Play School

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Play School (UK)
Format	Children's television series
Created by	Joy Whitby
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC2(1964 – 1988)
Original run	21 April 1964 – 11 March 1988

Play School is a British children's television series produced by the BBC which ran from 21 April 1964 until 11 March 1988. Devised by Joy Whitby, it accidentally became the first ever programme to be shown on the fledgling BBC2 after a power cut halted the opening night's programming (and later it became the first children's programme to be shown in colour by that channel). Play School originally appeared on weekdays at 11am on BBC2 and later acquired a mid-afternoon BBC1 repeat. It was superseded in October 1988 by Playbus, which soon became Playdays.

When the BBC scrapped the afternoon edition of Play School in 1985, to make way for a variety of children's programmes in the afternoon, a Sunday morning compilation was launched called Hello Again!.

There were several opening sequences for Play School, the first one A house with a door, windows 1 2 3 4, ready to knock? Turn the lock - It's Play School This changed in the early seventies to A house with a door, 1 2 3 4, ready to play, what's the day? It's... In this version blinds opened on the windows as the numbers were said.

Out went the blinds towards the end of the 1970s and the word windows was added before 1 2 3 4 The final opening sequence involved a multicoloured house with no apparent windows. This was used from 1983 until the end of the programme. This saw the most radical revamp of the programme overall (not just in the opening titles). The opening legend then became Get ready - to play. What's the day? It's...

One of Play School's later presenters, Brian Jameson, has gone on to produce another of the BBC's most popular programmes for pre-school children, Balamory. He also produced the follow up programme Me Too!. Play School and another BBC Children's television programme Jackanory were sometimes recorded at BBC Birmingham or BBC Manchester when BBC Television Centre in London was busy. However all what is now CBBC programmes, alongside BBC Religion are shortly to move to new BBC radio and television facilities close to Greater Manchester at Salford Quays, all focusd on a new mediacity:uk under construction. This is part of a determined policy shift away from focusing on London as the key BBC production base.

Presenters

The first show was presented by Virginia Stride and Gordon Rollings. Other presenters throughout the 24-year run included

• Rick Jones
• Carole Ward
• Brian Cant
• Eric Thompson and his wife Phyllida Law
• Julie Stevens
• Terry Frisby (as Terence Holland)
• Marla Landi
• Gordon Clyde
• Valerie Pitts
• Colin Jeavons
• Carol Chell
• Miranda Connell
• Johnny Ball
• Lionel Morton
• Chloe Ashcroft
• Diane Dorgan
• Johnny Silvo
• Derek Griffiths
• Sarah Long
• Toni Arthur
• Don Spencer
• Fred Harris
• Carmen Munroe
• Carol Leader
• Stuart McGugan
• Chris Tranchell
• Floella Benjamin
• Ben Bazell
• Sheelagh Gilbey
• Elizabeth Millbank
• Ben Thomas
• Lucie Skeaping
• Iain Lauchlan
• Elizabeth Watts
• Brian Jameson
• Wayne Jackman
• Jane Hardy
• Stuart Bradley
• Kate Copstick
• Simon Davies

In many cases five programmes would be produced in the space of two days, with one day of rehearsal and one day of recording.

Toys

One of the original Humpty toys, currently residing with Stuart Bradley in the red90 office^[1]

The presenters were accompanied by a supporting cast of cuddly toys and dolls. The five regulars included:

• Big Ted and Little Ted teddy bears.
• Jemima, a ragdoll with long red and white striped legs.
• Hamble was a little doll, the hate figure of the under-fives for the entire run of the programme, and one of the original five toys but dropped from the show during the 1980s to be replaced by Poppy. According to Joy Whitby, creator of Play School, Hamble was chosen as representative of a more downtrodden, humble background than the "middle-class" associations that the teddy bears had.^[2] Hamble was not only detested by children but by presenters also. According to the BBC website Chloe Ashcroft "did a terrible thing to Hamble. She just would not sit up...so one day I got a very big knitting needle, a bit wooden one, and I stuck it right up her bum, as far as her head. So she was completely rigid, and she was much much better after that."
• Humpty, a dark green large egg-shaped soft toy, (known in the Sixties as a 'Gonk') with green trousers, to look like Humpty Dumpty from the nursery rhyme. Several were made.
• Poppy, a black doll who replaced Hamble in the later years of the series in response to changing attitudes in society (the Hamble doll was also getting rather fragile at this point.)

A rocking horse named Dapple was also seen in some episodes, when a particular song or item suggested it. Many of the original toys are on display as exhibits of the National Media Museum, Bradford.

Pets

• Katoo - a cockatoo
• Bit and Bot - goldfish
• Buffy - A rabbit
• Mice
• Guinea pigs including Lizzy

The pets were cared for by Wendy Duggan.

Contents of the show

A section of each episode was the filmed excursion into the outside world taken through one of three windows: the young viewers were invited to guess whether the round, square, or arched window would be chosen that day. A triangular window was added in 1983. Very often the film would be of a factory producing something such as chocolate biscuits, or of a domestic industry such as refuse collection.

At the beginning of the 1983 revamp, the windows were now referred to as shapes as in let's have a look through one of the shapes... After the shapes being moved to a spinning disc, the programme went back to using windows which resembled those used in the late 70s, albeit with the addition of the triangular window. However, whenever they were shown now, only the window that the show was using for the day would be the one that would be used on the set.

Each episode would also include a short story read from a book, introduced by checking the time on a clock. Normally the clock would show either an hour or a half hour.

Both the clock and the three window option lives on in the children's programme Tikkabilla, which borrows much from Play School, while a similar choice of portal into a film clip was provided by the abdomen-mounted video displays in the children's show Teletubbies.

There would also be songs and stories.

From 1971 to 1984, Play School also had a sister programme called Play Away.

Many 2 inch Quadruplex videotape master copies of Play School episodes were irretrievably junked by Adam Lee of the BBC archives in 1993 on the assumption that they were 'no use' and that examples of some other episodes were sufficient [1].

References

• 25 Minutes Peace - Celebrating Play School (BBC TV programme, 1979)

A book on the programmes history, written by former BBC employee, fan and "keeper of the Play School archives" Paul R Jackson, is being published Spring 2010 by Kaleidoscope (http://www.kaleidoscopepublishing.co.uk).

External links

• Play School at bbc.co.uk
• Play School (BBC) at the Internet Movie Database