Noakes was so furious that, on his last day at work, he tore up the document and scattered the pieces on the studio floor.

But at the eleventh hour he was asked to sign a disclaimer stating that the dog would not appear in advertisements or competitors’ programmes. When Noakes announced that he was leaving the programme in 1977, he was told that he could take Shep with him. He said, ‘This is absolutely ridiculous’,” Mrs Noakes said. He hated the fact that he should be given a contract to look after the dog. “John used to say, ‘Oh, Shep’s just a prop’. Although the dog lived with Noakes, it belonged to the BBC, who paid an allowance to cover expenses. According to his widow, the greatest animosity stemmed from tensions over ownership of Shep. Noakes nursed a loathing for Ms Baxter until his death in 2017, and spoke bitterly of his time on the show. “It was very much a second home for him,” Mrs Noakes explained. Shep was rehomed with Edith Menezes, who regularly looked after Blue Peter pets. “Dogs find being at sea quite disturbing and get very anxious,” Noakes’ widow, Vicky, told Baxter’s biographer, Richard Marson. It exonerates the BBC and reveals that Noakes did keep Shep, only to give the dog away when he decided to leave Britain on a sailing adventure. However, a new biography of Biddy Baxter, Blue Peter’s formidable editor, throws new light on the canine custody battle.

“I thought Shep was mine - they told me I could keep him, but they went back on their word,” he said. To a generation of Blue Peter fans, John Noakes and Shep were a beloved television partnership.īut after Noakes left the children’s show, he alleged that the pair were forced apart by BBC bosses who claimed the border collie as a prize asset.

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