III.

The 1960s

The foundations of the BBC’s public service for children were shaken in 1962 when producers of expensive drama and light entertainment were moved into the adult departments and others combined with Women’s Programmes to become a new Family Programmes unit. This led for a time to a devaluation of the children’s output and, in concentrating on the older members of the family, younger children were sometimes ignored or scared by the content. However, the children’s department was re-established in 1968 and the expertise of a group of dedicated producers led to an enriched schedule. Blue Peter (twice weekly since 1964) awarded badges for children’s achievements, interesting letters, and programme ideas. Its competitions empowered the audience enabling, for example, children as young as four years old to design the nation’s Christmas stamps or new carvings for the roof bosses for the fire-devastated York Minster. Blue Peter was the first programme to encourage children to collect scrap commodities, which could be recycled to provide money for charitable causes at home and abroad. The ITV magazine Magpie also encouraged children to help others, but through appeals for money rather than scrap materials.

In 1964 a daily live Play School was transmitted on the new BBC2, with male and female presenters who spoke to the individual child at home and encouraged participation. From its early days, the programme format was sold to other countries, which made their own versions of this embodiment of the ideas of good nursery education. It continued until 1988, by which time 5,000 programmes had been transmitted. On ITV, Romper Room and Rainbow also entertained the youngest viewers.