Children's BBC
Heggessey was considering leaving the BBC again and returning to working in the independent sector, when she was offered the position of Head of Children's BBC. As her daughters were at the time aged four and eight, she decided to accept the role, later explaining that "Short of taking over Hamleys, this was the next best job for them." She took up this post in 1997.
It was as Head of Children's BBC that she became involved in the dismissal of Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon. In October 1998, the News of the World newspaper revealed that Bacon had taken cocaine, and he was subsequently sacked from his job as a presenter on the high-profile children's programme. Heggessey appeared on-screen in a specially-recorded one-minute address to viewers shown directly before the first episode of Blue Peter to be screened following Bacon's sacking, on 19 October 1998, to explain to young viewers why Bacon had been dismissed, claiming that he had "not only let himself and the team on Blue Peter down, but he has also let all of you down badly."
Read more about this topic: Lorraine Heggessey
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