Children's TV On Trial (BBC Four 27th-31st May)

[Milky Tears]

Just spotted a "Coming Soon" trailer on BBC Four (nice voiceover) and then realised that the info was already up on the BBC Press Office site. Don't know how I managed to miss it when browsing for Doctor Who info the other day.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pro....shtml#sun_ctv

Children's TV On Trial – 1950s Ep 1/5
Sunday 27 to Thursday 31 May
9.00-10.00pm BBC FOUR
www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour

With clips from the iconic television programmes and interviews from the main players of the day, Children's TV On Trial – 1950s delves into the origins of children's television.

The BBC began the first national television service for children in the Fifties and many of the programmes in its first decade still live on in people's memories today – Andy Pandy and Bill & Ben for younger children; Billy Bunter for older kids; the start of Crackerjack and Blue Peter; and the invention of the classic serial with Little Women, Kidnapped and The Secret Garden.

Children's TV On Trial explores whether the BBC programmes made in the Fifties were hampered due to a lack of appreciation in the new medium of television, and looks at commercial television's move into the children's sector in 1955.

The programme features clips from programmes such as Robin Hood and Lenny The Lion as well as interviews with many of the key players of the day, including Cliff Michelmore, David Attenborough and Judith Chalmers.

This is the first in a five-part series stripped across the week moving through the decades of children's programming from its origins in the Fifties through to the Nineties.

The rest of the programmes:

Children's TV On Trial – 1960s (Monday 28th May)

Children's TV On Trial – 1970s (Tuesday 29th May)

Children's TV On Trial – 1980s (Wednesday 30th May)

Children's TV On Trial – 1990s (Thursday 31st May)

Looks like an interesting series.

Also listed on the Press Office site for the same week:

BBC FOUR Saturday 26 May 2007
The Kids' Verdict
Saturday 26 May
9.00-10.00pm BBC FOUR
www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour

Four youngsters are immersed into carefully crafted pockets of times gone by as they are stripped of their mobiles, iPods and turkey twizzlers, and given space hoppers, Rubiks Cubes and Marathon bars instead, in The Kids' Verdict.

The children, all aged between 10 and 12, are then introduced to the programming their parents and grandparents watched – courtesy of the BBC's Children's department. A faithfully reconstructed television schedule is provided for each era, and the children, attired in the clothing of the day, view this alien offering. They also have games, toys, magazines and food from the respective periods to help them acclimatise.

Interviews with the on-screen celebrities directly connected to the scheduled output from each era, as well as nuggets from the archive itself, all help to chart the family tree of BBC Children's Television.

The children decide if programmes from the past were far richer, with fewer distractions, or if black-and-white TV proves to be a turn off.

*Children's TV On Trial, a five-part series exploring the origins of children's television and spanning the Fifties to the Nineties, can be seen from Sunday to Thursday this week on BBC Four.

Will it be as poorly presented as 2005's "TV On Trial" season? (probably not)
Will they throw in some archive repeats? (you'd think so since it's BBC Four)
Will they repeat BBC2's It Started With Swap Shop from last Christmas? (possibly?)

[Wayne]

Looks like fun!

[Andrew Curnow]

Sounds interesting - any excuse to show clips from Camberwick Green and Grange Hill!!

[Paul Clement]

It does sound good. I think I'll have to watch this.

[Dirk Gently]

This does sound interesting. It'll be fun to see how much I remember & from how far back.

I'll need a reminder nearer the time because I can't set my sky reminder more than a week in advance.

[Pip Madeley]

Tenner says they'll repeat The Web Of Fear episode one AGAIN.

[SiHart]

I liked the trailers. I'll probably watch this season!

Si xx

[Phillip Culley]

Tenner says they'll repeat The Web Of Fear episode one AGAIN.

Nah - I read elsewhere it'll be The Idiot's Lantern

[cullsoft]

Sounds like fun, though also has a ring of "haven't Channel 4 already done this to death with their 'top 100 children's TV shows' polls?"...

That said, it'd be a positive thought if this took a fresh approach to the idea.

[Lord President]

We want CHOCKY, CHOCKY'S CHILDREN & CHOCKY'S CHALLENGE!!!!!!!

[Larry]

may be I see it through rose tinted glasses but i'll all ways say chilldrens tv when i was a kid was so much better then it is today..

[Milky Tears]

More info on BBC Four's site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/feature...drens-tv.shtml

Children's TV on Trial is a nightly look at each decade of the genre from the 50s to the present day - and today's youngsters will be delivering their verdict on the shows their parents or grandparents used to watch. There'll be programmes about Blue Peter, Grange Hill, Jackanory and Saturday morning TV, and other highlights include When the Stranglers Met Roland Rat, an eye-popping look at some of the incongruously adult pop stars who have strutted their stuff on shows supposedly made for children.

