Tiggywinkles' starring role in Blue Peter

Presenter Lindsay Russell and a crew from the beloved BBC show visited the equally beloved Haddenham animal centre last week, to meet founder Les Stocker and learn more about the work Tiggywinkles does.

And Lindsey also got her hands dirty, helping out at the centre, and even going on a rescue mission with the team.

The visit comes at a very busy time for Tiggywinkles, which currently has more than 1,000 injured animals in its care.

Mr Stocker said: “The team was here for two days filming all the things going on.

“They came out with us to rescue a deer and to release another deer near Linslade.

“The director’s parents live locally, which gave him the idea to get in touch.

“Obviously things like this are great for Tiggywinkles because we don’t ask for any money, we don’t make cold calls or things like that. But we are a charity and we do rely on donations, so this kind of national recognition is exactly what we need so that people can see what we do.”

Tiggywinkles is famous on the national and international stage, and has seen everyone from royalty to musicians and actors take an interest.

And at mating season the centre is busier than ever, caring for animals in their hour of need.

Mr Stocker added: “We have 1,010 animals with us at the moment, it always happens at this time of year.

“We get 50 to 60 casulaties a day, a lot of them are babies and it goes on for two or three months.

“For example we have hundreds of ducklings, the mothers build the nest in the most obscure places, like halfway up the county court, and they are jumping off the balcony.

“With the older animals they are all thinking about mating and they are all over the place, so we see a lot of road casualties.”

And yesterday (Tuesday) the centre tagged and released a group of rehabilitated fallow deer onto Christmas Common near Stokenchurch.

Mr Stocker said: “They are really big deer and we have to use tranquiliser darts to sedate them so we can handle them.

“Then we put them in a trailer three at a time and take them to release them, we go to Stokenchurch because that is where there are lots of other fallow deer.” For more got to www. sttiggywinkles.org.uk