Blue CHEATER (again)??

New BBC row as winner of Blue Peter's 'design a 50p' competition is revealed to be daughter of programming chief

By Sara Nathan

Last updated at 1:33 PM on 15th October 2009

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The winner of a Blue Peter and Royal Mint competition to design a coin for the 2012 Olympics is the daughter of the new head of a top BBC boss, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Nine-year-old Florence Jackson beat more than 17,000 entries to win the contest and become the first child ever to design a UK coin.

However, it has been confirmed that her father is the new boss of the BBC Natural History Unit, Andrew Jackson.

Blue Peter presenter Andy Akinwolere, competition winner Florence Jackson and Denise Lewis with the 50p coin. Florence's father is BBC head of Natural History

The announcement of Mr Jackson's appointment to the Bristol-based unit was made on July 6, but he is not due to start work until the end of the month. The winning design was chosen from anonymous entries by a panel of judges on July 16.

When asked for clarification of when, or if, Mr Jackson told Blue Peter about his relationship with the competition winner a BBC spokesman said: 'We have no reason to believe Blue Peter knew before last week.'

Andrew Jackson is head of BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol

BBC guidelines say competitions are open to all UK residents, except those closely related to a BBC staff member or anyone involved in the competition.

A number of BBC competitions have attracted controversy in the last two years, including the popular children's programme.

In 2007 it was revealed the Blue Peter production team rigged an online poll to name the programme's cat.

The BBC was also fined £50,000 by media watchdog Ofcom after staff on the programme encouraged a girl who was visiting the studio to pose as the winner in another competition, in aid of the charity Unicef.

In 2007 Blue Peter also admitted it had used child actors to pose as competition winners.

Mr Jackson began his TV career at the BBC, working in news and current affairs before joining the Natural History Unit in 1986.

He worked as a producer-director on several award-winning series for BBC1 and 2, before moving on to work for independent production company Tigress for the last 17 years.

While at Tigress he produced and directed the ITV specials In The Wild, working with Hollywood A-listers like Julia Roberts, Goldie Hawn and Bob Hoskins.

The coin judging panel was chaired by Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, and also included representatives from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee and the Royal Mint.

There was only one BBC representative on the 11-strong panel that judged the entries.

A statement from a BBC spokeswoman said: 'We strongly refute any allegations of wrongdoing.

'The judging panel was not given any indication of the name, sex or age of any of the entrants.

'Their decision was based purely on the design of the coin.

'Any suggestion that anyone at the BBC could have had undue influence on the selection of the winning entry is totally wrong and without any foundation whatsoever.

'The competition closed in March, before any discussions between the NHU and Andrew Jackson. The eventual winner was selected as a finalist in May.

'Andrew is due to start at the NHU at the end of October.'

Florence's 50p design features a high jumper and is due to go into circulation next year.