I take it that probably includes a repeat of their Jackanory Night stuff from last year!?

I'm still hoping for a "classic" episode of Grange Hill (or at least one of the anniversary documentaries) or a repeat of BBC2's It Started With Swap Shop.


Some other documentaries/archive programming has started to appear on TV guides:

Saturday 26th May
7:40pm - Goodbye Children Everywhere
8:40pm - Mark Lawson Meets the Teletubbies
9:00pm - Children's TV on Trial: The Kids' Verdict


Sunday 27th May
7:30pm - Here's One I Made Earlier
8:10pm - Small Films
8:35pm - Did You See? The Biddy Baxter Story
9:00pm - Children's TV On Trial

I think Here's One I Made Earlier is from 1993 and the Biddy Baxter profile is from 1987. Small Films has already been shown on BBC Four.

It's looking like another excellent BBC Four season.

Shame some of it clashes with Doctor Who and BBC2's The Seven Ages of Rock (which BBC Four are also showing some archive related stuff for), but I'm sure most of the documentaries will be repeated.

[Wayne]

Dang, i forgot about this, & ended up missing the first one, last night.

Still, It's the 60's & 70's stuff that will interest me most, so i'll be watching tonight & tomorrow night.

[Jonno]

I missed the new Time Shift on it all on Saturday night for the simple and annyoing fact that it clashed with Who/Confidential - silly scheduling! Was hoping for it to be on NTL's VOD service, but it wasn't.

The Kids' Verdict though was very entertaining, as a kind of quick preview of all five decades to come in these nightly shows, and fascinating to see what modern kids made of these old shows - so funny that they didn't like newsreaders sitting down as it made it dull (!) and they'd never bothered watching any b/w stuff before. But overall you could see they were impressed with the quality of a lot of the timeless stuff - no real surprise when you think of what they get dished up with now!

The 50s one was good enough last night, but I'm really looking forward to the next three from a nostalgic viewpoint.

[Captain Tancredi]

Only caught the 50s one by accident last night, but a couple of treats in there, not least Frazer Hines in 'The Silver Sword' and a couple of acting appearances by the lesser-spotted Barry Letts, if I'm not mistaken.

[Dirk Gently]

I knew I'd forget about this.

[Dave Tudor]

I've missed all of it so far, and would have liked to have taped it all.

Are they likely to repeat most or all of the season over the next week or so...?

[Jonno]

I keep telling Milky that he starts these threads way too early...

[Milky Tears]

I missed the new Time Shift on it all on Saturday night for the simple and annyoing fact that it clashed with Who/Confidential - silly scheduling! Was hoping for it to be on NTL's VOD service, but it wasn't.

I also missed the first Time Shift on Saturday night as the late night repeat also clashed with the repeat of Freema on Jonathan Ross. Couldn't record Jonathan Ross on Friday as it clashed with Tales of the Unexpected on ITV3. No Time Shift repeat listed in the next fortnight. Typical!

There were some great archive clips in the 1950s documentary... including The Appleyards and an insert from Studio E!

It Started With Swap Shop, The Clangers, Ivor the Engine and the Story of Smallfilms, Blue Peter: John Noakes... 1000 Programmes Later and Children's TV On Trial: 1960s (should be some Who action) tonight.

[Dirk Gently]

They've just reached Doctor Who!

[Wayne]

What a wonderful evening of nostalgia!

Just the sound of Oliver Postgate's voice takes me right back to being a young child.

[Captain Tancredi]

Phyllida Law was priceless, not least when she referred to her husband as "Thompson".

Time flies by when you're the driver of a train and you're heading out of Trumpton with a cargo of cocaine...

[Jonno]

The main feature about the 60s tonight was superb and kept me thoroughly hooked, whereas I was a bit restless on the 50s last night. I may only have been around for the last six months of the 60s, but most of the featured shows were repeated umpteen times through the 70s and possibly into the 80s too.

Verity Lambert looked rather different than in recent DVD documentaries - she's gone grey! Mind you, she must be getting on a bit now. I must admit I'd never thought of The Mind Robber as being the contemporary nod to psychedelia.

My favourite segment though was on the Trumptonshire stuff - Chigley being notably absent as the least memorable of the trilogy. I can't say I'd ever seen any "making of" material before, so that was fascinating and I don't think I'd ever seen what Gordon Murray looks like! He looked fairly old 40 years ago, so goodness knows how old he is now - it was nice to see him now, and he's certainly sharp of mind.

[Wayne]

The main feature about the 60s tonight was superb and kept me thoroughly hooked,

Agreed. I particularly enjoyed Gordon Murray's input, too.

And i agree with Ian. Phyllida Law was highly entertaining!

[Ralph]

Yes the 60s stuff on BBC4 was indeed fun. I particularly enjoyed the Clangers.

I agree too Wayne re Oliver Postgate - it's almost therapeutic listening to that voice