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Blue Peter Editor Ewan Vinnicombe reveals the backstage story of Project Petra, an event that saw three children graduate from C麻豆约拍 'Spy School' and get the chance to see inside MI5 headquarters.

On Blue Peter we try to do two or three landmark moments every year and Project Petra was a perfect chance for viewers to get involved in an incredibly exciting opportunity. After hearing that MI5 might be interested in working with Blue Peter, Helen Bullough (Head of C麻豆约拍 Productions), and I started to develop Project Petra (named after one of our most famous pets).

Over the course of a year, a few of the Blue Peter team talked through different ideas and in the end we decided to create a C麻豆约拍 Spy School. We know our audience loves spies and the intelligence world because of the popularity of Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series, the Young Bond books and the C麻豆约拍 series MI High. We thought it would be a great chance to show children what it takes to become an intelligence officer and at the same time promote good citizenship, as they would learn about teamwork, observation skills and using their minds to solve challenges.

The programme has always had amazing competitions and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities so when MI5 gave permission to actually film inside Thames House and that our final top three viewers could enter a building that’s never been filmed in before it had all the hallmarks of a great Blue Peter adventure.

We received 5,866 applications for C麻豆约拍 Spy School following the launch in January. Children aged 8 to 14 had a two and a half week window to apply through our website and answer three questions about why they’d make a really good C麻豆约拍 Intelligence Officer. The whole team got involved, reading every single entry and in just one day we opened and considered 2,300 applications – quite a feat. We whittled them down to the top 30 who were then contacted for a mini-audition. Following that, we selected our top eight. We had a fantastic mix of boys and girls, aged between 9 and 13, from across the UK. They all had impressive skills and very interesting lives - it’s amazing to learn what our audience gets involved with in their spare time!

The final eight came to C麻豆约拍 Spy School in Manchester and had a weekend of adventures including a trip in a helicopter. MI5 and their official historian and judge, Professor Christopher Andrew, offered expert advice for all Project Petra's on-screen challenges and ensured they were based on historical operations of real life officers. First up they had to do code breaking to get into spy school and I was impressed by how fast they were at cracking the codes. The Information Recovery challenge saw the eight would-be spies divided into teams - one out in the field and one at base giving directions - and their mission was to solve secret codes using symbols found all over Manchester city centre. These codes led them to the Manchester Art Gallery and a portrait of one of Queen Elizabeth I’s most famous spies, Christopher Marlowe. With our Operation Officer challenge it was all about their observation skills as they walked around Manchester with our presenters Lindsey and Radzi trying to spot things that looked unusual. Finally they had to do a pitch on why they should be a C麻豆约拍 Intelligence Officer which was a great way to demonstrating their presentation skills. This challenge showed our judges, who were assessing them across Spy School, the passion they had to become C麻豆约拍 Intelligence Officers. I’ve never ever worked with such a great group of kids; the eight children all got on and formed friendships within about 20 minutes of meeting each other. This was so wonderful because part of being a C麻豆约拍 Intelligence officer is being really good in a team and they all ably demonstrated those skills. Author Anthony Horowitz, journalist Sonali Shah and the official historian of MI5, Professor Christopher Andrew were all so impressed with the final eight and it took a great deal of deliberation to decide our final three.

The production team then had to organise the filming at Thames House. The three winners - Reuben 13, Jamie 13 and Finley 9 - went to Thames House in London for an exclusive tour behind the scenes and had a fascinating insight into working for MI5. Our cameras were with them for the majority of the tour but there were some areas where we could not film. The trip culminated in the children going into the Director General’s office (the head of MI5) and Finley even sat in his seat – thankfully the office was empty! Using all their newly acquired skills they found a code on his desk which told them where to rendezvous with the Director General of MI5, Andrew Parker, and they were able to ask him a couple of burning questions before receiving certificates from MI5.

On the day, it was incredibly exciting to see our final three C麻豆约拍 Intelligence officers walk through the doors of Thames House and meet the Director General of MI5. I felt hugely privileged to be with the Blue Peter team filming a TV first - seeing inside Thames House on behalf of our viewers. Since filming, I’ve kept in touch with all the children and their families and we’ve had nothing but tremendous feedback. The Blue Peter team has worked incredibly hard over the past few months to deliver Project Petra, as we continued to make the weekly live Thursday shows as well. The team are all so proud to have been involved and all those extra hours of planning and production were well worth it. It’s also taken a lot of collaboration across the 麻豆约拍 to make this project a reality.

It demonstrates that Blue Peter is still as relevant today as it has always been; it’s still giving viewers real experiences that money can’t buy, things only Blue Peter can do. And doors open to Blue Peter more than any other show that I’ve ever worked on and it’s why something like Project Petra has worked so well. Blue Peter has an amazing history of giving its audience unique experiences and we're so proud that in 2015 we are continuing that tradition for the C麻豆约拍 audience. As Jamie from Glasgow said of his visit to MI5, “It felt really cool because we were making history that day.”

Ewan Vinnicombe is Editor, Blue Peter

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