Blue Peter star died penniless driving taxis despite decades-long TV career

A Blue Peter legend died without a penny to his name after nine years on the BBC children's programme. Christopher Trace began his presenting career aged 25 in 1958 and was the man to launch the very first episode alongside his co-host Leila Williams.

From there, his career went from strength to strength. He landed a regular presenting role on BBC Schools programme Signpost in 1961 and kept the position for four years, and even had an acting career before turning to presenting, starring in films like 1959 release The Hound of the Baskervilles and 1960's Urge to Kill.

But sadly, things didn't turn out well for the star in the end. By 1967, Blue Peter bosses were desperate to replace him on the show, branding him difficult to deal with on-set. Things only escalated when his wife Margaret Cattrall filed for divorce after Trace cheated on her with a 19-year-old on a Blue Peter trip to Norway. Christopher and his wife Meg shared two children together, Jonathan and Jessica.

Though he went on to work for BBC Radio and BBC Norwich for the next six years, Trace left Blue Peter in 1967 and took a punt on a new business venture that ended up costing him his life savings. He returned to Blue Peter briefly for its 20th anniversary in 1978, but largely retired from his media career and ended up pulling pints behind a bar in Norwich and working as a taxi driver.

One source said at the time: "I remember him being strong on screen on BBC East. He was only there as his wife had kicked him out, he'd lost all his money and was drinking and eventually he went off to run a pub in Norwich."

In his later years, Trace did all number of odd jobs, including becoming the general manager of an engineering factory. While working there he lost two toes in an industrial accident and stopped coming into work.

Declared bankrupt in 1973 - two years after marrying Prudence Day - the star sadly died aged just 59 in 1992 from oesophageal cancer. He was living in Walthamstow at the time and visited by fellow presenters Valerie Singleton and Biddy Baxter in hospital in his final days.