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Blue Peter winner designed TV with internet when he was just 11

BBC Steven BostockBBC
Steven Bostock says he still has his Blue Peter prize

A winner of a Blue Peter competition 50 years ago wishes he had patented his idea because he said he would be "a lot richer" than he is now.

Steven Bostock, of Pleasley, Derbyshire, designed a flat-panel television with a full communication system when he was 11.

His entry won the Blue Peter Year 2000 contest in 1974.

Reflecting 50 years on, he said he would probably have been "worth a lot of money" now.

BBC Archive Flat-screen TVBBC Archive
Steven Bostock's entry showed a flat-screen television which could be viewed from both sides

Now a kitchen and bedroom designer, he still has the prize and signed photos of the Blue Peter presenters.

His entry stood out from 135,259 drawings of what life could be like in the future.

Winning entries ranged from a cloud blower, which would be able to move clouds into drought-hit areas, to a combined dishwasher and recycling unit.

But Mr Bostock's entry was the winner - a TV that could be viewed on both sides by people wearing earplugs, so they would not disturb anyone else.

BBC Archive EntriesBBC Archive
The winners were picked from 135,259 entries

Prizes included "space age" alarm clocks, a two-way intercom set, and for first prize winners, a "futuristic radio".

When asked about his inspiration for the design, Mr Bostock said: "I was just looking at the television we'd got at the time and it'd come on since the one we had a few years earlier, so things were obviously moving on.

"I had forgotten about all the communication system on the top which is the internet.

'Celebrity for the week'

"I couldn't believe it when it was announced. Once I got back to school, I kept quiet about it, but all my friends had seen it."

Mr Bostock, who lived in Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, at the time, said he was then called into the headmaster's office.

He thought he was going to be told off, but the head master invited the press, and Mr Bostock said he was "a celebrity for the week".

The 61-year-old said technology had got to where he thought it would in 2000, but had "advanced a lot more since".

Mr Bostock admitted that he wished he had patented the technology at the time, adding: "I'd be a lot richer than I am now".

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