Blue Peter presenters past and present are to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the landmark programme's 50th anniversary.

The monarch will host a tea party for the show's stars, four young viewers who will receive special jubilee edition Blue Peter badges and staff from the programme next month.

The programme has been watched for generations and has become an institution.

Blue Peter editor Tim Levell said: "Blue Peter has been at the heart of children's lives for 50 years and we are delighted that the Queen is recognising this by extending the kind invitation to us."

Blue Peter was the brainchild of its first producer John Hunter Blair and began on October 16, 1958 as a seven-week experiment., Its first hosts were Christopher Trace and Leila Williams and over the years the show's presenters became household names from Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves, in the early 1970s, to John Leslie, Diane-Louise Jordan and Anthea Turner in the 1990s.

The show's pets also became popular with viewers from Noakes's dog Shep, to Goldie, Simon Groom's golden retriever.