IV.

The 1970s and 1980s

In 1972 the glossy American children’s programme Sesame Street, with its fast pace, endearing Muppets created by Jim Henson, and superb animated sequences, teaching letters and numbers, eventually arrived on ITV. The BBC was criticized for not buying it, but at that time its creators, the Children’s Television Workshop, were not prepared to sell it as segments for use in a British setting, and the cost of whole programmes would have entailed the BBC losing all its own pre-school programmes made for British children.

During the 1970s, the number of programmes for older children expanded, with increased resources and larger audiences, whose members were respected as actively involved partners in the shared experience of television. The storytelling series Jackanory invited children’s stories and poems; Vision On, which began in 1955 as a series for deaf children, included a gallery each week to exhibit children’s paintings and crafts; during school holidays children showed their own activities in Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Set and Go and Do Something Less Boring Instead?

The world’s first daily news bulletin for children, the BBC’s Newsround, began in 1972, followed by the documentary series Newsround Extra. In 1974 ITV produced an anarchic and innovative comedy called Tiswas on Saturday mornings, and 1976 saw the first Saturday morning participation series—the BBC’s Multicoloured Swap Shop—with its phone-ins and swaps. Children’s own lives were reflected in new BBC drama serials, such as Grange Hill, about the children of a comprehensive school, which began in 1978. Other contemporary series followed, such as Children’s Ward (later, The Ward) and Press Gang on ITV. Popular series, for example, Belle and Sebastien and Heidi, were bought from European countries and dubbed into English; others came from the United States, Australia, and East Asia.

Although explicit education was confined to schools’ programmes, many educative series made in entertaining forms for the non-captive audience were part of the daily mixture. Series on religion, archaeology, mathematics (Johnny Ball’s Think of a Number was an unexpected hit), music, natural history, sport, and the arts all aimed to stimulate interest and imagination. An understanding of children’s lives around the world was encouraged through film. New styles of zany comedy were pioneered following ITV’s Do Not Adjust Your Set, while in 1977 the animated Plasticine figure of Morph appeared for the first time in the BBC’s Take Hart. Puppet and animated characters such as the BBC’s Basil Brush, Sooty, Postman Pat, Paddington Bear, and Dougal and Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout became favourite companions alongside the pets who were part of life in the Blue Peter studio. Exploration of the natural world continued in many series, such as Animal Magic, and, later, The Really Wild Show.