The mass exodus from our TV room always began the moment John Craven popped up on the screen in his woolly jumper – Newsround being less of a draw than the prospect of cracking on with some project that had just been suggested on Blue Peter involving a Fairy Liquid bottle and some sticky-backed plastic.

If you were ever irritated because these were not immediately to hand for young hands to work on, blame a housewife named Margaret Parnell. In 1962 Margaret sent in the idea for the first "make" and she spent the best part of the next 40 years creating over 700 of the things for Blue Peter.

It has chalked-up more than 4,000 programmes and next week the world's longest-running children's television programme is marking the occasion with a live extended edition.

It promises to be a very special teatime indeed because the Queen has invited the team along for a cuppa at Buckingham palace. The current Blue Peter presenters will be there, Helen Skelton, Joel Defries and Andy Akinwolere – none of whom I'm afraid I have ever heard of or would recognise in the street. I'll be more comfortable with the 30-odd veteran presenters who have also been asked along to the Royal do, together with some of the programme's high-achieving viewers – those who have been awarded the Gold Blue Peter Badge.

Peter Purves was a Doctor Who assistant before he was recruited. He lays the blame for Lulu the incontinent elephant on editor Biddy Baxter, who supposedly asked Lulu's keeper to do without the stick he used to keep her under control.

The longest-serving presenter was, of course, a Yorkshireman, John Noakes from Halifax, who presented the series for 12 and a half years. A fellow star who perpetually tried to upstage him always remained deaf to John's frequent instruction to "Get Down Shep". Shep probably remains the most well-known of the eight dogs, five tortoises, nine cats and two parrots. George the tortoise lived until he was 81 years and is the only pet buried in the Blue Peter garden. The garden was opened in 1974 with Percy Thrower in charge.

Once John Noakes was asked to drop his trousers for the show to reveal the bruises he had sustained during the making of a bobsleigh film. According to his recollection, he realised that he was wearing his wife's underwear which he had put on by accident in the dark.

It was an energetic sort of job – Noakes took part in something called the Long Fall which earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest delayed drop by a civilian. In May 1976, John collapsed in the studio through exhaustion and Lesley Judd had to step in. The show was thought up by a chap called John Hunter Blair and his bright idea first exerted its pull on children on October 16, 1958, devoting most of its 15 minutes to train sets and dolls.

The Blue Peter Galleon, was designed by artist Tony Hart who got a one-off payment of £100. If Tony had been on a royalty, it would have made him a millionaire. In a nostalgic look back at what followed (this programme is number 4,406) Tom Baker narrates an hour-long patchwork of interviews, mishaps, badges, innuendo, adventure, celebrities, appeals, pets and a selection of previously unseen items.

The programme also examines Blue Peter's 46 appeals that have raised more than £100m. The 14 Bring and Buy Sales have raised the equivalent of an estimated £57m. That was enough to buy, among other thing 25 lifeboats, eight flats for homeless people, 32 ponies, 57 lorries, three caravans, two day centres, six bungalows, 12 houses in Romania, 8,350 lavatories and three schools. This is a show that deserves a Blue Peter badge.