Bacon snubbed for 'Blue Peter' bash

Richard Bacon has not received an invitation to the Queen's Blue Peter 50th anniversary tea party.

The 32-year-old was dismissed from the BBC's flagship children's show in 1999 after a tabloid newspaper published a report that he had taken cocaine.

Bacon revealed on his Radio 5 Live show: "I'm a former presenter, but I have not had an invite."

Fellow ex-Blue Peter host Janet Ellis, who caused controversy for the show in the '80s when she announced that she was pregnant out of wedlock, told Bacon that she had also been snubbed.

"I stayed in all day, it didn’t come with the post," she said, adding: "I feel that you and I have atoned for our crimes."

The BBC claimed that "limited" places are available and only the programme's longest-serving presenters will be invited.