Blue Peter stretch of track which, on 3 July 1938, saw the world speed record for steam locomotives of set by LNER A4 Locomotive no. 4468 "Mallard". In October 1998, Richard Bacon was sacked, following reports in "News of the World" that he had taken cocaine. This incident followed shortly after the show's 40th anniversary, when previous presenters returned for a special programme. Those returning included Leila Williams, Valerie Singleton, John Noakes, Peter Purves, Diane Louise Jordan, Anthea Turner, John Leslie, Tim Vincent, Yvette Fielding, Caron Keating, Mark Curry, Janet Ellis, Peter Duncan, Sarah Greene, Tina Heath, Simon Groome and Christopher Wenner.
Cocaine in the United States these numbers indicated that cocaine is still widely present in the United States, its use was significantly less prevalent than during the early 1980s. The 1999 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey found the proportion of American students reporting use of powdered cocaine rose during the 1990s. In 1991, 2.3% of eighth-graders stated that they had used cocaine in their lifetime. This figure rose to 4.7% in 1999. For the older grades, increases began in 1992 and continued through the beginning of 1999. Between those years, lifetime use of cocaine went from 3.3% to 7.7% for tenth-graders and from 6.1% to