Edward Barnes (television executive)

Edward Campbell Barnes (8 October 1928 – 7 September 2021)^[1] was a British television executive, and producer at the BBC. He was credited with creating the children's television programme Newsround.

Biography[]

Barnes was a co-creator of Blue Peter in 1958, and the programme's assistant director. Later, he was a producer of the series. It was Barnes, with colleague Biddy Baxter, who in late 1962 toured London pet shops after the show's mongrel puppy died and a clandestine substitute (soon known as Petra) was needed so as not to needlessly upset young viewers.^[2] Barnes was the originator of the longstanding children's television news programme Newsround, in April 1972; originally, it was known as John Craven's Newsround. At the time, he was Deputy Head of Children's Television at the BBC.^[3] Newsround was created to explain stories to children that would not be comprehended equally well on the main news. It was met with resistance when he formulated it, and was a controversial idea for some of his colleagues.^[3] Newsround was the first to bring the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster to British television on 28 January 1986. Barnes' wife was the writer Dorothy Smith, who was a contributor to Blue Peter. The couple, who had three children, were married from 1950 until Smith's death in 1992.^[4]

He died in September 2021, at the age of 92.^[5]

References[]

External links[]

• Interview in January 2015
• BBC Archive
• Edward Barnes at IMDb

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