s that had consumed Noakes’s final years.

Did John Noakes give up Shep?

• Shep was the dog most associated with Noakes on Blue Peter, and “Get down, Shep” became his signature line (BBC Blue Peter archive (official)).
• The story that Noakes gave Shep up because of dog-show commitments floats around fan circles, but it is not documented in the BBC archive’s own account.

That gap between vivid folklore and a quiet primary record is the whole shape of the Noakes story: the man generated legends, and the archive mostly just dates them.

What this means: the ‘did they get on?’ question has no dramatic answer on the record — just two professionals who shared a studio for a decade and parted without a public cross word.

What was John Noakes’ cause of death?

Noakes died on 28 May 2017 in Palma, Majorca, at 83. His death followed a battle with Alzheimer’s disease — a slow, documented decline rather than a sudden tragedy (BBC News (UK broadcaster)).

That clinical summary matters because the same search queries that ask about his death often blur it with rumours about money and family. The sourced record is narrower and sadder: a long retirement on Mallorca ended in a memory disease, not a tabloid storyline.

Did John Noakes marry?

• The sources reviewed for this article don’t confirm Noakes’s marital history; the BBC archive focuses on his professional biography.
• Claims about a wife, and about a son named Mark, surface in search queries but fall outside the documented record used here.
• By this article’s standard, what can’t be sourced is labelled unclear — not repeated as fact.

The pattern: the harder a Noakes story is to verify, the more attractive it becomes — and the quieter the primary record is, the louder the legends get.

Why did John Noakes leave Blue Peter?

On 26 June 1978 John Noakes left Blue Peter after more than 12 years on the show (BBC Blue Peter archive (official)). The BBC’s obituary calls him the programme’s longest-serving presenter (BBC News (UK broadcaster)). At 44, he was young enough to build a second career.

The official record marks the exit date and offers no dramatic reason for it. The story most often attached to his departure — a dispute over Shep — is not confirmed by the archive’s own entry.

The trade-off: Noakes swapped the most famous job in children’s television for a freelance life, and the official record, notably, does not frame the move as a mistake.

Which Blue Peter presenter died penniless?

The blunt answer: none of the presenters covered in this article died penniless, and the claim has no support in the sources reviewed. Noakes’s death was documented in Palma, Majorca, at 83, after Alzheimer’s — a private, medically complicated end, not a poverty story (BBC News (UK broadcaster)).

The ‘died penniless’ idea looks like folklore that attached itself to the show after its presenters faded from view. The documented record shows something more ordinary: careers that ended, lives that went quiet, and — in Purves’s case — a long, active afterlife in podcasts and dog shows.

Why this matters: the gap between a viral claim and a documented life is exactly where factual reporting earns its keep.

Who was sacked from Blue Peter for drugs?

The public record does not confirm that any Blue Peter presenter was sacked for drugs. This claim appears in online folklore but lacks support from the BBC archive or contemporary news sources.

Why did Lesley Judd leave Blue Peter?

Lesley Judd left Blue Peter in 1981 after a six-year tenure. The BBC’s own records note her departure but do not specify a dramatic reason; she later pursued other television work. No further details are confirmed in the sources reviewed for this article.

Five rows, one pattern: the BBC’s archive pins Noakes’s dates to the day, while Purves’s record runs on years — a small clue about who the broadcasters were watching more closely.

Peter Purves and John Noakes: the timeline

One decade of overlap, two very different afterlives — the key dates line up like this.

• 1934 — John Noakes born, 6 March.
• 1939 — Peter Purves born, 10 February.
• 1965 — Noakes joins Blue Peter on 30 December (BBC Blue Peter archive (official)).
• 1965–1966 — Purves plays Steven Taylor in Doctor Who.
• 1967 — Purves joins Blue Peter.
• 26 June 1978 — Noakes leaves Blue Peter.
• 1978 — Purves leaves Blue Peter.
• 28 May 2017 — Noakes dies in Palma, Majorca, aged 83 (BBC News (UK broadcaster)).
• Today — Purves hosts The Peter Purves Podcast.

The pattern: one decade of shared screen time, then two completely different exits — one into a freelance career, one into memory.

Confirmed facts and unresolved claims

This article separates what the record confirms from what it leaves open.

The takeaway: the BBC archive and obituary coverage carry the load; the rumours fill only the spaces the record leaves empty.

In their own words

“Get down, Shep!”

— John Noakes, on Blue Peter, preserved in the BBC Blue Peter archive (official)

“It’s very sad. The Alzheimer’s had become extremely serious in recent years.”

— Peter Purves on John Noakes, as reported by BBC News (UK broadcaster)

Two lines, four decades apart, frame the whole era: one is the sound of a man at the top of his fame, the other the sound of the same story ending.

None of this settles whether the two men were friends — the record simply never speaks to it. What the record does show is a presenter who survived the era with his career intact, and a co-star whose last act was fought out against Alzheimer’s in Mallorca. For the viewer who grew up with ‘Val, John and Pete’, the choice is clear: follow Purves’s podcast and dig through the BBC archive while both are still available, or let the era shrink to a catchphrase and a grainy clip.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Peter Davison: Doctor Who’s Fifth Doctor and Family Legacy
• Peter Capaldi: Oscar Winner, Twelfth Doctor, Career & Life